TODAY is Tuesday, December 15, the 349th day of 2009. There are 16 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1999 – Venezuelans overwhelmingly approve a new constitution that eliminates the Senate and vastly increases the power of President Hugo Chavez, allowing him to stay in office for up to 13 years.

Other Notable Events

1640 – The Duke of Braganca is crowned John IV, the first king of Portugal after 60 years of Spanish rule.

1890 – Chief Sitting Bull of the Sioux is killed during an attempt to arrest him by reservation police in the United States (US) state of South Dakota.

1957 – The United Nations (UN) rejects Greece’s proposal that Cyprus is entitled to self-determination.

1961 – Former Nazi Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death in Jerusalem.

1965 – Two US-manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, manoeuvre to within 3 metres (10 feet) of each other while in orbit and relay data about Venus as it flies past the planet.

1970 – Soviet spacecraft starts sending messages from planet Venus.

1978 – US President Jimmy Carter announces he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year’s Day and sever official relations with Taiwan.

1979 – The deposed Shah of Iran flies from the United States to “temporary” exile in Panama.

1988 – The UN General Assembly calls for convening of international Middle East peace conference.

1989 – Manuel Noriega is named head of government and declares Panama in “a state of war” with the US; a popular uprising begins, resulting in the downfall of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

1992 – Chess genius Bobby Fischer is indicted in the United States on charges of violating economic sanctions against Yugoslavia by playing a highly publicised match with Boris Spassky.

1994 – The Swedish government decides not to salvage the bodies from the ferry Estonia, which sank in the Baltic, killing 800 people. The decision is opposed by the victims’ relatives.

1996 – A Serbian court restores the opposition’s election victory in Nis, Serbia’s second-largest city.

1997 – The prosecutor for the tribunal on war crimes in Yugoslavia accuses French peacekeepers in Bosnia of “total inertia” when it comes to arresting war crimes suspects. The French reject the criticism as “scandalous.”

2004 – The ex-Iraqi general known as “Chemical Ali,” who is accused of using chemical weapons attacks to kill thousands of Kurds, is announced as the first detained former Saddam Hussein regime figure to stand trial.

2006 – Japan’s conservative government revises the country’s central education law to require schools to encourage patriotism in the classroom and upgrades the Defense Agency to a full ministry for the first time since World War II.

2007 – A British suspect in an alleged plot to blow up trans-Atlantic jetliners escapes from police custody in Pakistan. Rashid Rauf fled after appearing before a judge at court.

2008 – Three African armies have launched an offensive against Ugandan rebels based in eastern Congo in an attempt to end one of the continent’s longest and most brutal wars, military officials say.

Today’s Birthdays

Nero, Roman emperor (AD 37- AD 68); Henri Becquerel, French chemist (1852-1908); Gustave Eiffel, French engineer (1832-1923); Maxwell Anderson, US playwright (1888-1959); J. Paul Getty, US oil tycoon (1892-1976); Tim Conway, US comedian/actor (1933-); Don Johnson, US actor (1949-); Julie Taymor, US director (1952-).