Today in history - Dec. 10


The Associated Press

Today is Sunday, Dec. 10, the 344th day of 2006. There are 21 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

One hundred years ago, on Dec. 10, 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping to mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.

On this date:

In 1817, Mississippi was admitted as the 20th state.

In 1869, women were granted the right to vote in the Wyoming Territory.

In 1896, Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite and founder of the Nobel prizes, died in San Remo, Italy, at age 63.

In 1931, Jane Addams became the first American woman to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize (the co-recipient that year was Nicholas Murray Butler).

In 1948, the U.N. General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

In 1950, Ralph J. Bunche was presented the Nobel Peace Prize, the first black American to receive the award.

In 1958, the first domestic passenger jet flight took place in the U.S. as a National Airlines Boeing 707 flew 111 passengers from New York to Miami in about 2 1/2 hours.

In 1964, Martin Luther King Jr. received his Nobel Peace Prize.

In 1967, singer Otis Redding died in the crash of his private plane in Wisconsin.

In 1986, human rights advocate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel accepted the Nobel Peace Prize.

Ten years ago: Roman Catholic Bishop Filipe Ximenes Belo and exiled activist Jose Ramos Horta, opponents of Indonesia's occupation of East Timor, accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. On International Human Rights Day, President Clinton urged the Senate to embrace a 17-year-old treaty barring abuses against women.

Five years ago: President Bush told reporters a videotape of Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaida leader talked happily about the Sept. 11 attacks "just reminded me of what a murderer he is." Secretary-General Kofi Annan accepted the Nobel Peace Prize on behalf of himself and the United Nations.

One year ago: A Nigerian jetliner crashed while landing in Port Harcourt, Nigeria, killing all but three of the 110 people on board. Chief U.N. nuclear inspector Mohamed ElBaradei accepted the Nobel Peace Prize. Former Sen. Eugene McCarthy died in Washington, D.C., at age 89. Actor-comedian Richard Pryor died in Encino, Calif., at age 65. Southern California running back Reggie Bush won the Heisman Trophy.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Harold Gould is 83. Former Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter is 76. Actor Tommy Kirk is 65. Actress Fionnula Flanagan is 65. Pop singer Chad Stuart (Chad and Jeremy) is 65. Actress-singer Gloria Loring is 60. Pop-funk musician Walter "Clyde" Orange (The Commodores) is 60. Rhythm-and-blues singer Ralph Tavares is 58. Rhythm-and-blues singer Jessica Cleaves (Friends of Distinction) is 58. Country singer Johnny Rodriguez is 55. Actress Susan Dey is 54. Actor Michael Clarke Duncan is 49. Jazz musician Paul Hardcastle is 49. Actor-director Kenneth Branagh is 46. Actress Nia Peeples is 45. TV chef Bobby Flay is 42. Rock singer-musician J Mascis is 41. Country singer Kevin Sharp is 36. Rock musician Scot Alexander (Dishwalla) is 35. Violinist Sarah Chang is 26. Actress Raven is 21.

Thought for Today: "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to a garage makes you an automobile." — William Ashley "Billy" Sunday, American evangelist (1862-1935).

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Sending Babies to an Early Grave With Car Safety Belt

Babies should not be left alone to sleep in car safety seats, especially if they were born prematurely, New Zealand pediatricians report.


Their warning, published in this week's issue of the British Medical Journal, is based on a study of nine infants, aged 3 days to 6 months, who were referred to the Auckland Cot Monitoring Service by parents alarmed by what they described as infants who were "blue," "scrunched up" or "not breathing."


"All but one case occurred when the infants had been left in the car seats indoors, allowing them to fall asleep unrestrained in an upright position," said a report by the group, led by Dr. Alistair J. Gunn, an associate professor of physiology and pediatrics at the University of Auckland.

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Tags: report | physiology | university | SERVICE | SEATS | RISKS | New Zealand | monitoring | infant | Gunn | BREATHING | auckland

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Finns, Fast Drinking Their Lives Away

Alcohol is now the leading killer of Finnish adults, with consumption reaching an all-time high last year in the Nordic nation, officials said Friday.


More than 2,000 people between the ages of 15 and 64 were killed by alcohol poisoning or illnesses caused by alcohol consumption last year, the government's leading welfare and health agency said. Nearly 1,000 people died in accidents or violent incidents caused by alcohol.


