THURSDAY, DECEMBER 13, 2007

Today is Thursday, December 13, the 347th day of 2007. There are 18 days left in the year.

863 _ Boudouin with the Iron Arm weds Charles de Kales' daughter Judith

1294 _ Pope Coelestinus V ends term

1545 _ Pope Paul III opens the Council of Trente (19th ecumenical council)

1570 _ Sweden and Denmark signs the Peace of Stettin

1621 _ Emperor Ferdinand II delegates the first anti-Reformation decree

1642 _ New Zealand discovered by Dutch navigator Abel Tasman

1668 _ Jean Racines ``Britannicus" premieres in Paris

1734 _ England and Russia sign a trade agreement

1833 _ HMS Beagle/Charles Darwin arrives in Port Deseado, Patagonie

1843 _ ``A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens published

1913 _ Mona Lisa stolen in August 1911 returned to Louvre

1920 _ League of Nations establishes the International Court of Justice in The Hague

1966 _ The first U.S. bombing of Hanoi

1974 _ Malta becomes a republic

1981 _ The Polish government declares martial law, arrests Solidarity activists

1984 _ Artificial heart recipient William Schroeder suffers the first stroke

1989 _ Forced repatriation of Vietnamese in Hong Kong

1990 _ President De Klerk of South Africa meets with Nelson Mandela to talk of end of apartheid

1991 _ Both Koreas sign an accord calling for reconciliation