THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2009

Today is Thursday, December 3, the 337th day of 2009. There are 28 days left in the year.

1586 _ Sir Thomas Herriot introduces potatoes to England, from Colombia

1621 _ Galileo perfects the telescope

1939 _ Dmitri Shostakovich's 6th Symphony, premieres

1946 _ U.S. government asks U.N. to order dictator Franco out of Spain

1947 _ Tennessee Williams play ``A Streetcar Named Desire" premieres in New York City

1948 _ Chinese refugee ship ``Kiangya" explodes in E. China Sea, killing 1,100

1953 _ Eisenhower criticizes McCarthy for saying communists are in Republican party

1964 _ ``Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer" first airs on TV

1967 _ Ex-President Sukarno under house arrest in Indonesia

1989 _ George Bush and Mikhail Gorbachev end summit in Malta