"This is truly a worrying trend," said Kristiina Kuussaari of the National Research and Development Center for Welfare and Health. "The serious negative effects will continue to grow for years to come."

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Tags: welfare | POISONING | KILLER | Health | Government | CONSUMPTION | alcohol | agency | Nordic | leading | Finland

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Pig farmer accused of being Canada's worst serial killer pleads not guilty

A pig farmer alleged to be Canada's worst serial killer has pleaded not guilty to charges of murdering women from Vancouver's seediest streets.


In court today, Robert "Willie" Pickton, who is accused in the deaths of at least 26 women, softly said "not guilty" as each of the names of six of the alleged victims was read in court.


A judge has ruled that the trial will be divided into two parts, with the first six counts being tried first.


The gruesome allegations against Pickton fall under a publication ban which prevents the media from revealing details of the alleged crimes until opening arguments next month.


Pickton was arrested in February of 2002 by police investigating the disappearances of sex-trade workers from Vancouver.


Health officials later issued a tainted-meat advisory to neighbors who may have bought pork from his farm, concerned the meat may have contained human remains.

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Tags: seediest | Worst | SERIAL | publication | police | pleads | opening | KILLER | guilty | farmer | court | being | accused | Vancouver | Robert | pig | Pickton | Canada | British Columbia

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Woman Killed In I-70 Crash In Indy

A Plainfield woman died after she was ejected from her SUV during a crash on Interstate 70 in southwestern Indianapolis Friday night, state police said.


JoAnne Holt, 51, was driving east on I-70 when she lost control of the SUV about 1 mile west of I-465 at about 8 p.m. The SUV crossed a median and came to rest in the middle lane of I-70's westbound lanes, according to police.


Holt was taken to Wishard Memorial Hospital, where she died from injuries she sustained in the crash, police said.



Police said they were investigating the cause of the wreck.

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Tags: southwestern Indianapolis | Wishard | police | crash | Memorial | KILLED | interstate | indy | INDIANAPOLIS | hospital | Holt

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Woman Killed In I-70 Crash In Indy

A Plainfield woman died after she was ejected from her SUV during a crash on Interstate 70 in southwestern Indianapolis Friday night, state police said.


JoAnne Holt, 51, was driving east on I-70 when she lost control of the SUV about 1 mile west of I-465 at about 8 p.m. The SUV crossed a median and came to rest in the middle lane of I-70's westbound lanes, according to police.


Holt was taken to Wishard Memorial Hospital, where she died from injuries she sustained in the crash, police said.



Police said they were investigating the cause of the wreck.

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Tags: southwestern Indianapolis | Wishard | police | crash | Memorial | KILLED | interstate | indy | INDIANAPOLIS | hospital | Holt

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Police Say Jealousy Over Girl Sparked School Knife Attack

Authorities say jealousy over a girl sparked a 16-year-old sophomore's knife attack on another boy at a Southern Indiana high school.


The 16-year-old victim freshman was expected to make a full recovery from the 4-inch cute to his neck he suffered in Monday's attack during a study hall at Jennings County High School.


According to court documents, the boy charged in the attack told police he carried in out after seeing photos on his girlfriend's laptop of the other boy, whom she once dates. He also claimed the other boy would not leave the girl alone.


A judge ordered the sophomore to remain in juvenile detention on a preliminary charge of attempted murder until at least next week, when a hearing is planned on whether he will face adult charges in the attack at the school about 60 miles south of Indianapolis.

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Tags: Jealousy | SOPHOMORE | police | knife | attack | sparked | southern Indiana | Monday | INDIANAPOLIS

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Why I'm Good with the "N" Word

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World AIDS Day exhibit includes artworks made from condoms

Bloomington - A one-day art exhibit on the Indiana University campus includes works created from condoms.

The display was created to mark World AIDS Day.

IU doctoral student Christopher Fisher says he got the idea from a display last year at San Francisco State University. Fisher is research coordinator for the Sexual Health Research Working Group at IU, which is presenting the exhibit.

Students from two human sexuality classes created most of the art works, which will be judged Friday.

(Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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World AIDS Day exhibit includes artworks made from condoms World AIDS Day exhibit includes artworks made from condoms

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Black Women, White Women and the Joy of Sex

I was having dinner last night with a group of friends somewhere in the Adams Morgan neighborhood when an admirer walked up to me to felicitate and inquire: “what’s next on your list of subjects to write about?” Well, since I don’t have such a list, I didn’t know what to say. As is commonly the case with me, I write whenever the spirit moves me. At other times, I write when I am sufficiently angry or befuddled. There is no routine to my style. I write when I have to write so long as I have ninety or so minutes to spare..........

