THURSDAY, DECEMBER 10, 2009

Today is Thursday, December 10, the 344th day of 2009. There are 21 days left in the year.

1520 _ Martin Luther publicly burned papal edict demands he recant

1799 _ Metric system established in France

1898 _ Spanish-American War ends; U.S. acquires Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam

1901 _ First Nobel Peace Prizes (to Jean Henri Dunant, Frederic Passy)

1903 _ Nobel for physics awarded to Pierre/Marie Curie

1907 _ Ruyard Kipling receives Nobel prize for literature

1926 _ Second part of Hitler's ``Mein Kampf" published

1941 _ Japanese troops overrun Guam

1948 _ U.N. General Assembly adopts Universal Declaration of Human Rights

1984 _ First ``planet'' outside our solar system discovered