- 1513: Vasco Nunez de Balboa discovered the Pacific Ocean when he
                        crossed the isthmus of Panama.
                      - 1759: In a victory which led to British supremacy in Canada,
                        British forces defeated the Marquis de Montcalm and the French on
                        the Plains of Abraham, Quebec.
                      - 1788: New York was declared the first federal capital of the United
                        States and the Constitutional Convention authorized the first
                        national election.
                      - 1847: During the American-Mexican war, Gen. Winfield Scott led his
                        forces to capture Mexico City.
                      - 1861: In the first naval battle of the Civil War, the Union frigate
                        "Colorado" sank the privateer "Judah" off Pensacola, Fla.
                      - 1881: Lewis Latimer patented an electric lamp with a carbon
                        filament.
                      - 1898: Hannibal Goodwin patented celluloid photographic film.
                      - 1903: Actress Claudette Colbert (Academy Award winner Best
                        Actress for "It Happened One Night") was born in Paris (d: 1996).
                      - 1916: Author Roald Dahl ("Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory")
                        was born (d: 1990).
                      - 1925: The first U.S. university for African Americans, Xavier
                        University, opened in New Orleans.
                      - 1939: Igor Stravinsky invented the first helicopter.
                      - 1942: The German army began its all-out attack on Stalingrad
                        against stiff Soviet resistance.
                      - 1943: Having been Generalissimo since 1928, Chiang Kai-shek was
                        elected president of China.
                      - 1948: Margaret Chase Smith of Maine was elected to the Senate,
                        becoming the first woman to serve in both houses of Congress.
                      - 1971: Thirty-one prisoners and 11 guards were killed when state
                        police and National Guardsmen stormed Attica prison in New York
                        State to end a five-day revolt.
                      - 1974: In the Netherlands, the French ambassador and 10 others were
                        taken hostage by Japanese guerrillas; the gunmen surrendered four
                        days later after flying to Damascus.
                      - 1989: Archbishop Desmond Tutu led huge crowds of singing and
                        dancing people through central Cape Town in the biggest
                        anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa for 30 years.
                      - 1996: Rapper Tupac Shakur died six days after being the target of a
                        drive-by shooting in Las Vegas at age 25.

                      *Happy Birthday*
                      ----------------
                      - Barbara Bain, 67, actress, "Mission Impossible"
                      - Jacqueline Bisset, 54, actress, "Airport"
                      - Nell Carter, 50, actress, "Gimme a Break!"
                      - Maurice Jarre, 74, composer, "Dr. Zhivago"
                      - Michael Johnson, 31, sprinter, Olympic athlete, only person to
                        break 44 (43.65) seconds for the 400-meter run
                      - Judith Martin, 60, author/journalist/columnist, Miss Manners the
                        etiquette authority
                      - Fred Silverman, 61, producer, CBS, ABC, NBC network programmer
                        '70-80s
                      - Mel Torme, 73, singer/composer, "Velvet Fog" singer, wrote "The
                        Christmas Song" for Nat King Cole