@rh18bold:Today in History

Today is Friday, January 23, the 23rd day of 2009. There are 342 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1937, the trial of seventeen leading Communists began in Moscow after they were accused of involvement in a plot led by Leon Trotsky to overthrow the regime and assassinate its leaders.

In 1960, the US navy bathyscaphe Trieste dived to a record depth of 35,810 feet in the Pacific Ocean.

In 1964, the 24th amendment to the Constitution, eliminating the poll tax in federal elections, was ratified.

In 1968, North Korea seized the Navy intelligence ship USS Pueblo, charging its crew with being on a spying mission. The crew was released 11 months later.

In 1973, US President Richard M. Nixon announced an accord had been reached to end the Vietnam War.

In 2002, the Papua New Guinea parliament unanimously approved autonomy for Bougainville island in the first parliamentary reading of a peace deal that ends the South Pacific's longest running conflict.

Thought for Today

"A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones." — Proverbs 17:22.