2009-06-06 02:15:06 -

Today is Saturday, June 13, the 164th day of 2009. There are 201 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date
323 B.C. - Alexander the Great dies of a fever at age 33 in Babylon. He leaves no heir, and his empire dissolves.
1653 - British fleet defeats Dutch off North Foreland.
1839 - Milos Obrenovic, king of Serbia, abdicates because of opposition to his autocratic methods, and is succeeded by his son Milan.
1886 - Bavaria's insane King Louis II drowns himself. His psychiatrist also drowns trying to save him.
1888 - Elderly Prime Minister Charles Floquet of France inflicts a severe wound on populist leader Gen. George Boulanger in a duel in Paris.
1900 - The dowager empress of China orders the army to block foreign troops trying to save Europeans under attack in the Boxer Rebellion.
1940 - With German troops not far off, Paris is declared an open city.
1944 - Germany launches first V-1 missiles against London.
1953 - A military coup led by Colombia's Gen. Gustavo Rojas Pinilla overthrows unpopular government of President Laureano Gomez. Rojas Pinilla voluntarily steps down in 1957 when Colombia returns to democratic rule.
1956 - Last British troops leave Suez Canal base, turning the waterway over to Egypt after operating it for 74 years.
1969 - Withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from South Vietnam begins with pullout of unit fighting in Mekong Delta.
1971 - New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers, a top secret study on the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that strengthens domestic opposition to the war.
1973 - United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Viet Cong sign new pact in Paris designed to reinforce Vietnam cease-fire.
1974 - Army in Republic of Yemen seizes power in bloodless coup.
1982 - Saudi Arabia's King Khaled dies and Crown Prince Fahd assumes the throne.
1988 - Turkish Premier Turgut Ozal visits Athens in an historic bid to improve ties between Greece and Turkey.
1992 - The U.N. begins to demobilize the armies of the Cambodian factions, but the Khmer Rouge refuses to comply.
1993 - Kim Campbell becomes Canada's first female prime minister.
1994 - Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela sign a free trade pact.
1997 - Timothy J. McVeigh is sentenced to death for bombing a U.S. government building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.
1999 - The day after moving into Kosovo, NATO peacekeepers kill two Serbs who attack them, and two German journalists and their Macedonian translator are killed by unknown gunmen.
2000 - Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.
2001 - One of Mexico's most-wanted alleged drug traffickers, Ramon Alcides Magana, is arrested.

2002 - The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops meets in Dallas, Texas, to discuss how churches should handle future and past cases of sexual abuse of minors by priests.
2003 - The 105-delegate European Convention completes 16 months of work by endorsing a new draft constitution for the European Union.
2004 - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic party slumps to its worst nationwide showing in post-World War II Germany.
2005 - A U.S. Congress-mandated report on the United Nations calls the world body's management «ossified» and questions whether U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan can overcome inertia, low morale and micromanagement as he pushes sweeping reform.
2006 - East African nations try to bolster a largely powerless government in Somalia, imposing sanctions against warlords and threatening measures against their rival Islamic militiamen.
2007 - Hamas launches a battle for control of the entire Gaza Strip, pounding Gaza City's three main security compounds with mortars, grenades and assault rifles and calling on beleaguered Fatah forces to surrender.
2008 - Three armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from a Sao Paulo art museum in a rapid strike in which the thieves bypassed more valuable works to grab the stolen pieces.
Today's Birthdays
Richard Barnfield, English poet (1574-1627); James Clerk Maxwell, British physicist (1831-1879); William B. Yeats, Irish poet (1865-1939); Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer (1888-1935); Ralph Edwards, host (``This Is Your Life») (1913-2005); Siegfried, magician with Siegfried & Roy (1939--); Malcolm McDowell, British actor (1943--); Tim Allen, actor/comedian (1953--); Ally Sheedy, U.S. actress (1962--); Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, U.S. actresses (1986--); David Gray, British folk/rock singer/songwriter (1968--).
Thought For Today
One is easily fooled by that which one loves _ Moliere, French actor-playwright (1622-1673).