December sixth

Today's Highlight in History:
On December sixth, 1889, Jefferson Davis, the first and only president of the Confederate States of America, died in New Orleans.

On this date:
In 1790, Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia.

In 1884, Army engineers completed construction of the Washington Monument.

In 1923, a presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress.

In 1939, the Cole Porter musical comedy "Du Barry Was a Lady" opened on Broadway.

In 1947, Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Truman.

In 1957, America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.

In 1957, AFL-CIO members voted to expel the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. (The Teamsters were readmitted in 1987.)

In 1969, a concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in Livermore, California, was marred by the deaths of four people, including one who was stabbed by a Hell's Angel.

In 1973, House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew.

In 1988, rock-and-roll pioneer Roy Orbison died near Nashville, Tennessee, at age 52.

Ten years ago: Fourteen women were shot to death at at the University of Montreal's school of engineering by a man who then took his own life. Egon Krenz resigned as leader of East Germany.

Five years ago: Former Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell pleaded guilty to defrauding his former law partners and clients of nearly $400,000. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen announced his resignation. Orange County, California, filed for bankruptcy protection due to investment losses of about two billion dollars.

One year ago: In Venezuela, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez, who staged a bloody coup attempt against the government six years earlier, was elected president. Endeavour's astronauts connected the first two building blocks of the international space station in the shuttle cargo bay.

"People who never get carried away should be."

-- Malcolm S. Forbes, American publisher (1919-1990).