Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe Today is Dec. 28. The first U.S. vice president to resign did so on this date in 1832. John Calhoun had served as vice president to two American presidents, John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. However, he found himself increasingly in disagreement with Jackson and decided to step down instead. Calhoun would spend much of the rest of his political life as a U.S. senator for South Carolina. Advertisement It was on this date in 1950 that advancing Chinese troops crossed the 38th Parallel -- dividing line between North and South Korea -- to help the communist North Koreans fight American-led United Nations forces. The ancient town of Messina, Sicily, was partially destroyed on this date in 1908 by an earthquake. Nearly 80,000 people were killed in the disaster. This was a bad time to be a chicken in Hong Kong. It was on this date in 1997 that officials in Hong Kong announced that all chickens in the territory would be killed in an attempt to eradicate carriers of the avian flu, which had killed several people. And it was on this date in 1732 that the Pennsylvania Gazette carried the first known advertisement for the first issue of "Poor Richard's Almanack," by Richard Saunders (Benjamin Franklin). America's most famous almanac was published through the year 1758 and has been imitated many times since. Advertisement We now return you to the present, already in progress.
