Today in History

Today is Wednesday, Nov. 13, the 317th day of 2013. There are 48 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight in History:

On Nov. 13, 1982, the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, designed by Maya Lin, was dedicated on the National Mall in Washington, D.C.

On this date:

In 1312, England's King Edward III was born at Windsor Castle.

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

In 1849, voters in California ratified the state's original constitution.

In 1909, 259 men and boys were killed when fire erupted inside a coal mine in Cherry, Ill.

In 1927, the Holland Tunnel opened to the public, providing access between lower Manhattan and New Jersey beneath the Hudson River.

In 1937, the NBC Symphony Orchestra, formed exclusively for radio broadcasting, made its debut.

In 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

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

In 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.

In 1971, the U.S. space probe Mariner 9 went into orbit around Mars.

In 1974, Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the Kerr-McGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Okla., died in a car crash while on her way to meet a reporter.

In 1985, some 23,000 residents of Armero, Colombia, died when a volcanic mudslide buried the city.

Ten years ago: Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore, who had refused to remove his granite Ten Commandments monument from the state courthouse, was thrown off the bench by a judicial ethics panel for having "placed himself above the law." Eric Gagne of the Los Angeles Dodgers won the National League Cy Young Award.

Five years ago: A wind-driven fire erupted in Southern California; the blaze destroyed more than 200 homes in Santa Barbara and neighboring Montecito. Investors did an abrupt turnaround on Wall Street, muscling the Dow Jones industrial average up more than 550 points after three straight days of selling. Colombian rocker Juanes won five awards, including record of the year and album of the year, at the Latin Grammys in Houston. Cleveland's Cliff Lee won the American League Cy Young Award.

One year ago: The Pentagon said it was looking into more than 20,000 pages of documents and emails between Marine Gen. John Allen and Florida socialite Jill Kelley. (Kelly had reportedly received threatening emails from Paula Broadwell, the biographer who had an affair with Gen. David Petraeus.) A week after winning a ninth full term in Congress, Jesse Jackson Jr. left the Mayo Clinic, where he had been treated for bipolar disorder. The Chicago-area Democrat had rarely appeared in public since taking medical leave in June. Davey Johnson of the Washington Nationals and Bob Melvin of the Oakland Athletics were named managers of the year by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Today's Birthdays: Actress Madeleine Sherwood is 91. Journalist-author Peter Arnett is 79. Producer-director Garry Marshall is 79. Actor Jimmy Hawkins is 72. Country singer-songwriter Ray Wylie Hubbard is 67. Actor Joe Mantegna is 66. Actress Sheila Frazier is 65. Actress Frances Conroy is 60. Musician Andrew Ranken (The Pogues) is 60. Actress Tracy Scoggins is 60. Actor Chris Noth is 59. Actress-comedian Whoopi Goldberg is 58. Actor Rex Linn is 57. Actress Caroline Goodall is 54. Actor Neil Flynn is 53. Former NFL quarterback Vinny Testaverde is 50. Rock musician Walter Kibby (Fishbone) is 49. Comedian Jimmy Kimmel is 46. Actor Steve Zahn is 46. Actor Gerard Butler is 44. Writer-activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali is 44. Actor Jordan Bridges is 40. Actress Aisha Hinds is 38. Rock musician Nikolai Fraiture is 35. NBA player Metta World Peace (formerly Ron Artest) is 34. Actress Monique Coleman is 33.

Thought for Today: "As you live, believe in life. Always human beings will live and profess to greater, broader and fuller life. The only possible death is to lose belief in this truth simply because the great end comes slowly, because time is long." -- W.E.B. Du Bois, American author and reformer (1868-1963).

Copyright 2013, The Associated Press. All rights reserved.