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Tags: felicitate | SPIRIT | neighborhood | dinner | admirer | sex | MORGAN | ADAMS

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Talking to Iran About Iraq: A Non-Starter for Bush

He's already pushing back against the Baker-Hamilton report, and no wonder. Accepting the proposal to engage Iran and Syria would mean admitting his foreign policy has failed


Explaining the report of his Iraq Study Group to Congress on Thursday, former Secretary of State James Baker stressed that its recommendations need to be taken as a whole, rather than cherry-picked. "I hope we don't treat this like a fruit salad, saying, 'I like this, but I don't like that,'" Baker told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It's a comprehensive strategy designed to deal with the problems in Iraq, but also to deal with other problems in the region. These are interdependent recommendations."


President Bush plainly had other ideas, telling a press conference he was sure Baker and Lee Hamilton didn't expect him to embrace all of their recommendations. Bush made clear, for example, that he has no intention of following the Baker-Hamilton proposal for a rapid move to engage Iran and Syria in a process aimed at stabilizing Iraq. Instead, he simply reiterated his Administration's preconditions for talking to those two nations: Iran must first suspend its uranium enrichment activities, Bush said, while Syria would have to stop interfering in Lebanon.

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Tags: interdependent | Non-Starter | Strategy | report | proposal | policy | conference | talking | Syria | Lebanon | Iraq | Iran | hamilton | Bush | accepting

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Republican Leaders Escape Sanctions in the Foley Case


LARRY MARGASAK

Although a Congressional ethics panel said GOP lawmakers were negligent in monitoring former Rep. Mark Foley, they found that no rules were broken

Republican lawmakers and aides left male pages vulnerable to former Rep. Mark Foley's improper sexual advances even though the first concerns surfaced more than a decade ago, a Congressional ethics committee said Friday in its report into an election-year scandal that convulsed the House.

The committee said one witness testified he warned the head of the page board, Illinois Rep. John Shimkus, a year ago that Foley was a "ticking time bomb" who had been confronted repeatedly. Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., likely was told about inappropriate e-mails written by Foley last spring, even though he has said he doesn't recall the conversations, investigators concluded.

The panel said it found no evidence that any current lawmakers or aides violated any rules, and recommended no sanctions in the case that cost Foley his seat in Congress and contributed to his party's defeat at the polls in last month's midterm elections. But it said it discovered a pattern of conduct on the part of many individuals "to remain willfully ignorant of the potential consequences" of Foley's conduct.

Speculating on the reason for their reluctance to act, the committee said: "Some may have been concerned that raising the issue too aggressively might have risked exposing Rep. Foley's homosexuality.... There is some evidence that political considerations played a role in decisions that were made by persons in both parties."

The committee interviewed numerous witnesses, including Hastert, his top aides and other lawmakers.

The man who sparked the scandal was not among them, though. Foley received a subpoena, but his lawyer notified the committee the former lawmaker would invoke his Fifth Amendment rights if compelled to testify and the committee dropped the matter. Foley, R-Fla., hurriedly resigned his seat Sept. 29 after the existence of sexually explicit computer messages sent to teenage pages came to light and quickly entered an alcoholic treatment program.

Florida authorities have opened a criminal investigation into whether Foley broke any laws related to his communications with the teens. Federal authorities are also investigating.

On balance, investigators said evidence supports the conclusion that Hastert's top aide had been told about Foley's conduct in late 2002 or early 2003. The aide, Scott Palmer, flatly denied to reporters that he was told that long ago. In testimony to the committee, he said, "I believe it didn't happen. I don't have any recollection of it."

The report said another of Hastert's aides, Ted Van Der Meid, "should have done more to learn about the e-mails and how they had been handled," in view of earlier warnings he had received about Foley's conduct. Overall, the evidence shows that "concerns began to arise about Rep. Foley's interactions with pages or other young male staff members" shortly after he took office in 1995. Two aides reported raising concerns with him several times.

One, Jeff Trandahl, was the House clerk, and when word of suggestive e-mails surfaced a year ago, he approached Shimkus, the head of the House page board. Trandahl testified that he characterized Foley as a "ticking time bomb."

