Today is Friday, Dec. 19, the 353rd day of 2003 with 12 to
follow.
Those born on this date include women's suffrage leader Mary Livermore in 1820;
novelist Eleanor Porter ("Pollyanna") in 1868; trombonist/singer Jack
Teagarden in 1895; actor Ralph Richardson in 1902; Soviet President Leonid
Brezhnev in 1906; French dramatist Jean Genet, a pioneer in the theater of the
absurd, in 1910; singer Edith Piaf in 1915; and actors Cicely Tyson in 1933
(age 70), Tim Reid in 1944 (age 59), Robert Urich in 1946, Jennifer Beals in 1963
(age 40) and Alyssa Milano in 1972 (age 31).
On this date in history:
In 1777, Gen. George Washington and the Continental Army began a winter
encampment at Valley Forge, Pa.
In 1958, the U.S. satellite Atlas transmitted the first radio voice broadcast from
space, a 58-word recorded Christmas greeting from President Eisenhower.
In 1972, the splashdown of Apollo XVII ended America's manned moon exploration
program.
In 1984, the United States formally withdrew from UNESCO in a effort to force
reform of the U.N. cultural organization's budget and alleged Third World bias.
Also in 1984, the prime ministers of Britain and China signed an accord,
returning Hong Kong to China in 1997.
In 1986, Attorney General Edwin Meese said President Reagan did not know that
money Iran paid for U.S. arms was going to Nicaraguan rebels.
In 1990, a judge in Oshkosh, Wis., dismissed the case against a man convicted
of sex assault against a woman with at least 46 personalities.
In 1991, the Bank of Credit and Commerce International agreed to plead guilty
to federal racketeering charges, forfeiting $550 million.
In 1996, O.J. Simpson was called to the witness stand in his civil trial for
damages in the murders of Nicole Brown Simpson and Ronald Goldman.
In 1997, the motion picture "Titanic" opened in U.S. theaters to big
crowds and generally favorable reviews.
In 1998, President Clinton became only the second U.S. president to be
impeached when the House of Representatives approved two articles of
impeachment, charging him with perjury and obstruction of justice. The
allegations stemmed from the actions he took to conceal his relationship with
former White House intern Monica Lewinsky.
Also in 1998, House Speaker-designate Bob Livingston, R-La, announced he would
not be a candidate and would be leaving Congress. Two days earlier, Livingston
admitted he'd had extra-marital affairs "on occasion."
In 2002, Secretary of State Colin Powell warned Iraq it was risking war by
lying and refusing to cooperate on the issue of weapons of mass destruction.
Also in 2002, South Korea elected Roh Moo Hyun as its new president.
A thought for the day: George Bernard Shaw said, "There are no secrets
better kept than the secrets that everybody guesses."
(c) Copyright 2003 by United Press International. All rights reserved.
Charles
Mims
http://www.the-sandbox.org