December 28th

Today's Highlight in History:
On December 28th, 1917, the New York "Evening Mail" published a facetious essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America. (The essay claimed, for example, that Millard Fillmore was the first president to have a bathtub installed in the White House.)

On this date:
In 1694, Queen Mary the Second of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William the Third.

In 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the United States to resign, stepping down over differences with President Jackson.

In 1846, Iowa became the 29th state to be admitted to the Union.

In 1856, the 28th president of the United States, Thomas Woodrow Wilson, was born in Staunton, Virginia.

In 1897, the play "Cyrano de Bergerac," by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris.

In 1937, composer Maurice Ravel died in Paris.

In 1944, the musical "On the Town" opened on Broadway.

In 1945, Congress officially recognized the "Pledge of Allegiance."

In 1973, Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," an expose of the Soviet prison system.

In 1981, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American "test-tube" baby, was born in Norfolk, Virginia.

Ten years ago: Alexander Dubcek, the former Czechoslovak Communist leader who was deposed in a Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion in 1968, was named chairman of the country's parliament.

Five years ago: CIA Director R. James Woolsey resigned, ending a tenure that was shadowed by the Aldrich Ames spy scandal. President Clinton nominated Dan Glickman to be agriculture secretary, succeeding Mike Espy.

One year ago: American warplanes exchanged missile fire with Iraqi air defenses, and President Clinton said there would be no letup in American and British pressure on Saddam Hussein. Four people were killed, two gone missing and presumed dead, when fierce gales struck during an Australian yacht race.

"When you are right, no one remembers; when you are wrong, no one forgets."

-- Irish proverb.