If Republicans were criticized for failing to confront Foley more aggressively, Democrats also figured in the investigation.

The committee said that one aide, Matt Miller, had possession of suggestive computer messages written by Foley, and passed them along to reporters as well as a communications aide at the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

The investigation suggested politics was a consideration for Republicans, too.

After Foley resigned, Shimkus told another Republican member of the Page Board — Rep. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia — why he never informed the Democratic member of the board, Rep. Dale Kildee, D-Mich., about Foley. "Dale's a nice guy, but he's a Democrat, and I was afraid it would be blown out of proportion," Shimkus told Capito.

Speaking about Republicans, the committee said it had found a "significant number of instances where members (of Congress), officers or employees fails to exercise appropriate diligence and oversight, or should have exercised greater diligence and oversight, regarding issues arising from the interaction between former Rep. Mark Foley and current or former House pages."

The lengthy report was released on the final full day of the Congress, meaning that any changes in the rules or in the page program must wait until lawmakers return to the Capitol in January.

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Keeping Russia's Deadly Politics at Home


YURI ZARAKHOVICH


The murder of Alexender Litvinenko demonstrates, once again, how murder has become an accepted part of Russian power struggles. But the West can't — or won't — do much about it

Murder is a firmly established tradition in Russian battles over money and power. So, the suspicion in Moscow is that the recent murders of journalist Anna Politkovskaya and former KGB operative Alexander Litvinenko — as well as the alleged attempt on former prime minister and economic-reform mastermind Yegor Gaidar — result from domestic clan warfare. Russians are quite accustomed to seeing assassination used as an instrument to silence an opponent or redistribute assets, and over a dozen major energy-corporation and banking executives have been killed in the past couple of months alone. What is different about the Litvinenko and Gaidar cases is that they happened beyond Russian borders.

The Litvinenko murder investigation, in fact, may have a profound effect on the image of President Vladimir Putin in the West — much like the Chechen war of 1999 did, or the dismembering the oil company Yukos and the imprisonment of its CEO, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, or the Beslan terror tragedy. Each time, Putin chose a course of action that benefited his regime in short term, but deeply hurt his country's interests in the long term.

Britain, horrified that a foe of the Kremlin could be murdered with a radioactive isotope that has left traces all over London, has vowed to pursue the Litvinenko investigation wherever "the police take it," regardless of diplomatic sensitivities. However, once the men from Scotland Yard landed in Moscow, Russian prosecutor-general Yuri Chaika bluntly spelled out the limits of the British inquiry: It's the Russians who ask questions — the British just sit tight and watch. And should any Russians be discovered to have been involved, he said, they would not be extradited.

Then, on Thursday, Chaika's office announced that it had launched its own criminal probe into this "death of a Russian citizen," and that a Russian investigative team would be sent to London, where they expected "understanding and cooperation" from their British counterparts. This appeared to be something of a stunt designed to counteract growing Western indignation over Moscow's lack of enthusiasm for cooperating with the British investigation.

Still, there isn't much the West can or will do about it. Relations between Moscow and the West have rarely hinged on single, or even systematic, human rights abuses. It was not expedient for the democracies to admit the existence of Stalin's Gulag when the priority was working together to defeat Hitler. It may be no more expedient to focus on human rights issues in Putin's Russia as long as Moscow must be kept as an ally in the war on terror, and persuaded to back sanctions against Iran.

"Realpolitik" dictated, for example, that the Soviets' downing of a Korean airliner in September 1983, killing 269 people, was not allowed to significantly interfere with business as usual. And "realpolitik" eventually paid off — at least for the West — as the Soviet Union disappeared a few years later without a shot being fired. Today, "realpolitik" has given way to "realeconomics" — who cares if Moscow bumps off its citizens in Chechnya or elsewhere as long as the oil and natural gas are flowing from Russia? The West reacts most loudly when its investments in Russia are endangered.

This Western attitude is sensible, and probably the only one possible. If the Russian people accept this murderous political culture, no outsiders can convince them to do otherwise. It can expire only when the Russians themselves grow sufficiently resolved to abolish it — if ever. The West may, however, have an urgent interest in ensuring that Russia's deadly political games are at least played on home turf, and don't spill over Russia's borders — lest the killers, believing they can get away with anything, anywhere, establish precedents of nuclear or any other terrorism on foreign soil.

