Thursday, December 07, 2000

The action taken today is done so with considerable reluctance on my part, due to the potential far-reaching effects of any actions. Florida Senate President John McKay, who signed a proclamation calling for the Florida Legislature on Friday to consider appointing the state's 25 presidential electors.

• U.S. Vice President Al Gore's appeal of a circuit court ruling regarding a manual recount of some presidential ballots goes before the Florida Supreme Court.
• A suit over absentee ballots in Florida's Seminole County resumes; Democrats allege Republican officials illegally corrected errors on thousands of absentee ballot applications.
• The Liberace Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada, will have a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

• On Friday, December 8, Roman Catholics observe the Feast of the Immaculate Conception.
• On Saturday, December 9, Tanzania celebrates Independence Day, commemorating its independence from Britain in 1961.
• On Sunday, December 10, the Nobel Peace Prize is to be awarded in Oslo, Norway.
• On Monday, December 11, Burkina Faso celebrates National Day.
• On Tuesday, December 12, the deadline arrives for U.S. states to pick electors for the December 18 Electoral College vote.

• In 1787, Delaware voted to adopt the newly created federal constitution, thus becoming the first state of the United States.
• In 1941, Japanese planes attacked the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, destroying many aircraft and ships and precipitating the U.S. declaration of war on Japan.
• In 1974, President Makarios returned to Cyprus after four-and-a-half months in exile.
• In 1975, the Indonesian army swept into East Timor -- Jakarta already owned the western half of the island -- as civil war broke out after the Portuguese colonial rulers of three centuries left.
• In 1979, Charles Haughey was elected Irish Prime Minister, replacing Jack Lynch.
• In 1989, Czechoslovak President Gustav Husak accepted the resignation of Communist Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec.
• In 1993, a lone gunman aboard a packed rush-hour commuter train opened fire on passengers just outside New York, killing six and wounding 19.
• In 1995, a probe from the spacecraft Galileo successfully entered the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter.