The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include French composer Gustave Charpentier in 1860; Broadway producer George Abbott in 1887; English novelist and critic George Orwell, author of 1984, in 1903; movie director Sidney Lumet in 1924 (age 83); actress June Lockhart in 1925 (age 82); civil rights advocate James Meredith in 1933 (age 74); actor Jimmie Walker in 1948 (age 59); and pop singers Carly Simon in 1945 (age 62) and George Michael in 1963 (age 44).

In 1876, U.S. Army Gen. George Custer and his force of 208 men were annihilated by Chief Sitting Bull's Sioux warriors at Little Big Horn in Montana.

In 1942, U.S. Army Gen. Dwight Eisenhower took command of the U.S. World War II forces in Europe.

In 1950, North Korean forces invaded South Korea.

In 1951, CBS aired the first color television broadcast. At the time, no color TV sets were owned by the public.

In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down a decision interpreted as barring prayer in public schools.

In 1967, with Mick Jagger, Keith Richard and others singing backup, the Beatles recorded All You Need Is Love before an international television audience estimated at 400 million people.

In 1973, White House attorney John Dean told a U.S. Senate committee that U.S. President Richard Nixon joined in a plot to cover up the Watergate break-in.

In 1991, Slovenia and Croatia declared independence from Yugoslavia, sparking civil war.

In 1993, with U.S. Vice President Al Gore casting the tie-breaking vote, the Senate passed the budget bill incorporating U.S. President Bill Clinton's deficit-reduction program.

Also in 1993, Kim Campbell was sworn in as Canada's first woman prime minister.

In 1994, Japan's Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata resigned two months after taking office rather than face a no-confidence vote by parliament.

In 1996, a truck bomb killed 19 U.S. military personnel in Saudi Arabia. Several hundred more people were injured.

In 1997, about half of Mir's power supply was knocked out when an unmanned cargo ship collided with the Russian space station and put a hole in it.

Also in 1997, Montserrat's Soufriere Hills Volcano, after lying dormant for 400 years, erupted -- wiping out two-thirds of the Caribbean island and forcing most of the population to relocate.

In 1998, U.S. President Bill Clinton arrived in China for a much-debated visit.

In 2002, WorldCom, the nation's second largest long-distance communication carrier, announced it had overstated its cash flow by $3.8 billion during the past 15 months. The troubled company's stock value had dropped more than 90 percent since the beginning of the year.

In 2003, the Federal Reserve Board lowered the key federal funds rate, the overnight loan rate between banks, to 1.0 percent, lowest since 1958.

In 2004, the film Fahrenheit 9/11, Michael Moore's critical view of the invasion of Iraq, broke box office records for a documentary in its first few days.

In 2005, religious conservative Tehran Mayor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was elected president of Iran in a landslide.

In 2006, Warren Buffett announced plans to give away 85 percent of his shares in his company, about $37 billion, to charity. Most of that -- some $31 billion -- was earmarked for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include baseball pioneer Abner Doubleday in 1819; British physicist and inventor William Kelvin in 1824; novelist Pearl Buck in 1892; German aircraft designer Willi Messerschmitt in 1898; William Lear, developer of the Lear jet, in 1902; actor Peter Lorre in 1904; Colonel Tom Parker, Elvis Presley's manager, in 1910; athlete Mildred Babe Didrikson Zaharias in 1911; actor/musician Chris Isaak in 1956 (age 51); cyclist Greg LeMond in 1961 (age 46); and actors Chris O'Donnell and Sean P. Hayes (Will & Grace), both in 1970 (age 37).

In 1900, Dr. Walter Reed and his medical team began a successful campaign to wipe out yellow fever in the Panama Canal Zone.

In 1917, the first troops of the American Expeditionary Force reached France in World War I.

In 1939, film censors approved Gone With The Wind but fined Producer David O. Selznick $5,000 for objectionable language in Rhett Butler's famous closing line to Scarlett O'Hara: Frankly, my dear, I don't give a damn.

In 1945, the FCC began development of commercial television by allocating airwaves for 13 TV stations.