Russians may have come to adopt barbaric ways of settling their political and business scores, and it will be up to Russians to find a better way or else be submerged in a bloodbath of their own making. All that other countries can do, in the meantime, is try to protect themselves from the flying debris.

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Talking to Iran About Iraq: A Non-Starter for Bush


TONY KARON


He's already pushing back against the Baker-Hamilton report, and no wonder. Accepting the proposal to engage Iran and Syria would mean admitting his foreign policy has failed

Explaining the report of his Iraq Study Group to Congress on Thursday, former Secretary of State James Baker stressed that its recommendations need to be taken as a whole, rather than cherry-picked. "I hope we don't treat this like a fruit salad, saying, 'I like this, but I don't like that,'" Baker told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "It's a comprehensive strategy designed to deal with the problems in Iraq, but also to deal with other problems in the region. These are interdependent recommendations."

President Bush plainly had other ideas, telling a press conference he was sure Baker and Lee Hamilton didn't expect him to embrace all of their recommendations. Bush made clear, for example, that he has no intention of following the Baker-Hamilton proposal for a rapid move to engage Iran and Syria in a process aimed at stabilizing Iraq. Instead, he simply reiterated his Administration's preconditions for talking to those two nations: Iran must first suspend its uranium enrichment activities, Bush said, while Syria would have to stop interfering in Lebanon.

It's not hard to see why Bush would balk at many of the key prescriptions of the report, since they would require him to abandon some key foreign policy positions he has held throughout his presidency. And without any changes in that policy, there is little likelihood that the regional powers whose help is being sought will feel much like cooperating.

U.S. needs Iranian and Syrian cooperation right now a lot more than either of those countries need to ingratiate themselves with Washington. So the U.S. is not in any position to set preconditions for seeking their help in Iraq. They may even be inclined to set conditions of their own for such cooperation. On the question of talking to Tehran and Damascus, moreover, President Bush certainly has the backing of a number of legislators from both sides of the aisle, who have questioned whether Iran and Syria would have any inclination to help out the U.S. in Iraq. Baker would agree that they're not about to help out just to be nice, but his commission — which interviewed senior figures in both regimes — believes their cooperation can be won on the basis of enlightened self-interest. Still, they would need an incentive to cooperate, which would necessitate the sort of diplomatic quid pro quo on other issues that would stick in the craw of President Bush.

Israeli leaders, meanwhile, along with their most vocal supporters on Capitol Hill, are alarmed both at the prospect of a U.S. diplomatic dance with Iran and Syria, and by the ISG's assertion that prospects for success in Iraq and elsewhere in the region depend on Washington's ability to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, commenting on the report Thursday, told reporters: "The attempt to create linkage between the Iraqi issue and the Mideast issue — we have a different view."

The Bush Administration throughout its tenure has carefully avoided putting any pressure on Israel to resume negotiations with the Palestinians in search of a political settlement to the conflict, instead simply endorsing the Israeli claim that "there is no Palestinian partner" and focusing largely on the question of Israeli security. And it has strongly backed and even encouraged Israel's refusal to talk to Syria about the return of the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967.

The Baker-Hamilton study sees unconditional U.S. support for Israel as poisoning the prospects for U.S. progress in the region, because it generates such deep-seated ill will toward America in Arab public opinion that it becomes increasingly difficult for even friendly Arab regimes to lend support to Washington. The 9/11 Commission made a similar point, noting that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a key source of hostility toward the U.S. that is exploited by extremist elements. Still, not much has changed in the Administration's policy positions. And despite the urgent pleas of such key U.S. allies as Jordan's King Abdullah — and even Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair — for a speedy resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, there would likely be a strong backlash on Capitol Hill against any move to tie progress in Iraq to progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front.

So the regional strategy advocated by the Baker-Hamilton group looks, if not quite dead on arrival, at least destined for the back burner. But that regional strategy is a critical component of the package, precisely because the Iraq Study Group has plainly shown that the Bush Administration's plan to unilaterally transform the Middle East through the application of force has failed. Acting alone, the U.S. appears unable to create a stable post-Saddam Iraq, and regional cooperation with regimes distasteful to the U.S. but nonetheless able to influence events is essential.

