Today is Thursday, February 18, the 49th day of 2010. There are 316 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1930: American astronomer Clyde W Tombaugh discovers the planet Pluto.

Other Notable Events

1685: Robert Cavelier de La Salle, French explorer, establishes the first settlement on American soil in Texas.

1885: Mark Twain’s Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is published in the US.

1945: Battle for Iwo Jima begins in Pacific in World War II.

1953: Bwana Devil, the movie that heralded the 3D fad of the 1950s, opens in New York City.

1964: Earthquakes rock Azores in eastern Atlantic, and ships battle high waves to evacuate people from San Jorge Island.

1965: African nation of Gambia becomes independent within British Commonwealth.

1970: Young Filipinos storm US Embassy compound in Manila, protesting US military bases in Philippines and US economic policy.

1977: The space shuttle Enterprise, sitting atop a Boeing 747, goes on its maiden flight above the Mojave Desert.

1988: Boris Yeltsin is ousted from ruling Communist Party Politburo in Moscow.

1989: Afghan government declares state of emergency “to ensure peace and security” in war-ravaged country.

1992: Libya produces two men accused of blowing up an American jetliner over Lockerbie, Scotland, but insists they’ll never go to trial in the West.

1993: UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali rebukes a top official for suspending relief shipments to eastern Bosnia and Sarajevo, and orders the aid deliveries resumed.

1995: Fighting ebbs in Chechnya as a fragile truce goes into its final hours with no word about resumption of peace talks.

1996: Two car bombs explode near Algiers, Algeria, killing 12 and wounding 35 during the final hours of Ramadan celebrations.

1997: Mexico’s top anti-drug official, Gen José de Jésus Gutiérrez Rebollo, is dismissed and later sentenced for taking money from a drug kingpin.

1998: Kenneth Kaunda, the former president of Zambia, is charged with concealing information about a failed coup. In June, the charges are dropped and Kaunda freed from house arrest.

1999: Three Greek Cabinet ministers are fired after the government fails to protect Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan, who was arrested by Turkey three days earlier while hiding in the Kenyan Embassy in Greece.

2002: Admiral Vladimir Kuroyedov, the Russian navy’s commander-in-chief, discloses that the Kursk, a nuclear-powered submarine that sank in the Barents Sea in August 2000, had been loaded with obsolete torpedoes that contained unstable fuel.

2003: A 56-year-old man ignites a container of flammable liquid inside a subway train in Taegu, South Korea, starting a blaze that engulfs two trains, killing at least 133 people.

2004: Runaway train cars carrying a lethal mix of fuel and chemicals derail, catch fire and then explode hours later in north-east Iran, killing more than 200 people, injuring at least 400 and leaving dozens trapped beneath crumbled mud homes.

2005: Togo’s new military-installed leader promises to hold presidential elections within two months, bowing to intense pressure at home and abroad to end his summary succession to power following the death of his 38-year dictator father.

2006: Muslim protesters attack Christians and burn churches when a march against cartoons depicting Prophet Muhammad turns violent in north-eastern Nigeria, killing at least 15 people in the first major protest to erupt over the issue in Africa’s most populous nation.

2008: Pakistan’s opposition parties win a parliamentary majority, threatening the rule of President Pervez Musharraf, a key American ally in the war on terror.

2009: French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledges to spend ¤2.6 billion ($3.3 billion) on measures to soften the blow of the global financial crisis on France’s most vulnerable citizens.

Today’s Birthdays

Milos Forman, Czech film director (1932-); George Kennedy, US actor (1925-); Toni Morrison, US author (1931-); Yoko Ono, US singer/John Lennon’s widow (1933-); John Hughes, US screenwriter/director (1950-); Cybill Shepherd, US actress (1950-); Randy Crawford, US singer (1952-); John Travolta, US actor (1954-); Greta Scacchi, British-Italian actress (1960-); Matt Dillon, US actor (1964-); Dr Dre, US rapper (1965-).