Also in 1945, the U.N. Charter was signed by representatives of 50 nations.

In 1959, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower and Queen Elizabeth II formally opened the St. Lawrence Seaway in Canada.

In 1974, the bar code, allowing for the electronic scanning of prices, was used for the first time on a pack of gum at a supermarket in Troy, Ohio.

In 1976, the CN Tower, the world's tallest freestanding structure (1,815 feet, 5 inches), opened in Toronto.

In 1977, 42 people died in a county jail fire in Columbia, Tenn.

In 1986, the Nicaraguan government closed the nation's last opposition newspaper, La Prensa.

In 1990, U.S. President George H.W. Bush discarded his no new taxes campaign pledge, saying it is clear to me taxes are needed as part of deficit-reduction package.

In 1991, 120 people drowned after an Indonesian trawler and an unidentified ship collided in the Straits of Malacca.

In 1992, U.S. Navy Secretary H. Lawrence Garrett resigned, accepting responsibility for the Tailhook incident involving the harassment of Navy women by naval aviators.

Also in 1992, Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl Gates, the target of public wrath for the Rodney King beating, resigned.

In 1993, in response to an Iraqi plot to assassinate former U.S. President George H.W. Bush during a visit to Kuwait, two U.S. ships in the Persian Gulf fired missiles at Iraq's intelligence complex. The main headquarters building was badly damaged.

In 1995, an attempted assassination of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak failed during his visit to Ethiopia.

In 2000, two rival groups of scientists announced they had deciphered the genetic code, the human genome.

In 2002, the U.S. Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the Pledge of Allegiance recited in schools was unconstitutional because of the phrase under God. The ruling was stayed pending appeal.

In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court gave a major boost to gay rights advocates by striking down a Texas law forbidding sexual activity between same-sex partners.

In 2005, six months after the Indian Ocean tsunami, the death toll stood at 178,000 in 11 countries with another 50,000 people missing and presumed dead.

In 2006, Israel put on a military show of strength in the Gaza Strip following a bloody Palestinian militant raid on a military post and kidnapping of a soldier.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include King Charles XII, Charles the Great, of Sweden in 1682; Irish patriot Charles Stewart Parnell in 1846; poet Paul Laurence Dunbar 1872; blind and deaf author Helen Keller in 1880; Captain Kangaroo Bob Keeshan in 1927; H. Ross Perot in 1930 (age 77); fashion designer Norma Kamali in 1945 (age 62); and actors Julia Duffy in 1951 (age 56), Isabelle Adjani in 1955 (age 52), Jason Patric in 1966 (age 41), Christian Kane (Angel) in 1974 (age 33) and Tobey Maguire in 1975 (age 32).

In 1801, British forces captured Cairo and the French began withdrawing from Egypt in one of the Napoleonic Wars.

In 1829, English scientist James Smithson leaves will that eventually funds the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, in a country he never visited.

In 1844, Mormon founder Joseph Smith was slain by a mob at a jail in Carthage, Ill.

In 1847, the first telegraph wire links were established between New York City and Boston.

In 1859, Louisville, Ky., schoolteacher Mildred Hill wrote a tune for her students and called it Good Morning To You. Her sister, Patty, wrote the lyrics and later added a verse that began Happy Birthday To You.

In 1893, the Panic of 1893 began as the value of the U.S. silver dollar fell to less than 60 cents in gold.

In 1950, U.S. President Harry Truman ordered U.S. naval and air forces to help repel the North Korean invasion of South Korea.

In 1979, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled private employers could give special preferences to blacks to eliminate manifest racial imbalance in traditionally white-only jobs.

In 1991, Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall announced he was retiring from the U.S. Supreme Court. He was the first African-America to sit on the high court.

Also in 1991, South Africa announced it would sign the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and agree not to develop nuclear weapons.

In 1992, U.S. President H.W. Bush's only daughter married the former top aide to the House Democratic leader in a private ceremony at Camp David, Md.

In 1993, U.N.-sponsored talks between exiled Haitian President Aristide and the military leaders who ousted him opened in New York.

