1890 In South Dakota,the Wounded Knee massacre takes place as some three hundreds Sioux Inidans are killed by U.S. troops sent to disarm them. 1845 There is a yellow rose in Texas,that I'm going to see. No other fellow knows her.Texas ,a former Mexican territory turning an independent republic,joins the United States as the 28th state.The dispute between the U.S. and Mexico over Texas,leads to war the following year.

1989 In what's then know as Czechoslovakia,a sign that the Iron Curtain of the cold war is crumbling in Eastern Europe.Dissident playwright Vaclav Havel is elected as his country's president,the first non-communist to attain that post in more than four decades.

And 1851.The first American Young Men's Christian Association,the YMCA,is organized in Boston.

Today in History.December 29th.Ed Donahue.The Associated Press.