1980 ~ John Lennon was shot dead outside his New York apartment


1854 ~ Pope Pius IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception.


1886 ~ The American Federation of Labor was founded at a convention of union leaders in Columbus, Ohio.


1987 ~ President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed the first treaty to reduce the nuclear arsenals of the two superpowers


1993 ~ President Bill Clinton signed The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) into law

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

On Dec. 9, 1992, Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separatio

1753 ~ Newgate Prison in London held its first public execution.


1941 ~ China declared war against Japan, Germany, and Italy


1958 ~ The anti-Communist John Birch Society was formed.


1965 ~ "A Charlie Brown Christmas" premiered.


1993 ~ U.S. astronauts completed repair work on the Hubble Space Telescope.


1996 ~ Archaeologist and anthropologist Mary Leakey died in Kenya at age 83.

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

1990 ~ Buff, the "Human beat-box" of The Fat Boys, died of heart failure


1817 ~ Mississippi became the 20th state in the United States.


1869 ~ The territory of Wyoming authorized women to vote and hold office.


1901 ~ The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in Stockholm, Sweden, in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and peace.


1948 ~ The United Nations General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.


1950 ~ Dr. Ralph Bunche became the first black to receive a Nobel Peace Prize.


1964 ~ Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., received the Nobel Peace Prize.

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

1985 - Supreme Court of Canada upholds firing of public servant Neil Fraser for criticizing the government's metric conversion policies.

On Dec. 11

1941, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States; the U.S. responded in kind.

1816 ~ Indiana became the 19th state.


1844 ~ Nitrous oxide was used for the first time in dentistry.


1936 ~ King Edward VIII abdicated the throne of Britain for the woman he loved, Mrs. Wallis Simpson.


1946 ~ The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) was established


1994 ~ Russian troups invade Chechnya in an unsuccessful attempt to restore Moscow's power in the region.


1997 ~ Housing secretary Henry Cisneros is indicted for conspiracy, obstructing justice, and false statements to the FBI.

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

I haven’t been here for a while after becoming frustrated with myself for ferreting out little ditties from random sources only to miss posting them at the right time. Today just had too many significant events happen to let it go past. I have to start with something near and dear to my heart.

In 1998, the Mars Climate Orbiter was successfully launched on a Delta II rocket from Cape Canaveral Air Station in Florida. However, the probe disappeared on 23 Sep 1999, apparently destroyed because scientists had failed to convert English measures to metric values. The orbiter's instruments would have monitored the Martian atmosphere and image the planet's surface on a daily basis for one Martian year (1.8 Earth years) with observations of the appearance and movement of atmospheric dust and water vapor, as well as characterizing seasonal changes on the surface.

The deeds of a lady of note has to be mentioned today also. In 1911, at Stockholm, Sweden, Marie Curie became the first person to be awarded a second Nobel prize. She had isolated radium by electrolyzing molten radium chloride. This second prize was for her individual achievements in Chemistry, whereas her first prize (1903) was a collaborative effort with her husband, Pierre, and Henri Becquerel in Physics for her contributions in the discovery of radium and polonium.

An old chat buddy of Al’s was born 11 Dec 1882, and his insights has effected mankind’s concepts forever. Max Born, was a German physicist and winner of the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1954, with Walther Bothe of Germany, for his statistical formulation of the behavior of subatomic particles. His studies of the wave function led to the replacement of the original quantum theory, which regarded electrons as particles, with a mathematical description.

The anniversary of the last thing that HAS to be noted is in 1998, scientists announced in the Dec 11 issue of the journal Science that they have deciphered the entire genetic blueprint of an animal - the tiny nematode worm, Caenorhabditis elegans. This is the first time genetic instructions have been spelt out for an animal that, like humans, has a nervous system, digests food, and has sex. The worm's genetic code is spelt out by 97 million genetic letters corresponding to 20,000 genes. This work is a milestone in global efforts to unravel the entire human genetic code - or genome - which was completed earlier this year and is the tool for medical wonders undreamt of. The research grew into a collaboration between 1,500 scientists in 250 laboratories worldwide. The efforts were led by John Sulston, in England and Dr Bob Waterston in the U.S.

Somebody was busy today.

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Today our new Prime Minister, Paul Martin is being sworn in.

Also in political news, on this day in 2000, a divided U.S. Supreme Court halted the presidential recount in Florida, effectively making Republican George W. Bush the winner.

1917 ~ An overloaded French troop train cuaght fire near Modane in the Alps, and de-railed at 75mph. More than 800 died in the world's WORST rail accident


1787 ~ Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.


1913 ~ The Mona Lisa was recovered in Florence after having been stolen two years earlier (August 1911) from the Louvre.


1963 ~ Kenya gained its independence from Britain.


1998 ~ The House Judiciary Committee approved a fourth and final article of impeachment against President Clinton.


2001 ~ Yasir Arafat closed the offices of Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

1916 ~ Not EVERYONE who died in WWI was in the fighting!! An avalanche in Tyrol, Austria, killed over 10,000 Italian and Austrian troops.


1642 ~ New Zealand was discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman.


1918 ~ President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Europe while in office.


1978 ~ The U.S. Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, the first U.S. coin honoring a woman.


1981 ~ The Polish government imposed martial law in an attempt to crush the Solidarity movement.


1996 ~ Kofi Annan of Ghana chosen to become UN secretary-general.


2000 ~ George W. Bush accepted presidency 36 days after election; Al Gore, Jr., conceded.


2003 ~ CA & I fly to Dublin, to indulge in ALL SORTS of high-jinks and debauchery, fuelled by copious amounts of "Proper" Guinness!!


This programme will now take a short(ish!) intermission..... normal service will be resumed on December 17th!!

DM

__________________
The selfish, they're all standing in line
Faithing and hoping to buy themselves time
Me, I figure as each breath goes by
I only own my mind

And, just in time for the season ... in 1843, Charles Dickens "A Christmas Carol" was published with 6,000 copies sold.

(BTY, TY DM)

1981~ Israel annexed the Golan Heights, captured from Syria in 1967.

1916 ~ the French defeated the Germans in the World War I Battle of Verdun.

1770 ~ Birth of Ludwig Van Beethoven

__________________
Eudaimonia