December 13th

Today's Highlight in History:
On December 13th, 1577, Sir Francis Drake of England set out with five ships on a nearly three-year journey that would take him around the world.

On this date:
In 1642, Dutch navigator Abel Tasman arrived in present-day New Zealand.

In 1769, Dartmouth College, in New Hampshire, received its charter.

In 1835, Phillips Brooks, the American Episcopal bishop who wrote the words to "O Little Town of Bethlehem," was born in Boston.

In 1862, Union forces suffered a major defeat to the Confederates at the Battle of Fredericksburg.

In 1918, President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office.

In 1928, George Gershwin's musical work "An American in Paris" had its premiere, at Carnegie Hall in New York.

In 1944, during World War Two, the US cruiser "Nashville" was badly damaged in a Japanese "kamikaze" suicide attack that claimed 138 lives.

In 1978, the Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation the following July.

In 1981, authorities in Poland imposed martial law in a crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. (Martial law formally ended in 1983.)

In 1997, a ribbon-cutting ceremony was held in Los Angeles for the one billion-dollar Getty Center, one of the largest arts centers in the United States.

Ten years ago: South African President F.W. de Klerk met for the first time with imprisoned African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela, at de Klerk's office in Cape Town.

Five years ago: An American Eagle commuter plane carrying 20 people crashed short of Raleigh-Durham International Airport in North Carolina, killing 15.

One year ago: With a grave impeachment threat looming, President Clinton told a news conference in Jerusalem he would not resign, and insisted he did not commit perjury. Voters in Puerto Rico rejected US statehood.

"Good judgment comes from experience; and experience, well, that comes from bad judgment."

-- Anonymous.