December 2nd, 2008

Today in History

2005:
Microsoft releases its Xbox 360 video game console in Europe.

1990:
A coalition led by Chancellor Helmut Kohl wins the first free all-German elections since 1932.

1972:
Gough Whitlam becomes the first Australian Labor Party Prime Minister of Australia for 23 years.

1962:
Vietnam War: After a trip to Vietnam at the request of US President John F. Kennedy, US Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield becomes the first American official to not make an optimistic public comment on the war's progress.

1867:
In a New York City theater, British author Charles Dickens gives his first public reading in the United States.