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