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• Today is Friday, Dec. 20, the 354th day of 2013. There are 11 days left in the year.
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• Today's Highlight in History:
• On Dec. 20, 1803, the Louisiana Purchase was completed as ownership of the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States.
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• On this date:
• In 1790, the first successful cotton mill in the United States began operating at Pawtucket, R.I.
• In 1812, German authors Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published the first volume of the first edition of their collection of folk stories, "Children's and Household Tales."
• In 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede from the Union as all 169 delegates to a special convention in Charleston voted in favor of separation.
• In 1864, Confederate forces evacuated Savannah, Ga., as Union Gen. William T. Sherman continued his "March to the Sea."
• In 1912, the play "Peg O' My Heart," a "comedy of youth" by John Hartley Manners starring his wife, actress Laurette Taylor, opened on Broadway.
• In 1945, the Office of Price Administration announced the end of tire rationing, effective Jan. 1, 1946.
• In 1963, the Berlin Wall was opened for the first time to West Berliners, who were allowed one-day visits to relatives in the Eastern sector for the holidays.
• In 1973, singer-songwriter Bobby Darin died in Los Angeles following open-heart surgery; he was 37.
• In 1987, more than 4,300 people were killed when the Dona Paz, a Philippine passenger ship, collided with the tanker Vector off Mindoro island.
• In 1989, the United States launched Operation Just Cause, sending troops into Panama to topple the government of Gen. Manuel Noriega.
• In 1998, Nkem Chukwu gave birth in Houston to five girls and two boys, 12 days after giving birth to another child, a girl. (However, the tiniest of the octuplets died a week later.)
• In 1999, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that homosexual couples were enti

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