On this day
Revisit the music, news, notable people, and historical moments connected to this date.
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Article on changes in Christmas movie genre, once celebrated with heartwarming, feel-good movies and now dominated by such anti-holiday movies as Surviving Christmas, Bad Santa, Christmas With the Cranks, Home Alone and Elf; photos (M)
Amid harmonies and chaos, a young band starts to find its way**Article profiles Dr Dog, young indie-rock band out of Philadelphia that has tiny but enthusiastic New York City fan base; photo (M)
Oracle Corp will acquire PeopleSoft for $10.3 billion, ending bitter battle that lasted more than 18 months; merger is another step in consolidation of information technology industry as it matures; deal will make Oracle second-largest maker of software that companies use to manage their finances, human resources, sales and customer relations; Oracle founder-chief executive Lawrence J Ellison comments; graph (M)
Brooklyn prosecutors in terrorism financing case may not call their chief witness Mohammed Alanssi to testify; Alanssi set himself on fire in front of White House in November in dispute with FBI, drawing attention to his history of role as informer; is central figure in sting operation that included luring Sheik Mohammed Ali Hassan al-Moayad and his aide Mohammed Mohsen Yahya Zayed to agree to accept money for terrorist groups; agent at meeting in Frankfurt, Germany, pretended to be Black Panther who was interested in donating $2.5 million to terrorist organizations; Sheik and Zayed are on tape agreeing to take money for Hamas and Al Qaeda; if only tapes are introduced, and Alanssi does not testify, defense may not be able to attack his criminal background; prosecutors file additional charges asserting that sheik and Zayed attempted to provide material support to terrorist groups (M)
Clyde Haberman column on why New Yorkers are so incensed about removal of nest of Pale Male, red-tail hawk who lived at co-op building on Fifth Avenue in New York City; asks protestors if they have ever joined demonstrations for homeless human beings, which all 10 say they have not (M)
Music on My Birthday
The Top 50 albums for the chart week of December 8, 2004, covering December 14, 2004.
U2
Eminem
Shania Twain
Destiny's Child
Toby Keith
2004Rod Kanehl, American baseball player (born 1934)[â ]
Roderick Edwin Kanehl was an American second baseman and outfielder in Major League Baseball who played his entire career with the New York Mets (1962â1964). Beloved by Mets fans, his attitude was exemplary for a team that lost a modern-era record 120 games in its inaugural season. Kanehl hit the first grand slam in Mets history on July 6, 1962, at the Polo Grounds.
2004Fernando Poe Jr., Filipino actor, director, producer, and politician (born 1939)[â ]
Ronald Allan Kelley Poe, known professionally as Fernando Poe Jr., and often referred to by his initials FPJ, was a Filipino actor, film director, producer, screenwriter, and politician. His long and successful career as an action star earned him the nickname "Da King". He also wrote, directed, and produced several of the films he starred inâunder the pseudonyms Ronwaldo Reyes and D'Lanor.
2004The Millau Viaduct, the tallest bridge in the world, is formally inaugurated near Millau, France.[â ]
The Millau Viaduct is a multispan cable-stayed bridge completed in 2004 across the gorge valley of the Tarn near Millau in the Aveyron department in the Occitanie Region, in Southern France. The design team was led by engineer Michel Virlogeux and English architect Norman Foster. As of October 2023, it is the tallest bridge in the world, having a structural height of 343 metres (1,125 ft).
In 2004, the world population was approximately 6,503,377,772 people[â ]