Today is Tuesday, December 23, the 358th day of 2008. There are eight days left in the year.
1620 _ French Huguenots declare war on King Louis XIII
1867 _ First self-made millionairess (Sarah Breedlove-hair straightener)
1888 _ Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh cuts off his left ear
1919 _ Alice H. Parker patents gas heating furnace
1941 _ Japan begins assault on Rangoon Burma
1960 _ King Saud of Saudi-Arabia takes power
1962 _ Cuba starts returning U.S. prisoners from the Bay of Pigs invasion
1968 _ 82 members of U.S. intelligence ship ``Pueblo" released by North Korea
1970 _ New York World Trade Center reaches highest point (411 m)
1983 _ Journal Science publishes first report on nuclear winter