December fourth

Today's Highlight in History:
On December fourth, 1783, General George Washington bade farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.

On this date:
In 1816, James Monroe of Virginia was elected the fifth president of the United States.

In 1839, the Whig Party opened a national convention in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, during which delegates nominated William Henry Harrison for president.

In 1918, President Wilson set sail for France to attend the Versailles Peace Conference.

In 1942, President Roosevelt ordered the dismantling of the Works Progress Administration, which had been created to provide jobs during the Depression.

In 1942, US bombers struck the Italian mainland for the first time in World War Two.

In 1945, the Senate approved US participation in the United Nations.

In 1965, the United States launched "Gemini Seven" with Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Frank Borman and Navy Commander James A. Lovell aboard.

In 1978, San Francisco got its first female mayor as City Supervisor Dianne Feinstein was named to replace the assassinated George Moscone.

In 1980, the bodies of four American churchwomen slain in El Salvador two days earlier were unearthed. (Five national guardsmen were later convicted of murdering nuns Ita Ford, Maura Clarke and Dorothy Kazel, and lay worker Jean Donovan.)

In 1996, the Mars Pathfinder lifted off from Cape Canaveral and began speeding toward Mars on a 310 million-mile odyssey to explore the Red Planet's surface.

Ten years ago: President Bush briefed NATO leaders in Brussels, Belgium, on the just-concluded Malta summit he'd held with Soviet President Mikhail S. Gorbachev.

Five years ago: Bosnian Serbs released 53 out of some four-hundred UN peacekeepers they were holding as insurance against further NATO airstrikes.

One year ago: Space shuttle "Endeavour" and a crew of six blasted off on the first mission to begin assembling the international space station.

"People who have what they want are fond of telling people who haven't what they want that they really don't want it."

-- Ogden Nash, American humorist and poet (1902-1972).