Today is the 211th day of 2010. There are 154 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight

1990: On his fourth day being held hostage, Prime Minister Arthur N R Robinson of Trinidad offers to resign, call elections and grant his captors amnesty.

Other Notable Events

1907: Elections are held in Philippines for the country's first assembly. The new 80-member assembly is directly elected by a restricted electorate, making it the first elective legislative body in Southeast Asia.

1930: Host Uruguay wins first soccer World Cup, at Montevideo's Centenario Stadium, beating Argentina 4-2.

1953: Britain signs alliance with Libya.

1974: Greece, Turkey and Britain sign declaration for cease-fire agreement on Cyprus.

1982: Panamanian President Aristides Royo Sanchez resigns two years before the end of his six-year term under pressure from the country's military leaders.

1989: Poland's government announces controversial program to end food price controls and meat rationing.

1991: UN weapons experts report finding 46,000 chemical weapons in Iraq, about four times what Baghdad had declared.

1993: Guards at a Lima, Peru, museum walk out with golden relics of the Incas - most of which they later melt down.

1995: Rebel Serbs in Croatia retreat and promise not to attack government troops in an effort to prevent attacks on their stronghold.

1999: The worst blackout in Taiwanese history cuts off electricity to 7 million households - one-third of the island - causing panic and fear that it might be under attack by China. A collapsed utility tower is the culprit and it is unrelated to recent tensions with the mainland.

2000: North and South Korea announce they will reopen border liaison offices and reconnect a rail line linking the two countries.

2002: President Joseph Kabila of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Rwandan President Paul Kagame sign a peace agreement intended to bring an end to the devastating civil war that started in 1998.

2008: A team of European scientists unveils a new method for extracting images hidden under old masters' paintings, recreating a colour portrait of a woman's face unseen since Vincent van Gogh painted over it in 1887.

Today's Birthdays

Giorgio Vasari, Italian painter (1511-1574); Emily Bronte, British author (1818-1848); Henry Ford, US auto pioneer (1863-1947); Henry Moore, British sculptor (1898-1986); Peter Bogdanovich, US producer/director (1939-); Paul Anka, Canadian singer (1941-); Arnold Schwarzenegger, actor/politician (1947-); Laurence Fishburne, US actor (1961-); Lisa Kudrow, US actress (1963-).

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