A Blast From The Past

Today is Jan. 8.

The trial of the Watergate Seven began on this date in 1973. These were the burglars caught red-handed inside Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate office complex in Washington, D.C. They turned out to be part of an undercover "dirty tricks" group directed by associates of President Nixon.

A big battle was fought in the South on this day in history, but not during the Civil War. It was on this date in 1815 that Americans under Gen. Andrew Jackson decisively defeated the British in the Battle of New Orleans. It was the last battle of the War of 1812, and made Jackson such a hero that he was later elected president.

On this day in 1867, Congress approved legislation that, for the first time, allowed blacks to vote in the District of Columbia. To this day, the District of Columbia does not have FULL self-government -- even though its population is greater than that of several states in the northern Rockies and Plains.

America's first female Republican governor was inaugurated on this day in 1987. Kay Orr was sworn in, in Lincoln, Neb.

Chinese Premier Chou En-lai died in Beijing on this date in 1976. At the time, Chou known as a man who spent most of his career in the shadow of Mao Tse-tung. His actual role in modern Chinese history, which was bigger than that, was dramatized in the John Adams opera "Nixon in China," in which Chou En-lai gets top billing over both Mao and Richard Nixon.

And Pan Am filed for bankruptcy on this date in 1991. It set a trend. Continental went into Chapter 11 the same year. The next year, America West Airlines did the same. And TWA went bankrupt the year after that.

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