Today is the 245th day of 2012. There 121 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight

1969: A Libyan Arab Republic is proclaimed as the army stages a coup, deposing the monarchy and bringing Moammar Gadhafi into power.

Other Events

1879: Britain signs peace treaty with Zulus in South Africa.

1905: The provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta enter into the confederation of Canada.

1923: The Great Kanto Earthquake shakes the Tokyo metropolitan area, killing more than 142,000 people.

1961: The UN breaks off relations with the Katanga government in Congo.

1962: Singapore votes to join Federation of Malaysia.

1971: Gulf state of Qatar declares independence from Britain.

1983: A Korean Air Lines Boeing 747 is shot down by a Soviet jet fighter after the airliner enters Soviet air space, killing 269 people.

1990: The two Germanys sign a treaty that provides the blueprint for merging the countries.

1992: France joins the US and British allies in enforcing the no-fly zone in southern Iraq.

1993: Bosnia's government rejects a plan to end 17 months of ethnic warfare and peace talks collapse.

1994: San Francisco Superior Court jury awards a former secretary at Baker & McKenzie, the world's largest law firm, a record US$7.1 million in punitive damages in a sexual-harassment case against the firm.

1996: Helmer Herrera Buitrago, a reputed leader of Colombia's Cali drug cartel, surrenders to authorities. He is the last of seven men believed to have been leaders of the cartel.

1998: Vietnam's best-known dissident, Doan Viet Hoat, is freed as part of an amnesty for 5,219 inmates to mark Vietnam's National Day. He is immediately sent into exile in Thailand.

2007: More than two dozen Colombian prisoners arrested three years ago in an alleged plot against President Hugo Chavez are freed in a goodwill gesture Chavez hopes will help facilitate a prisoner exchange in Colombia.

2008: American forces hand over security responsibility to the Iraqis in a province that the US once feared was lost -- a sign of the stunning reversal of fortunes since local Sunnis turned against al-Qaida in Iraq.

2011: World leaders line up behind Libya's new de facto administration and a UN-led effort to stabilise the country after decades under Moammar Gadhafi's rule.

Today's Birthdays

Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (1854-1921); Edgar Rice Burroughs, US novelist (1875-1950); A(bhay) C(haranaravinda) Bhaktivedanta, Indian founder of Hare Krishna movement (1896-1977); Rocky Marciano, US boxer (1923-1969); Seiji Ozawa, Japanese-American conductor (1935-); Lily Tomlin, US actress/comedian (1939-); Gloria Estefan, Cuban-American singer (1957-).