TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

Nov. 13, 1942

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18. ALSO ON THIS DATE

1775

During the American Revolution, the Continental Army captured Montreal.

1789

Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to a friend, JeanBaptiste Leroy: “In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

1909

259 men and boys were killed when fire erupted inside a coal mine in Cherry, Illinois.

1956

The Supreme Court struck down laws calling for racial segregation on public buses.

1969

Speaking in Des Moines, Iowa, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew accused network television news departments of bias and distortion, and urged viewers to lodge complaints.

1985

Some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a volcanic mudslide buried the city.

2000

Lawyers for George W. Bush failed to win a court order barring manual recounts of ballots in Florida. Florida Secretary of State Katherine Harris announced she would end the recounting at 5 p.m. Eastern time the next day -- prompting an immediate appeal by lawyers for Al Gore.