Today in HistoryToday is Friday, November 24, the 328th day of 2006. There are 37 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1784, Zachary Taylor, the 12th president of the United States, was born in Orange County, Virginia.

In 1989, the entire presidium and secretariat of the Czechoslovak Communist Party, including leader Milos Jakes, resigned following mass demonstrations in Prague. Karol Urbanek succeeded as General Secretary.

In 1991, rock singer Freddie Mercury died in London at age 45 of AIDS-related pneumonia.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Slander injures three: the slanderer, the person who hears the slander, and the person slandered.” — From the Talmud, a collection of writings that constitute the Jewish civil and religious law.