Today's Highlight in History:

Two hundred years ago， on December 14th， 1799， the first president of the United States， George Washington， died at his Mount Vernon home at age 67.

On this date:

In 1819， Alabama joined the Union as the 22nd state.

In 1861， Prince Albert， husband of Queen Victoria， died in London.

In 1911， Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole， beating out an expedition led by Robert F. Scott.

In 1939， the Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations.

In 1946， the United Nations General Assembly voted to establish UN headquarters in New York.

In 1962， the US space probe "Mariner Two" approached Venus， transmitting information about the planet.

In 1980， fans around the world paid tribute to John Lennon， six days after he was shot to death in New York City.

In 1981， Israel annexed the Golan Heights， which it had seized from Syria in 1967.

In 1986， the experimental aircraft "Voyager，" piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager， took off from Edwards Air Force Base in California on the first non-stop， non-refueled flight around the world.

In 1988， President Reagan authorized the US to enter into a "substantive dialogue" with the Palestine Liberation Organization， after chairman Yasser Arafat said he was renouncing "all forms of terrorism."

Ten years ago: Nobel Peace laureate Andrei D. Sakharov died in Moscow at age 68.

Five years ago: A federal judge granted a preliminary injunction blocking almost all of Proposition 187's bans affecting illegal immigrants in California. Former Arkansas Governor Orval E. Faubus， whose refusal to let nine black students into Little Rock's Central High School in 1957 forced President Eisenhower to send in federal troops， died at age 84.

One year ago: President Clinton stood witness as hundreds of Palestinian leaders renounced a call for the destruction of Israel.

每日格言

"To the memory of the Man， first in war， first in peace， and first in the hearts of his countrymen."

-- Henry Lee， American governor (1756-1818) on the death of George Washington.