These regional actors, of course, are the same ones the Bush Administration hoped would be swept away by the democratic tsunami Iraq was supposed to unleash. To embrace the Baker-Hamilton strategy, President Bush would have to abandon some key foreign policy positions to which he has been deeply wedded throughout his presidency. Critics, including much of the Republican "realist" old-guard personified by Baker, would argue that this is simply a matter of acknowledging reality. But the President will find plenty of support from conservative voices, along with those across the spectrum who most fervently back Israel and see Iran as a primary threat, for ignoring the advice of the "realists." Despite the flurry of discussion over a new policy on Iraq, chances are that once the dust settles, that policy may not look very different the current one.

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Today in history - Dec. 9

Today is Saturday, Dec. 9, the 343rd day of 2006. There are 22 days left in the year.


Today's Highlight in History:


On Dec. 9, 1854, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," was published in England.


On this date:


In 1608, English poet John Milton was born in London.


In 1892, "Widowers' Houses," George Bernard Shaw's first play, opened at the Royalty Theater in London.


In 1940, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.


In 1941, China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.


In 1942, the Aram Khachaturian ballet "Gayane," featuring the surging "Saber Dance," was first performed by the Kirov Ballet.

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Tags: Khachaturian | Gayane | State | North Africa | New York City | London | Japan | Italy | Iraq | Germany | england | Dec | China | Britain | BRIGADE | ballet | aram | Alfred

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Today in history - Dec. 9

The Associated Press

Today is Saturday, Dec. 9, the 343rd day of 2006. There are 22 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Dec. 9, 1854, Alfred, Lord Tennyson's famous poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade," was published in England.

On this date:

In 1608, English poet John Milton was born in London.

In 1892, "Widowers' Houses," George Bernard Shaw's first play, opened at the Royalty Theater in London.

In 1940, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.

In 1941, China declared war on Japan, Germany and Italy.

In 1942, the Aram Khachaturian ballet "Gayane," featuring the surging "Saber Dance," was first performed by the Kirov Ballet.

In 1958, the anti-communist John Birch Society was formed in Indianapolis.

In 1965, Nikolai V. Podgorny replaced Anastas I. Mikoyan as president of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet.

In 1975, President Ford signed a $2.3 billion seasonal loan-authorization that officials of New York City and State said would prevent a city default.

In 1990, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa won Poland's presidential runoff by a landslide.

In 1992, Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple's divorce became final Aug. 28, 1996.)

Ten years ago: More than four months after the Olympic bombing, the FBI posted a $500,000 reward. The United Nations gave Iraq the go-ahead to resume oil exports for the first time since 1990 to buy food and medicine. Archaeologist and anthropologist Mary Leakey died in Kenya at age 83.

Five years ago: The United States disclosed the existence of a videotape in which Osama bin Laden said he was pleasantly surprised by the extent of damage from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. Authorities confirmed the outbreak of the deadly disease Ebola in Gabon.

One year ago: President Bush, addressing a political fundraiser in Minnesota, said the United States would wage an unrelenting battle in Iraq to protect Americans at home. A congressional report said the federal government's medical response to Hurricane Katrina was bungled by a lack of supplies and poor communication.

Today's Birthdays: Actor Kirk Douglas is 90. Actress Dina Merrill is 81. Actor Dick Van Patten is 78. Actor-writer Buck Henry is 76. Actress Dame Judi Dench is 72. Actor Beau Bridges is 65. Jazz singer-musician Dan Hicks is 65. Football Hall-of-Famer Dick Butkus is 64. Actor Michael Nouri is 61. Former Sen. Thomas Daschle (news, bio, voting record), D-S.D., is 59. Singer Joan Armatrading is 56. Actor Michael Dorn is 54. Actor John Malkovich is 53. Country singer Sylvia is 50. Singer/game show host Donny Osmond is 49. Rock musician Nick Seymour (Crowded House) is 48. Actor Joe Lando is 45. Actress Felicity Huffman is 44. Country musician Jerry Hughes (Yankee Grey) is 41. Rock singer-musician Thomas Flowers (Oleander) is 39. Rock musician Brian Bell (Weezer) is 38. Rock singer-musician Jakob Dylan (Wallflowers) is 37. Actress Allison Smith is 37. Country singer David Kersh is 36. Rock musician Tre Cool (Green Day) is 34. Rapper Canibus is 32. Rock musician Eric Zamora (Save Ferris) is 30. Actor Jesse Metcalfe is 28.

Thought for Today: "In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule." — Friedrich Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844-1900).

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