Daily Chat 01/12/09

John, 8th Duke of Braganza, was declared King of Portugal in 1640, putting an end to the Iberian Union.  Rosa Parks, a 42 year-old seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Alabama, bus.  She was charged with violating Montgomery's segregation laws.  Channel Tunnel workers from the UK and France met 40m beneath the seabed in 1990.

Born today:  Marie Tussaud (1761-1850), Lou Rawls (1933-2006), Gilbert O'Sullivan (1946) and Julee Cruise (1956).

It is Military Abolition Day in Costa Rica.