Good morning, it’s Wednesday, December 12, the 346th day of 2007. There are 19 days left in the year. There’s a 50-50 chance of more rain today and highs aren’t expected to climb out of the 40s.

It’s the anniversary of the birth of the motel. They dot the landscape from coast to coast and border to border now, but 82 years ago today, there was just one—the Motel Inn, which opened on Dec. 12, 1925 in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

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This month’s photo:

German immigrants built the Church of the Visitation in Westphalia more than a century ago. It’s one of the largest wooden church buildings in Texas. The photo was taken by Thomas Rinard of Waco and was selected for the 2007 KWTX Hometown Calendar. Click here for information about the 2008 KWTX Hometown Calendar.

What’s Going On Today
Click Here To Check The Community Calendar For Today’s Events In Central Texas

Today's Highlight in Local History:
30 CHILDREN INJURED, NONE SERIOUSLY, IN COLLISION OF TWO SCHOOL BUSES IN
GATESVILLE, 1994.
Today's Highlight in History:
On December 12, 1917, Father Edward Flanagan founded Boys Town outside Omaha, Nebraska.

On This Date:
In 1787, Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S. Constitution.
In 1870, Joseph H. Rainey of South Carolina became the first black lawmaker sworn into the U.S. House of Representatives.
In 1897, "The Katzenjammer Kids," the pioneering comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks, made its debut in the New York Journal.
In 1906, President Theodore Roosevelt nominated Oscar Straus to be Secretary of Commerce and Labor; Straus became the first Jewish Cabinet member.
In 1913, authorities in Florence, Italy, announced that the "Mona Lisa," stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911, had been recovered.
In 1925, the first motel -- the Motel Inn -- opened in San Luis Obispo, California.
In 1937, Japanese aircraft sank the U.S. gunboat Panay on China's Yangtze River. (Japan apologized, and paid 2.2 million dollars in reparations.)
In 1963, Kenya gained its independence from Britain.
In 1985, 248 American soldiers and eight crewmembers were killed when an Arrow Air charter crashed after takeoff from Gander, Newfoundland.
In 2000, a divided U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court decision for recounts in Florida's contested election, transforming George W. Bush into the president-elect.

Ten years ago:
Ilich Ramirez Sanchez, the international terrorist known as "Carlos the Jackal," went on trial in Paris on charges of killing two French investigators and a Lebanese national. (Ramirez was convicted, and is serving a life prison sentence.)

Five years ago:
President Bush publicly rebuked Senate Republican leader Trent Lott for his statement that appeared to embrace half-century-old segregationist politics, calling it "offensive" and "wrong." A defiant North Korea said it would immediately reactivate a nuclear power plant that U.S. officials suspected was being used to develop weapons. Actor Nick Nolte pleaded no contest in Malibu, California, to one count of driving under the influence of drugs; he was sentenced to three years' probation.

One year ago:
A suicide bomber struck a crowd of mostly poor Shiites in Baghdad, killing some five dozen people and wounding more than 200. A two-day conference questioning the existence of the Nazi Holocaust ended in Tehran. Actor Peter Boyle died in New York at age 71.

Today's Birthdays:
TV host Bob Barker is 84. Former New York City Mayor Edward Koch (kahch) is 83. Singer Connie Francis is 69. Singer Dionne Warwick is 67. Rock singer-musician Dickey Betts is
64. Actor Wings Hauser is 60. Actor Bill Nighy (ny) is 58. Country singer LaCosta is 57. Gymnast-turned-actress Cathy Rigby is 55. Actress Sheree J. Wilson is 49. Singer-musician Sheila E. is 48. Pop singer Daniel O'Donnell is 46. Rock musician Eric Schenkman (Spin Doctors) is 44. Rock musician Nicholas Dimichino (Nine Days) is 40. Actress Jennifer Connelly is 37. Actress Madchen Amick is 37. Country singer Hank Williams III is 35. Actress Mayim Bialik is 32. Model Bridget Hall is 30.

Thought for Today:
"There are two cardinal sins from which all the others spring: impatience and laziness." -- Franz Kafka, Czech author (1883-1924).

(Source: Associated Press)

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