CNN Interactive - Almanac - December 14, 1998

President Clinton is scheduled to travel to Gaza City. His tentative schedule includes a meeting with Yasser Arafat and an address to the Palestinian people.
Today is the first day of Hanukkah.

On Tuesday, December 15, President Clinton is tentatively scheduled to travel to Bethlehem.
On Wednesday, December 16, the formal sentencing of teen-ager Michael Carneal, who pleaded guilty in the December 1997 shootings at Heath High School, takes place in Paducah, Kentucky. He is expected to be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison.
On Thursday, December 17, the 56th annual Golden Globes nominations are to be held in Beverly Hills, California.
On Friday, December 18, a hearing for Brandon Wilson, 20, charged with the November 14 murder of a nine-year-old boy in a public restroom, is to be held in Vista, California. The child was in the park attending a family reunion.

NEWSLINK:		NOTABLE:
Today is the first day of Hanukkah. To find out more about this holiday, click here.		Baseball player Craif Biggio is 33. Actress Jane Burkin ("Evil Under the Sun") is 52. Former baseball player Bill Buckner is 49. Actress Patty Duke ("The Miracle Worker") is 52. TV news producer Don Hewitt is 76. Actress Dee Wallace Stone ("E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial") is 50.

In 1799, George Washington died. He was the first president of the United States (1789-1797) and showed his leadership in the American Revolution.
In 1819, Alabama became the 22nd state of the Union.
In 1822, the Congress of Verona, a last meeting of the powers of the Holy Alliance and Britain, ended with Britain preventing a possible intervention in revolutionary Spain.
In 1861, Prince Albert, consort and husband of Queen Victoria of England, died of typhoid at Windsor Castle. The grief-stricken queen went into a long period of mourning.
In 1900, Max Planck first published his Quantum Theory,that radiant energy comes in small indivisible packets and was not continuous as previously thought.
In 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his three companions became the first to reach the South Pole-- 35 days ahead of Capt. Scott.
In 1918, women in Britain voted for the first time in a general election and were allowed to stand as candidates. The first to be elected was Irish nationalist Countess Markievicz of Sinn Fein, who could not take her seat because she was in prison.
In 1918, "Gianni Schicchi," a one-act opera by Giacomo Puccini, was first performed at New York's Metropolitan opera.
In 1918, Sidonio Pais, the President of Portugal, was fatally wounded as he entered Rossio station in Lisbon only weeks after a previous unsuccessful assassination attempt.
In 1920, the first fatalities on a scheduled passenger flight occurred when an aircraft crashed into a house, killing the two-person crew and two passengers at Cricklewood, London.
In 1927, Britain signed a treaty recognizing Iraqi independence and offering support for Iraqi admission to the League of Nations.
In 1935, Thomas Masaryk resigned as Czechoslovakia's first president.
In 1939, the League of Nations expelled the Soviet Union for aggression against Finland.
In 1959, Archbishop Makarios became the first president of the Republic of Cyprus.
In 1962, the Mariner II space probe began sending back to Earth man's first information from another planet, Venus.
In 1978, the U.N. General Assembly called for an oil embargo against South Africa.
In 1993, the European Union established diplomatic relations with South Africa, putting the final touch to a new policy of cooperation after years of isolation.
In 1995, leaders from former Yugoslavia signed a Bosnian peace treaty in Paris, formally ending Europe's worst conflict since World War II and opening the way for thousands of NATO troops to move into the shattered country.