The Soviet Union, which is no more, was created on this date in 1922. It happened

at the first Soviet Congress when Russia, Ukraine and two other Soviet republics signed a treaty.

A few years earlier, in 1916, Grigory Rasputin, a self-fashioned Russian holy man, was murdered by Russian nobles. They felt he had too much inlfuence over the royal family.

It was on this date in 1972 that President Nixon once again ordered a halt to the bombing of North Vietnam, and announced that peace talks with the Hanoi government would resume in Paris in January. Those negotiations would be successful -- leading to the end of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War in early 1973 and the release of American POWs held by Hanoi.

602 people were killed on this date in 1903, when flames swept the Iroquois Theater in Chicago. The fire led to safety regulations for theaters around the world.

Almost two decades after the assassination of John Lennon, an attack on another former Beatle made the news. It was on this date in 1999 that a mentally ill man broke into George Harrison's mansion and attacked him and his wife. Harrison suffered serious stab wounds but recovered.

The Union ironclad ship USS Monitor achieved fame after its battle with the Confederate vessel Merrimac. But it was on this date in 1862 that the Monitor sank off Cape Hatteras, N.C., during a storm. 16 members of the crew were lost.

The U.S.A. grew a bit on this date in 1853, when the United States bought 45,000 square miles of land along the Gila River from Mexico. The price tag: $10 million. The area is now southern Arizona and New Mexico.

Newt Gingrich was poised to become the next House Speaker. But first he was embroiled in a controversy surrounding his acceptance of a $4.5 million advance from HarperCollins Publishing Inc. for two books. It was on this date in 1995 that the Republican congressman from Georgia announced he would give up the money but still write the books.

And it was on this date in 1992 that Ling-Ling -- the giant female panda who delighted visitors to Washington's National Zoo for more than two decades -- died of heart failure.

We now return you to the present, already in progress.