Today is Wednesday, December 1, the 335th day of 2010. There are 30 days left in the year.

On this date

In 1640, western provinces in the Iberian peninsula revolts against Spanish control and becomes independent Portugal under John IV.

In 1813, allies agree to invade France after Napoleon Bonaparte’s vague replies to peace terms.

In 1824, the presidential election was turned over to the US House of Representatives when a deadlock developed between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. Adams ended up the winner.

In 1860, the Charles Dickens novel “Great Expectations” was first published in weekly serial form.

In 1909, the first kibbutz was founded in the Jordan Valley by a group of Jewish pioneers; the collective settlement became known as Degania Alef.

In 1910, Porfirio Diaz was inaugurated for an eighth term as President of Mexico. He was overthrown in the Mexican Revolution and forced to flee the following year.

In 1918, Croatia becomes part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes later Yugoslavia; Transylvania, formerly under Hungarian rule, unites with Romania; Iceland becomes a separate state under the Danish crown.

In 1925, through the Locarno Treaties Belgium, Britain, Italy, Germany and France agree to a mutual peace in Europe.

In 1934, Sergei Kirov, a trusted aide of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin but also a possible rival, is assassinated in Lenningrad, prompting Stalin to purge the Communist Party.

In 1935, Chiang Kai-Shek is elected president of Kuomintang, China’s ruling party.

In 1921, the US Navy flew the first nonrigid dirigible to use helium; the C-7 traveled from Hampton Roads, Virginia to Washington, D.C.

In 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, defies the law by refusing to give up her seat to a white man aboard a Montgomery, Alabama city bus. She is arrested, sparking a yearlong boycott of buses by blacks.

In 1959, representatives of 12 countries, sign a treaty in Washington setting aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve, free from military activity.

Thought for Today

“The only people who attain power are those who crave it.” Erich Kastner, German author and poet (1899-1974).