Today in HistoryToday is Saturday, December 16, the 350th day of 2006. There are 15 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1653, Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.

In 1770, composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany.

In 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea taxes.

In 2000, US president-elect Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first black secretary of state.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no slave who has not had a king among his.” — Helen Keller, American author and lecturer (1880-1968).