A Blast from the Past

Today is Jan. 3.

It was on this date in 1990 that deposed Panamanian dictator Gen. Manuel Noriega surrendered to U.S. troops. The United States had invaded Panama just before Christmas 1989 after Noriega refused to turn over power to the duly elected government. The Panamanian leader eluded American soldiers and eventually found his way to the Vatican Embassy in Panama City. To drive him out, American forces surrounded the compound and blasted it with loud rock music.

After his arrest, Noriega was whisked to Miami to face narcotics trafficking charges. He's currently in a federal prison in south Florida.

The United States severed diplomatic relations with Cuba on this date in 1961 after Fidel Castro announced he was a communist. Castro became such a staunch ally of the Soviet Union that Cuba was heavily subsidized by Moscow until the last months of Mikhail Gorbachev's tenure as Soviet leader. Cuban soldiers, using Soviet hardware, were an active destabilizing force in Africa during the 1960s and '70s.

The Continental Army commanded by Gen. George Washington defeated the British at Princeton, N.J., on this date in 1777.

The first March of Dimes campaign to fight polio was organized on this date in 1938.

Alaska became the 49th state on this date in 1959. The United States had bought Alaska from Russia in 1867. Secretary of State William Seward, who negotiated the deal, was a laughing stock for pushing the purchase. "Seward's Folly," it was called -- until gold was discovered. Alaska also turned out to be rich in oil and gas.

This is the anniversary of the first female congressional page. Gene Cox, 13, served on the House floor for one day on this date in 1939. She was an aide to her father, Rep. Eugene Cox, D-Ga., and there were no objections to her service. However, more than 30 years later, there was much debate when Sen. Jacob Javits, R-N.Y., nominated a female to be a Senate page.

Jack Ruby, who shot and killed JFK presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died of cancer in a Dallas jail cell on this day in 1967. While some conspiracy theorists think both Oswald and Ruby were part of a larger plot, historians mostly think Oswald acted alone and Ruby did, too -- thinking he'd be a hero for killing the man who killed the president.

And it was on this date in 1969 that police at Newark, N.J., confiscated a shipment of the John Lennon-Yoko Ono albums "Two Virgins" because the cover photo, featuring full frontal nudity, violated pornography statues.

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