In 1995, the space shuttle Atlantis blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on a historic mission to dock with the Russian space station Mir. The flight was also the 100th U.S.-piloted space mission.

In 2001, screen legend Jack Lemmon died at the age of 76.

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court, acting in a Cleveland case, upheld that city's school vouchers program, in which public money goes to help parents pay tuition to non-public schools.

In 2003, the Federal Trade Commission opened a long-awaited nationwide registry for those who want to block unwanted telemarketing calls.

In 2004, two car bombs exploded near a mosque in the southern Iraqi city of Hilla, killing at least 23 Iraqi civilians and wounding 58 others.

In 2005, Wal-Mart heir John Walton, 58, one of America's richest men, was killed in a plane crash near the Jackson, Wyo., airport.

Also in 2005, U.S. crude oil prices closed at a record high of $60 a barrel.

And, Dennis Rader, the so-called BTK killer (bind, torture, kill) pleaded guilty to 10 slayings s in the Wichita, Kan., area.

In 2006, a constitutional amendment that would have allowed laws banning flag burning fell one vote short of passage in the U.S. Senate. Two-thirds of the Senate, 67 votes, was required before the measure could be sent on to the states.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Mercury, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include English King Henry VIII in 1491; Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens in 1577; English clergyman John Wesley, founder of Methodism, in 1703; French philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau in 1712; Italian author Luigi Pirandello in 1867; composer Richard Rodgers and bank robber John Dillinger, both in 1902; spy novelist Eric Ambler in 1909; Lester Flatt, bluegrass mandolin/guitar, part of Flatt and Scruggs team, in 1914; filmmaker and comedian Mel Brooks in 1926 (age 81); actor Pat Morita in 1932; comedian Gilda Radner in 1946; actresses Kathy Bates in 1948 (age 59) and Alice Krige in 1954 (age 53); former football star John Elway in 1960 (age 47); actors John Cusack and Mary Stuart Masterson, both in 1966 (age 41); and actress/singer Danielle Brisebois in 1969 (age 38).

In 1778, the Continental Army under command of Gen. George Washington defeated the British at Monmouth, N.J.

In 1914, Archduke Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire was assassinated in Sarajevo, Bosnia, an act credited with igniting World War I.

In 1919, World War I officially ended with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles.

In 1969, the clientele of a New York City gay bar, the Stonewall Inn, rioted after the club was raided by police. The event is considered the start of the gay liberation movement.

In 1971, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the use of public funds for parochial schools was unconstitutional.

In 1972, U.S. President Richard Nixon announced that no more draftees would be sent to Vietnam unless they volunteered for service in the Asian nation.

In 1984, Israel and Syria exchanged prisoners for the first time in 10 years; 291 Syrian soldiers were traded for three Israelis.

In 1991, the Yugoslav army was deployed to Slovenia to take control of airports and border posts and to prevent the republic's declared independence.

In 1993, in its last report before disbanding, the White House National Committee on AIDS blasted the Bush administration's response to AIDS and challenged the Clinton administration to do more.

In 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton and his wife Hillary established a legal defense fund to cover legal expenses that would be connected with the Whitewater investigation and the sexual harassment suit brought against the president.

In 1997, Mike Tyson bit the ears of heavyweight boxing champion Evander Holyfield, tearing off a piece of one ear, during a title fight in Las Vegas.

In 2000, Elian Gonzalez and his father returned to Cuba, hours after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear an appeal from the Cuban refugee's Miami relatives who sought to keep the boy in the United States.

Also in 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the Boy Scouts of America had a constitutional right to exclude gay members.

In 2001, a U.S. Appeals Court in Washington unanimously threw out a lower court ruling that the Microsoft Corp. must be broken up.

In 2003, people eager to block telemarketing calls overwhelmed a government Web site that began accepting phone numbers at the national do-not-call registry. The Federal Trade Commission said 735,000 numbers were registered the first day.

In 2004, the U.S.-led coalition formally transferred political power in Iraq to an interim government that would run the country until elections were held.

In 2005, at least 30 people were killed in torrential rains that pounded El Salvador causing flooding and damage to homes.

