- 1719: The first recorded sighting of the Aurora Borealis took place
                 in New England.
               - 1792: France's King Louis XVI went before the Convention, which had
                 replaced the National Assembly, to face charges of treason.
               - 1816: Indiana was admitted to the union as the 19th state.
               - 1866: The first yacht race took place across the Atlantic Ocean.
               - 1872: America's first black governor took office as Pinckney Benton
                 Stewart Pinchback became acting governor of Louisiana.
               - 1882: Boston's Bijou Theatre, the first American playhouse lit
                 exclusively by electricity, had its first performance, Gilbert and
                 Sullivan's "Iolanthe."
               - 1901: Guglielmo Marconi sent the first transatlantic radio signal
                 from Cornwall to Newfoundland.
               - 1928: Police in Buenos Aires thwarted an attempt on the life of
                 President-elect Herbert Hoover.
               - 1937: Italy withdrew from the League of Nations.
               - 1939: Singer Betty Grable and her famous legs were featured on the
                 cover of LIFE magazine.
               - 1941: The Japanese attacked Wake Island. Germany and Italy declared
                 war on the United States; the U.S. responded in kind.
               - 1946: John D. Rockefeller Jr. donated a six-block plot of Manhattan
                 real estate in New York City for use as world headquarters of the
                 United Nations.
               - 1946: The United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund
                 (UNICEF) was established.
               - 1951: Joe DiMaggio announced his retirement from baseball.
               - 1953: KTVA-TV 11 in Anchorage became Alaska's first TV station.
               - 1961: A U.S. aircraft carrier carrying Army helicopters arrived in
                 Saigon, the first direct American military support for South
                 Vietnam's battle against Communist guerillas.
               - 1970: John Lennon released his first album since the Beatles
                 breakup: "John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band."
               - 1972: British rock group Genesis made their U.S. concert debut at
                 Brandeis University in Boston.
               - 1981: Muhammad Ali's 61st and last fight, a loss to Trevor Berbick,
                 took place.
               - 1990: Ivana Trump was divorced from real estate mogul Donald Trump
                 after 12 years of marriage.
               - 1991: United Soviet Socialist Republics dissolved after 74 years.
               - 1991: A jury in West Palm Beach, Fla., acquitted William Kennedy
                 Smith of sexual assault and battery, rejecting the allegations of
                 Patricia Bowman, who said Smith had raped her.

               *Happy Birthday*
               ----------------
               - Bess Armstrong, 45, actress, "My So-Called Life"
               - Justin Currie, 34, singer/bassist, Del Amitri
               - Teri Garr, 49, actress, "Tootsie," "Young Frankenstein"
               - Tom Hayden, 58, politician/political activist
               - Jermaine Jackson, 44, R&B singer, Jacksons brother
               - Brenda Lee, 54, country singer
               - Donna Mills, 55, actress, "Knots Landing," "Melrose Place"
               - Rita Moreno, 67, actress, "West Side Story"
               - Susan Seidelman, 46, film director, "Desperately Seeking Susan"
               - Nikki Sixx, 40, bassist, Motley Crue
               - Kathy Smith, 47, exercise video host
               - Rider Strong, 19, actor, "Boy Meets World"
               - Ken Wahl, 45, actor, "Wiseguy"