FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2009

Today is Friday, December 4, the 338th day of 2009. There are 27 days left in the year.

0771 _ Karle, the Great, becomes king of all France

1619 _ America's first Thanksgiving Day (Virginia)

1829 _ Britain abolished ``suttee" in India (widow burning herself to death on her husband's funeral pyre

1923 _ Cecil B. DeMille's first version of ``Ten Commandments" premieres

1941 _ Nazi ordinances places Jews of Poland outside protection of courts

1945 _ Senate approves U.S. participation in U.N.

1981 _ President Reagan allows CIA to engage in domestic counter-intelligence (No. 12333)

1985 _ ``Les Miserables" opens at Palace Theatre, London

1990 _ Iraq announces it will release all 3,300 Soviet hostages

1996 _ NASA's first Mars rover launched from Cape Canaveral