In 2006, U.S. President Bush criticized newspaper reports exposing government monitoring of banking records in its search for terrorists as disgraceful and a great harm to national security.

The moon is waxing. The morning stars are Mercury, Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include William Mayo, co-founder of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., in 1861; astronomer George Ellery Hale, founder of the Yerkes and Mount Palomar observatories, in 1868; actor/singer Nelson Eddy in 1901; composer/arranger Leroy Anderson in 1908; Broadway songwriter Frank Loesser in 1910; composer/conductor Bernard Herrmann in 1911; actor Slim Pickens in 1919; black power advocate Stokely Carmichael in 1941; actor Gary Busey in 1944 (age 63); actor-turned-congressman Fred Grandy in 1948 (age 59); and actress Sharon Lawrence in 1962 (age 45).

In 1853, the U.S. Senate ratified the $10 million Gadsden Purchase from Mexico, adding more than 29,000 square miles to the territories of Arizona and New Mexico and completing the modern geographical boundaries of the contiguous 48 states.

In 1933, Fatty Arbuckle, the silent film comedian and one of Hollywood's most beloved personalities until a manslaughter charge ruined his career, died while preparing a comeback. He was 46.

In 1941, Isabella Peron took office as president of Argentina.

In 1946, two years before Israel became a nation, British authorities arrested more than 2,700 Jewish Zionists in an effort to stop terrorism in Palestine.

In 1970, the last U.S. troops were withdrawn from Cambodia into South Vietnam.

In 1972, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that capital punishment, as then administered by individual states, was unconstitutional.

In 1991, the European Community announced $1.4 billion in aid for the Soviet Union.

In 1992, the U.S. Supreme Court left intact the important aspects of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision legalizing abortion but upheld most of Pennsylvania's new restrictions on a woman's right to abortion.

Also in 1992, doctors in Pittsburgh reported the world's first transplant of a baboon liver into a human patient. The recipient, a 35-year-old man, survived three months.

And in 1992, the president of Algeria, Mohammed Boudiaf, was assassinated during a speech.

In 1994, the Japanese Diet elected Tomiichi Murayama as prime minister.

Also in 1994, in a taped interview aired on British TV, Prince Charles admitted he'd been unfaithful to his estranged wife, Princess Diana.

In 1995, editors of The New York Times and The Washington Post said they were considering publishing the UNAbomber's manifesto in hopes of ending the bombings.

Also in 1995, the U.S. shuttle Atlantis docked with the Russian space station Mir.

In 1999, a Turkish court convicted Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan of treason and sentenced him to death.

In 2003, Hollywood legend Katherine Hepburn died at the age of 96 after a six-decade career in which she won a record four Oscars for best actress.

In 2004, the U.N. war crime tribunal for the former Yugoslavia reported trouble getting authorities to arrest 20 indicted people, including former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic.

In 2005, the Bush administration has given the new director of national intelligence additional powers, including authority over operations by the FBI and other agencies.

Also in 2005, authorities said the bodies of 13 U.S. troops were recovered from a crashed Chinook helicopter in eastern Afghanistan. Seven others were reported missing.

In 2006, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled U.S. President George Bush didn't have authority to set up military tribunals for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In a 5-3 ruling, the justices also said the tribunals are illegal under both military justice law and the Geneva Convention.

The moon is full. The morning stars are Mercury, Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include English socialist leader Harold Laski in 1893; actress Susan Hayward in 1917, drummer Buddy Rich in 1917, singer Lena Horne in 1917 (age 90); actress Nancy Dussault in 1936 (age 70); singer Florence Ballard of The Supremes in 1943; actors William Atherton in 1947 (age 60) and David Alan Grier in 1955 (age 52); and former heavyweight champion boxer Mike Tyson in 1966 (age 41).

In 1859, Frenchman Jean Francois Gravelet, known professionally as the Great Blondin, became the first daredevil to walk across Niagara Falls on a tight rope.

In 1870, Ada Kepley became the first woman to graduate from an accredited law school in the United States: Union College of Law in Chicago.

