SATURDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2007

Today is Saturday, December 1, the 335th day of 2007. There are 30 days left in the year.

772 _ Pope Adrian I elected

1640 _ Portugal regains independence after 60 years of Spanish rule

1742 _ Empress Elisabeth orders expulsion of all Jews from Russia

1804 _ Emperor Napoleon marries Josephine of Martinique

1822 _ Dom Pedro crowned emperor of Brazil

1835 _ Hans Christian Andersen published his first book of fairy tales

1887 _ A Sino-Portuguese treaty recognizes Portugal's control of Macao

1909 _ The first Israeli kibbutz founded in Deganya Alef

1918 _ Danish parliament passed an act to grant Iceland independence

1937 _ Japan recognizes the Franco government

1941 _ Japanese emperor Hirohito signs a declaration of war

1964 _ Martin Luther King speaks to J. Edgar Hoover about his slander campaign

1965 _ Airlift of refugees from Cuba to the U.S. began

1969 _ The U.S. government holds its first draft lottery since WWII

1973 _ Australia grants self-government to Papua New Guinea

1973 _ Jack Nicklaus becomes the first golfer to earn $2 million in a year

1975 _ U.S. President Gerald Ford visits the People's Republic of China

1982 _ Michael Jackson releases ``Thriller"

1984 _ France performs nuclear test

1988 _ Benazir Bhutto named the first female prime minister of a Muslim country (Pakistan)

1989 _ USSR President Mikhail Gorbachev meets Pope John Paul II at the Vatican