Today in History....November 13

On this day in …

1775, during the American Revolution, U.S. forces captured Montreal

1789, Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, "In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes."

1927, the Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between New York City and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River

1942, the minimum draft age in the United States was lowered from 21 to 18

1956, the Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public city and state buses

1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial was dedicated in Washington

1985, 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a gigantic mudslide buried the city

2001,


Afghan opposition fighters rolled into Kabul after Taliban troops slipped away under cover of darkness

Eight foreign aid workers -- two Americans, two Australians and four Germans -- held captive in Afghanistan by practitioners of that "religion of peace" for three months were freed by anti-Taliban fighters

President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin met at the White House


2005,

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in Jerusalem, strongly rebuked Iran's leadership, saying "no civilized nation" can call for the annihilation of another --- a reference to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's remark that Israel should be "wiped off the map."

An Iraqi woman arrested by Jordanian authorities confessed on television to trying to blow herself up with her husband, both practitioners of that "religion of peace", in one of the three Nov. 9 suicide attacks in Amman