Today's Highlight

1985: The US government approves a screening test for AIDS that detects antibodies to the virus, allowing possibly contaminated blood to be excluded from the blood supply.

Other Notable Events

1815: Dominion of Kandyan Provinces, within British Empire, is formed in Ceylon -- now Sri Lanka.

1836: Texas declares its independence from Mexico.

1917: Puerto Ricans are granted US citizenship.

1923: Time magazine makes its debut in the US.

1955: Egypt and Syria sign defensive alliance.

1956: France recognises independence of Morocco; Pakistan decides to stay in British Commonwealth.

1975: Terrorist bombing of bus in Nairobi, Kenya, kills 27 people and injures about 100.

1992: UN General Assembly welcomes nine new members: eight former Soviet republics and San Marino.

1993: A gangway collapses when passengers board a ferry on the Congo River, drowning at least 147 in the Republic of Congo.

1995: Former Italian Premier Giulio Andreotti is indicted for consorting with the Mafia.

1996: Voters slam the brakes on plans to sever links with the British monarchy when they hand one of Australia's biggest-ever election victories to John Howard's conservative coalition.

2000: Britain's top law enforcement official rules that former Chilean dictator Gen Augusto Pinochet should not be extradited to Spain to stand trial on charges alleging human rights abuses. Pinochet returns to Chile the next day.

2003: French President Jacques Chirac visits Algeria in an effort to improve relations between the two countries. It is the first official state visit by a French president since Algeria won independence from France in 1962 after a brutal eight-year war.

2004: Suicide bombers set off simultaneous attacks on Shiite Muslim shrines crowded with pilgrims in two Iraqi cities, killing at least 143 people and turning the holiest day on the Shiite calendar into the bloodiest since the fall of Saddam Hussein.

2005: Britain's Court of Appeal rules that a high school violated a teenage student's human rights by banning her from wearing a traditional form of Muslim dress to class.

2008: Dmitry Medvedev, the man Vladimir Putin hand-picked to be his successor, scores a crushing victory in Russia's presidential election.

2009: President Raul Castro abruptly ousts some of Cuba's most powerful officials, remaking the government in the biggest shake-up since he took power from his brother Fidel Castro in 2008.

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