WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 19, 2007

Today is Wednesday, December 19, the 353rd day of 2007. There are 12 days left in the year.

401 _ St. Anastasius I ends his reign as Catholic pope

1055 _ Seldjuken under Toghril Beg occupy Baghdad

1154 _ King Henry II of England crowned

1686 _ Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Defoe)

1788 _ Chinese troops occupy capital Thang Long Vietnam

1842 _ U.S. recognizes independence of Hawaii

1843 _ Charles Dickens publishes ``A Christmas Carol" in England

1884 _ Italy recognizes King Leopold II's Congo Free State

1946 _ War breaks out in Indochina as Ho Chi Minh attacks French in Hanoi

1950 _ General Eisenhower named NATO commander

1950 _ Tibet's Dalai Lama flees Chinese invasion

1961 _ Indonesian President Sukarno proclaims general mobilization

1963 _ Zanzibar becomes independent from U.K.

1984 _ China performs nuclear test at Lop Nor

1984 _ U.K. signs agreement with China to return Hong Kong to China in 1997

1986 _ The USSR frees dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile

1991 _ Boris Yeltsin takes control of Kremlin