WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12, 2007

Today is Wednesday, December 12, the 346th day of 2007. There are 19 days left in the year.

627 _ Battle at Nineveh: Byzantine emperor Heraclius beats Perzen

1098 _ First Crusaders capture and plunder Mara Syria

1474 _ Isabella crowns herself queen of Castile and Aragon

1878 _ Joseph Pulitzer begins publishing ``St. Louis Dispatch"

1915 _ Russian troops overrun Hamadan, Persia

1932 _ The USSR and China resume diplomatic relations

1936 _ Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek declares war on Japan

1941 _ German occupying army do a house search in Paris looking for Jews

1979 _ Gold hits record $462.50 an ounce

1979 _ Rhodesia becomes the independent nation of Zimbabwe

1983 _ A truck bomb explodes at the U.S. Embassy in Kuwait

1988 _ PLO leader Yasser Arafat accepts Israel's right to exist

1991 _ The Maastricht Treaty signed to create a European Community

1992 _ Japanese crown prince Naruhito announces engagement to Masaka Owada

1997 _ Japanese train builders (Maglev) claim world speed record at 332mph