The history of the board game Monopoly can be traced back to the early 1900s. Elizabeth Magie invented in 1903 a version of The Landlord's Game which was a real estate trading game in which players got rich by monopolizing sets of properties. This game, usually called "monopoly", was played extensively from 1904 through 1931 when it showed up in Atlantic City, New Jersey. There a group of Quaker teachers changed it to a version which was copied by Charles Darrow. The copy was then commercialized by Parker Brothers which claimed that Darrow had invented the game and turned Darrow into a rags to riches embodiment of the American dream. In the 1970s, Professor Ralph Anspach, while defending himself against a trademark infringement suit filed by Parker Brothers and its then parent company, General Mills, against his Anti-Monopoly game, uncovered the true history of the game. Because of the lengthy court process, and appeals, the legal status of Parker Brothers' trademarks on the game was not settled until 1985. The game's name remains a registered trademark of Parker Brothers, as does its specific design elements. International tournaments, first held in the early 1970s, continue to the present day, with the next world championship scheduled for 2008. (more...)

December 13: Republic Day in Malta (1974), St. Lucia Day.

• 1545 - Counter-Reformation: The Council of Trent, an ecumenical council convoked by Pope Paul III (pictured) in response to the growth of Protestantism, opened in Trento, Italy.
• 1862 - American Civil War: Union forces under Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside were decisively defeated in the Battle of Fredericksburg.
• 1981 - Prime Minister Wojciech Jaruzelski declared martial law in Poland, suspended Solidarity and imprisoned many union leaders.
• 2003 - Former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was found hiding in a spider hole during Operation Red Dawn and captured.

• Recent days: December 12 – December 11 – December 10

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• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad (pictured) opens a conference aiming to "review the Holocaust".
• In his final speech in office, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan encourages the United States to provide global leadership whilst respecting multilateralism.
• Incumbent Igor Smirnov wins presidential elections in the internationally unrecognized state of Transnistria.
• Christer Fuglesang, the first Scandinavian in space, and six other astronauts on mission STS-116 arrive at the International Space Station.
• Former Chilean head of state Augusto Pinochet (age 91) dies one week after suffering a heart attack.
• Marc Ravalomanana is re-elected as President of Madagascar.
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• ...that, according to Patriarch Photius of Constantinople, the land of the Rus was Christianized (Pictured Sergei Ivanov's painting) by 867?
• ...that Prince Kitashirakawa Nagahisa was the second member of the Japanese Imperial Family to die during World War II?
• ...that Pike Island was part of the 100,000 acres purchased from the Dakota Indians in 1805 by Zebulon Pike?
• ...that the first comprehensive campaign of unionized labor was the subject of a 1979 Academy Award-winning film?
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• ...that Pulau Senang was a penal settlement in Singapore but shut down after only three years when a riot broke out in 1963?
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