Today is the 38th day of 2011. There are 327 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight

1986: Haiti's President for Life Jean-Claude 'Baby Doc' Duvalier goes into exile, ending a 29-year family dynasty in the Caribbean republic.

Other Events

1831: Belgian Constitution is proclaimed.

1947: British proposal for dividing Palestine into Arab and Jewish zones with administration as trusteeship is rejected by Arabs and Jews.

1964: Rock 'n' roll's British invasion begins when the Beatles are greeted by thousands of screaming fans on their arrival in New York for their first American tour.

1974: Britain grants independence to small Caribbean island of Grenada.

1984: Space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless II and Robert L Stewart go on first untethered spacewalk.

1990: Central Committee approves end of Soviet Communist Party's constitutional guarantee of power.

1991: Rev Jean-Bertrand Aristide is sworn in as Haiti's first democratically elected president.

1992: Pakistan for the first time acknowledges its ability to make nuclear weapons.

1993: Former Premier Laurent Fabius of France asks to be put on trial to end allegations he was responsible for infecting hundreds of haemophiliacs with AIDS-tainted blood.

1997: As Ecuador's Congress votes to remove President Abdala Bucaram, who refuses to step down, and names its leader Fabian Alarcon as interim president, vice-president Rosalia Arteaga declares herself president.

1999: King Hussein dies of cancer after nearly half a century on the throne of Jordan.

2001: Former President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns to power in Haiti. Aristide won a second term as president in November 2000 elections that were boycotted by major opposition parties.

2002: The Mexican government releases General José Francisco Gallardo who had been imprisoned since 1993 for criticising the armed forces' human rights record.

2004: Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga dissolves Parliament, paving the way for elections nearly four years ahead of schedule. The call for elections -- the third since 2000 -- is aimed at overthrowing the current prime minister and archrival Ranil Wickremesinghe's government.

2005: Secretary-general Kofi Annan suspends the head of the UN oil-for-food programme in Iraq and a senior UN official who dealt with contracts following an independent investigation that accused them of misconduct.

2007: The Episcopal Church names a woman, Rev Nerva Cot Aguilera, as bishop in Cuba. It is the first such appointment by the church in the developing world.

2009: President Evo Morales and thousands of supporters celebrate Bolivia's new constitution as it takes effect, saying the new document will enshrine indigenous rights and end centuries of oppression.

2010: Pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovych declares victory in Ukraine's presidential contest even though exit polls show a very tight race.

Today’s Birthdays

Sir Thomas More, English Lord Chancellor and writer (1478-1535); Charles

Dickens, English novelist (1812-1870); Dmitri Mendeleyev, Russian chemist

(1834-1907); Sinclair Lewis, US writer (1885-1951); Aisingyoro Henry Puyi, last

emperor of China (1906-1967); Sir Russell Drysdale, Australian artist (1912-

1981); Earl King, US blues singer/guitarist (1934-2003); Garth Brooks, US country

singer (1962-); Chris Rock, US actor/comedian (1965-).