In 1908, a spectacular explosion occurred over central Siberia, probably caused by a meteorite. The fireball reportedly could be seen hundreds of miles away.

In 1923, jazz pioneer Sidney Bechet made his first recording. It included Wild Cat Blues: and Kansas City Blues.

In 1934, German leader Adolf Hitler ordered a bloody purge of his own political party, assassinating hundreds of Nazis whom he feared might become political enemies some day.

In 1936, Margaret Mitchell's Civil War novel Gone With the Wind was published.

In 1950, U.S. troops were moved from Japan to help defend South Korea against the invading North Koreans.

In 1982, the extended deadline for ratification of the Equal Rights Amendment expired, three states short of the 38 needed for passage.

In 1971, three Soviet Cosmonauts, crewmembers of the world's first space station, were killed when their spacecraft depressurized during re-entry.

In 1986, Hugh Hefner, calling his Playboy Bunny a symbol of the past, closed Playboy Clubs in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles.

In 1992, Fidel Ramos was inaugurated as the eighth Philippine president in the first peaceful transfer of power in a generation.

In 1994, the U.S. Figure Skating Association stripped Tonya Harding of her 1994 national championship title.

In 1997, Mike Tyson apologized publicly for biting Evander Holyfield's ears during a heavyweight championship boxing match in Las Vegas two days earlier, saying he'd become angered after Holyfield butted him.

In 1998, a casualty of the Vietnam War buried at the Tomb of the Unknown in Arlington, Va., was identified as Air Force Lt. Michael Blassie of St. Louis.

In 1999, for the first time since Nov. 1998, the Federal Reserve Board announced an increase in the prime rate -- the rate banks charge each other on overnight loans -- from 4.75 to 5 percent.

Also in 1999, Clinton crony Webster Hubbell, a former associate U.S. attorney general, pleaded guilty to reduced charges in the Whitewater land deal scandal.

In 2000, the Clinton administration said Iraq had restarted its missile program and had flight-tested a short-range ballistic missile.

Also in 2000, the Presbyterian Church ordered its ministers not to conduct same-sex unions.

In 2002, according to published reports, fugitive terrorist leader Osama bin Laden had written a letter to his operations chief in late December, meaning he survived the U.S. assault on his cave complex in Afghanistan if the reports were authentic.

Also in 2002, Israel announced it had killed a top Hamas bomb-maker, responsible for the deaths of more than 100 Israelis in suicide attacks and had begun work on an electronic fence designed to block off three sides of Jerusalem from the West Bank.

In 2003, after agreeing on a cease-fire with the Palestinians, Israel pulled out of most of the Gaza Strip, ending for the time being a blockade on the main highway that began in 2000.

Also in 2003, with the beginning of the new fiscal year, 12 states reported they faced increased taxes and drastic cuts in civic programs. The nationwide economic slowdown got much of the blame.

In 2004, the Federal Reserve, for the first time in four years, raised its benchmark interest rate from a record low 1 percent to 1.25 percent for overnight loans.

Also in 2004, the Cassini spacecraft, after nearly years in space on a U.S.-European mission, became the first to orbit the planet Saturn.

In 2005, the Federal Reserve raised key interest rates a ninth straight time, noting rising energy prices.

Also in 2005, Israel declared the Gaza Strip a closed military zone. All Israelis, except for residents, service providers and reporters, were barred from entering.

And, Spain became the third country to legalize same-sex marriage.

In 2006, a joint U.S.-Canadian investigation grounded a group accused of using helicopters and planes to ferry drugs from British Columbia across the border. Agents reported arresting 46 people and seizing four tons of marijuana, 800 pounds of cocaine, aircraft and $1.5 million in cash.

The moon is waning. The morning stars are Mercury, Mars, Neptune and Uranus. The evening stars are Jupiter, Venus and Saturn.

