On this date:
In 1820, Britain's King George the Third died insane at Windsor Castle, ending a reign that had seen both the American and French revolutions.

In 1843, the 25th president of the United States, William McKinley, was born in Niles, Ohio.

In 1845, Edgar Allan Poe's poem "The Raven" was first published, in the New York "Evening Mirror."

In 1850, Henry Clay introduced in the Senate a compromise bill on slavery which included the admission of California into the Union as a free state.

In 1861, Kansas became the 34th state of the Union.

In 1936, the first members of baseball's Hall of Fame, including Ty Cobb and Babe Ruth, were named in Cooperstown, New York.

In 1958, actors Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward were married.

In 1963, the first members of football's Hall of Fame were named in Canton, Ohio.

In 1963, poet Robert Frost died in Boston.

In 1979, President Carter formally welcomed Chinese Vice Premier Deng Xiaoping (duhng shah-oh ping) to the White House, following the establishment of diplomatic relations.

Ten years ago: Former "Exxon Valdez" skipper Joseph Hazelwood went on trial in Anchorage, Alaska, on charges stemming from the nation's worst oil spill. (Hazelwood was acquitted of the major charges, and convicted of a misdemeanor.)

Five years ago: The San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers, 49-to-26, to win Super Bowl 29; the 49ers became the first team in NFL history to win five Super Bowls.

One year ago: The Senate delivered subpoenas for Monica Lewinsky and two of President Clinton's advisers, summoning them for private, videotaped testimony in the impeachment trial. Attorney General Janet Reno rejected a special prosecutor investigation of former White House deputy chief of staff Harold Ickes.

每日格言

"Misquotations are the only quotations that are never misquoted."

-- Hesketh Pearson, British biographer (1887-1964).