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Dennis Blair to be the national intelligence director and Leon Panetta to head the CIA. A Saudi supertanker, the Sirius Star, and its crew of 25 were released at the end of a two-month standoff in the Gulf of Aden after pirates were reportedly paid $3 million in ransom. (Five pirates were said to have drowned with their share of the money when their boat overturned.)
• One year ago: Vice President Joe Biden heard personal stories of gun violence from representatives of victims groups and gun-safety organizations at the White House as he undertook to draft the Obama administration's response to the shooting at a Connecticut elementary school. The Seastreak Wall Street, a commuter ferry, made a hard landing into a Manhattan pier, injuring 85 people. No one was elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame; for the second time in four decades, baseball writers failed to give any player the 75 percent required for induction to Cooperstown.
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• Today's Birthdays: Author Judith Krantz is 86. Football Hall-of-Famer Bart Starr is 80. Sportscaster Dick Enberg is 79. Actress K. Callan is 78. Folk singer Joan Baez is 73. Rockabilly singer Roy Head is 73. Rock musician Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin) is 70. Singer David Johansen (aka Buster Poindexter) is 64. Singer Crystal Gayle is 63. Actor J.K. Simmons is 59. Actress Imelda Staunton is 58. Nobel Peace laureate Rigoberto Menchu is 55. Rock musician Eric Erlandson is 51. Actress Joely Richardson is 49. Rock musician Carl Bell (Fuel) is 47. Rock singer Steve Harwell (Smash Mouth) is 47. Rock singer-musician Dave Matthews is 47. Actress-director Joey Lauren Adams is 46. Roots singer-songwriter Hayes Carll is 38. Singer A.J. McLean (Backstreet Boys) is 36. Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge, is 32. Pop-rock musician Drew Brown (OneRepublic) is 30. Rock-soul singer Paolo Nutini is 27. Actress Nina Dobrev is 25. Actor Tyree Brown is 10.
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• Thought for Today: "Living is a form of not being sure, not knowing what next or how. The moment you know how, you begin to die a little. The artist never entirely knows. We guess. We may be wrong, but we take leap after leap in the dark." - Agnes de Mille, American dancer-choreographer (1905-1993).
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