Those born on this date are under the sign of Cancer. They include German philosopher Gottfried Leibniz in 1646; French novelist George Sand, a pseudonym for Amandine Dupin, in 1804; pioneer aviator Louis Bleriot in 1872; actor Frank Morgan in 1890; actor Charles Laughton in 1899; blues, gospel musician, composer Thomas Dorsey also in 1899; film director William Wyler in 1902; cosmetics executive Estee Lauder in 1908; blues musician Willie Dixon in 1915; actresses Olivia de Havilland in 1916 (age 91) and Leslie Caron in 1931 (age 76); filmmaker Sydney Pollack and actress/writer Jean Marsh and actor Jamie Farr, all in 1934 (age 73); choreographer Twyla Tharp in 1941 (age 66); actresses Karen Black in 1939 (age 68) and Genevieve Bujold in 1942 (age 65); singer Deborah Harry in 1945 (age 62); actor/comedian Dan Aykroyd in 1952 (age 55); Britain's Princess Diana in 1961; and actors Andre Braugher in 1962 (age 45), Pamela Anderson in 1967 (age 40) and Liv Tyler in 1977 (age 30).

In 1847, the first U.S. postage stamps were issued.

In 1859, the first intercollegiate baseball game was played in Pittsfield, Mass. Amherst beat Williams, 66-32.

In 1867, Canada was granted its independence by Great Britain. It consisted at the time of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and future provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

In 1874, the Philadelphia Zoological Society, the first U.S. zoo, opened to the public.

In 1893, U.S. President Grover Cleveland underwent secret surgery to remove a cancerous growth in his mouth. The operation did not become public knowledge until a newspaper article about it was published on Sept. 22, 1917 -- nine years after Cleveland's death.

In 1898, Teddy Roosevelt and his Rough Riders led the charge up Cuba's heavily fortified San Juan Hill in a key Spanish-American War battle.

In 1916, in the worst single day of casualties in British military history, 20,000 soldiers were killed, 40,000 wounded in a massive offense against German forces in France's Somme River region during World War I.

In 1932, the Democrats nominated Franklin Delano Roosevelt for president. FDR eventually was elected to four consecutive terms.

In 1941, NBC broadcast the first FCC-sanctioned TV commercial, a spot for Bulova watches shown during a Dodgers-Phillies game. It cost Bulova $9.

In 1946, the United States conducted its first post-war test of the atomic bomb, at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific.

In 1979, Sony introduced the Walkman, known as the Soundabout, in U.S. stores. It sold for about $200.

In 1990, the West and East German economies were united as the deutsche mark replaced the mark as currency in East Germany.

In 1991, the Warsaw Pact ceased to exist.

In 1992, a gunman opened fire in a Fort Worth, Texas, courtroom, killing two lawyers and wounding three other people. He later surrendered at a TV station.

In 1993, the U.S. Congress completed action on an economic stimulus bill that fell far short of what U.S. President Bill Clinton wanted.

Also in 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton unveiled a plan for logging in federal old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest that would also protect the northern spotted owl.

In 1994, the U.N. Security Council authorized a commission to investigate acts of genocide in Rwanda.

In 1996, a dozen members of a paramilitary organization were arrested in Arizona and charged with plotting to bomb government buildings.

In 1997, Hong Kong was returned to China after 99 years as a British territory.

In 2002, cannon fire and bombs from a U.S. Air Force AC-130 struck a town in southern Afghanistan, killing about 50 people, including members of a wedding party. U.S. officials said the plane had been fired on.

Also in 2002, in a rare high-altitude accident, a passenger airliner collided with a cargo plane over Germany, killing all 71 aboard.

In 2003, U.S. President George Bush blamed rogue elements for the daily attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and claimed coalition forces were making steady progress in Afghanistan and Iraq.

In 2004, former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, looking tired and shaky, appeared before a special tribunal in Baghdad for the first time to face charges of crimes against humanity and genocide.

Also in 2004, dynamic Hollywood legend Marlon Brando died of lung failure. He was 80.

In 2005, Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court, announced she planned to retire.

In 2006, a car bomb killed 62 people and injured another 114 at a popular market in a predominantly Shiite neighborhood in northwest Baghdad.

Also in 2006, Israel launched an airstrike that hit the Gaza office of Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh and set the building on fire. Haniyeh was not in the building but three security guards were reportedly hurt.