Good morning, it’s Friday, December 21, the 355th day of 2007. There are 10 days left in the year (and counting today, just four more shopping days until Christmas). The forecast calls for temperatures in the low 40s as the day begins, but by this afternoon it should be sunny and in the 70s.

Seventy years ago today, in 1937, Walt Disney’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” premiered in Los Angeles. It was the first full-length animated feature with sound and the first to be filmed in Technicolor.

In 1937, the first feature-length animated cartoon in Technicolor, Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," had its world premiere in Los Angeles.

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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:
On December 21, 1989, Central Texans were enduring some record low temperatures.

Today's Highlight in History:
On December 21, 1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Massachusetts.

On This Date:
In 1804, British statesman Benjamin Disraeli was born in London.
In 1937, the first feature-length animated cartoon in Technicolor, Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," had its world premiere in Los Angeles.
In 1945, General George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident.
In 1948, the state of Eire, or Ireland (formerly the Irish Free State), passed an act declaring itself a republic.
In 1967, the comedy-drama "The Graduate," starring Dustin Hoffman and Anne Bancroft, was released.
In 1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.
In 1971, the U.N. Security Council chose Kurt Waldheim to succeed U Thant as Secretary-General.
In 1976, the Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island almost a week after running aground, spilling 7 1/2 millions of gallons of oil into the North Atlantic.
In 1987, in New York, three white teen-agers from the Howard Beach section of Queens were convicted of manslaughter in the death of a black man who was chased onto a highway, where he was struck by a car; a fourth defendant was acquitted.
In 1988, 270 people were killed when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pam Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground.

Ten years ago:
President Clinton, accompanied by his wife and daughter, left for Bosnia to spread holiday cheer -- and to carry the news that he wanted U.S. troops to remain there indefinitely as the region recovered from its devastating war.

Five years ago:
A military helicopter crash in Afghanistan killed seven German peacekeepers who were on board and two children on the ground; a U.S. soldier was killed in combat. President Bush received a smallpox vaccination, fulfilling a promise he'd made when he ordered inoculations for about a-half million U-S troops.

One year ago:
At Camp Pendleton, California, four Marines were charged with murder in the killings of 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha; four Marine officers were accused of failures in investigating and reporting the deaths. (Charges were later dropped against two of the Marines accused of murder, and two of the officers accused of dereliction of duty.) Final results showed opponents of Iran's ultra-conservative president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, winning nationwide elections for local councils.

Today's Birthdays:
Country singer Freddie Hart is 81. Actor Ed Nelson is 79. Talk show host Phil Donahue is 72. Movie director John Avildsen is 72. Actress Jane Fonda is 70. Actor Larry Bryggman is 69. Singer Carla Thomas is 65. Musician Albert Lee is 64. Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas is 63. Actor Samuel L. Jackson is 59. Movie producer Jeffrey Katzenberg is 57. Singer Betty Wright is 54. Tennis star Chris Evert is 53. Actress Jane Kaczmarek is 52. Country singer Lee Roy Parnell is 51. Entertainer Jim Rose is 51. Actor-comedian Ray Romano is 50. Country singer Christy Forester (The Forester Sisters) is 45. Rock musician Murph (Dinosaur Jr.) is 43. Actor-comedian Andy Dick is 42. Rock musician Gabrielle Glaser is 42. Actor Kiefer Sutherland is 41. Actress Karri Turner ("JAG") is 41. Actress Khrystyne Haje is 39. Country singer Brad Warren (The Warren Brothers) is 39. Actress Julie Delpy is 38. Country singer-musician Rhean (ren) Boyer (Carolina Rain) is 37. Singer-musician Brett Scallions is 36. Rock singer Lukas Rossi (Rock Star Supernova) is 31. Country singer Luke Stricklin is 25.

Thought for Today:
"It is not necessary to understand things in order to argue about them." -- Pierre Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais, French author and dramatist (1732-1799).

(Source: Associated Press)

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