Today is the 252nd day of 2011. There are 114 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight

1992: Nelson Mandela calls for the removal of the homeland ruler whose troops killed 24 protesters, sparking a major confrontation between black and white leaders in South Africa.

Other Events

1926: Germany is admitted to the League of Nations formed to foster international cooperation and world peace.

1952: American writer Ernest Hemingway's novel The Old Man and the Sea is published.

1983: Ten people are killed in antigovernment protests in Santiago, as Chileans continue to demand the resignation of President Augusto Pinochet and a return to civilian rule.

1988: About one million demonstrators demanding democracy paralyse Yangon, Myanmar.

1991: Macedonians vote to become the third of six Yugoslav republics to choose independence.

1994: British, French and American troops pull out of Berlin, leaving the city without foreign soldiers for the first time since World War II.

1995: The former Yugoslav republics agree in Geneva to create a state within Bosnia for rebel Serbs while maintaining the country's unity.

1996: Okinawa residents vote more than 10-to-1 in favour of a referendum to reduce US military bases on the Japanese island.

2000: The head of the US Bureau of Indian Affairs apologises for the federal agency's "legacy of racism and inhumanity" that included massacres, forced relocations of tribes and attempts to wipe out native Indian cultures.

2002: Yugoslavia wins its second straight title at the World Basketball Championships, beating Argentina, 84-77, in overtime in Indianapolis, Indiana. Yugoslavia also eliminated a US team comprising NBA stars, in a 81-78 upset.

2003: Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon becomes the first Israeli prime minister to visit India since the two countries established full diplomatic relations in 1992.

2005: Ukraine President Viktor Yushchenko fires his seven-month-old government amid allegations of corruption, dismissing his dynamic prime minister — the heroine of the Orange Revolution that swept him to power — and accepting the resignation of one of the movement's top financial backers.

2008: A landslide at an illegal mine in northern China kills at least 260 people.

2009: A woman journalist convicted of public indecency for wearing trousers outdoors is freed, despite her own desire to serve a month in prison as protest against Sudan's draconian morality laws.

Today's Birthdays

Richard I, the Lion-Hearted, king of England (1157-1199); August Schlegal, German author (1767-1845); Antonin Dvorak, Bohemian composer (1841-1904); Jessie Wilcox Smith, US painter/illustrator (1863-1935); Patsy Cline, US country singer (1932-1963); Sid Caesar, US comedian (1922-); Henry Thomas, US actor (1971-); Neko Case, alt-country singer (1970-)