December 18th

Today's Highlight in History:
On December 18th, 1944, in a pair of rulings, the Supreme Court upheld the wartime relocation of Japanese-Americans, but also said undeniably loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry could not be detained.

On this date:
In 1787, New Jersey became the third state to ratify the US Constitution.

In 1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect.

In 1892, Tchaikovsky's "The Nutcracker Suite" publicly premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia.

In 1915, President Wilson, widowed the year before, married Edith Bolling Galt at her Washington home.

In 1940, Adolf Hitler signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (Operation "Barbarossa" was launched in June 1941.)

In 1956, Japan was admitted to the United Nations.

In 1969, Britain's Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.

In 1971, the Reverend Jesse Jackson announced in Chicago the founding of Operation PUSH (People United to Save Humanity).

In 1972, the United States began its heaviest bombing of North Vietnam at that time during the Vietnam War. (The bombardment ended 12 days later.)

In 1980, former Soviet Premier Alexei N. Kosygin died at age 76.

Ten years ago: Robert E. Robinson, an attorney and alderman in Savannah, Georgia, was killed by a mail bomb similar to a device that had claimed the life of a federal judge in Alabama two days earlier. (Walter Leroy Moody Junior was later convicted of both bombings, and is on Alabama's death row.)

Five years ago: Former US president Jimmy Carter arrived in Bosnia-Herzegovina on a private mission to seek an end to 32 months of war.

One year ago: The House debated articles of impeachment against President Clinton. US and British forces blasted Iraq with a third day of airstrikes. South Carolina carried out the nation's 500th execution since capital punishment resumed in 1977.

"The only thing we have to fear on this planet is man."

-- Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875-1961).