London scientists reported on this date in 2001 that they concluded from studying seized documents that accused terrorist leader Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida organization had tried to develop a range of weapons that included a ''dirty'' nuclear bomb.

Texas became a state on this date in 1845. Six months after the Republic of Texas congress accepted United States annexation of the territory it was admitted into the U.S. as the 28th state.

The Wounded Knee Massacre took place on this date in 1890. More than 200 Indian men, women and children were massacred by the U.S. 7th Cavalry at Wounded Knee Creek, S.D. Government efforts to suppress a religious practice known as the Ghost Dance (which would make white men disappear and bring back the Indian way of life) had led to the death of Chief Sitting Bull two weeks earlier, further inflaming disgruntled Indians and resulting in the slaughter at Wounded Knee.

It was on this date in 1916, that Russian monk and mystic Rasputin -- an influential favorite of the Romanov court -- was shot to death and his body thrown into the ice-covered Neva River after an attempt to poison him failed. Rasputin, born Grigori Effimovich Novjkh in Siberia about 1870, was notoriously corrupt. In fact, "Rasputin" is a nickname from the Russian word "rasputny," meaning debauched, profligate, licentious.

Thomas a' Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was murdered at Canterbury Cathedral in England on this date in 1170.

The first U.S. chapter of the Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) opened in Boston on this date in 1851. It was modeled after an organization begun in London in 1844.

A mass defection from Cuba took place on this date in 1992. A Cuban airliner was hijacked to Miami, and 48 of the 53 people aboard asked for and were granted political asylum.

The "home alone" case out of suburban Chicago first made headlines on this date, also in 1992. A couple returning from a nine-day Mexican vacation was arrested as they got off the plane at Chicago O'Hare International Airport for leaving their young daughters at home alone. The kids were placed in a foster home, and the couple later gave them up for adoption.

And gaslights were installed at the White House for the first time on this date in 1848.

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