Today is Saturday, December 19, the 353rd day of 2009. There are 12 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

2006: A Libyan court convicts five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor and condemns them to death for infecting 400 children with HIV. Nearly seven months later, they are allowed to return to Bulgaria.

Other Notable Events

1793: A young Napoleon Bonaparte takes Toulon, France, from the British and Spanish in his first major military victory.

1842: The United States (US) recognises independence of Hawaii.

1843: Charles Dickens’ classic Yuletide tale, A Christmas Carol, is first published in England.

1909: A civil war starts in Honduras.

1932: The British Broadcasting Corp begins transmitting overseas with its “Empire Service” to Australia.

1941: German dictator Adolf Hitler dismisses his chief of staff and takes personal command of the German army after military setbacks.

1946: War breaks out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launch widespread attacks against the French.

1951: The New Treaty of Friendship is signed between Oman and Britain, recognising full independence of the sultanate.

1955: Sudan’s Parliament declares independence.

1962: Senegal’s President Leopold Senghor takes charge of government in Dakar after ouster of the West African nation’s premier.

1966: UN General Assembly endorses a draft treaty banning the use of mass destruction weapons in space.

1972: Apollo 17 spacecraft splashes down on target in Pacific Ocean, ending US Apollo programme of landing men on Moon.

1978: Indian Parliament ousts former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi from her newly elected seat and orders her jailed for contempt and breach of privilege.

1985: Muslim gunmen kidnap 10 Christians in Beirut, Lebanon, stepping up the campaign of terror.

1990: Albanian authorities formally recognise the country’s first non-Communist party.

1992: Taiwan holds its first full legislative elections after retiring hundreds of lawmakers who were elected in China in 1949 and stayed in office.

1996: Former Indian Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao steps down as head of the Indian National Congress in the face of corruption charges.

1998: As US forces bomb Iraq, the US House of Representatives impeaches President Bill Clinton for obstructing justice and lying under oath about his affair with Monica Lewinsky.

1999: Survivors wander through streets covered with rocks and mud as the death toll from massive mudslides and flooding in Venezuela surpasses 5,000.

2001: Jobless Argentines unleash their anger over a deep economic tailspin in a burst of looting and violence that targets supermarkets and shops on the fringes of Buenos Aires.

2003: Libya agrees to abandon programmes pursuing internationally banned weapons, including chemical, biological and nuclear weapons as well as long-range missiles. It agrees to respect the Nuclear Non-proliferation Treaty.

2004: Car bombs rock Iraq’s two holiest Shiite cities, killing at least 62 people and wounding more than 120, while in downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen carry out a brazen ambush, pulling out three election officials and executing them on the pavement in the middle of morning traffic.

2005: Uganda’s main opposition leader pleads not guilty to treason charges in a trial that supporters claim is being staged to keep him out of 2006 presidential elections.

2007: Former Hyundai CEO Lee Myung-bak claims victory Wednesday in South Korea’s presidential election, as voters overlook fraud allegations in hopes he will revive the economy.

Today’s Birthdays

Robert Urich, US actor (1946-2002); Richard E Leakey, Kenyan paleontologist (1944-); Jennifer Beals, US actress (1963-); Jake Gyllenhaal, US actor (1980-); Lady Sovereign, British rapper (1985-).