Today’s Highlight

1951: Former Jamaican sprinter Donald Quarrie is born. Quarrie has three Olympic medals (gold, silver and bronze) and six Commonwealth Games gold medals under his belt.

Other Notable Events

1836: American inventor Samuel Colt patents his revolver.

1870: Hiram R Revels becomes the first black member of the US Senate as he is sworn in to serve out the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis.

1948: Communists stage a coup in Czechoslovakia.

1954: Col Gamal Abdel Nasser usurps power as premier of Egypt; Syria’s President Chickekli flees following army revolt.

1956: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounces late dictator Josef Stalin before Communist Party Congress in Moscow, beginning the “de-Stalinisation” movement.

1976: US vetoes UN resolution deploring Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem.

1986: Philippines President Ferdinand E Marcos resigns, brought down by a “people’s power” uprising, military revolt, and US pressure.

1990: Nicaraguans vote in an election that leads to an upset victory for opponents of the ruling Sandinistas.

1991: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein orders his forces, under attack by allied ground troops, to withdraw from Kuwait.

1994: American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein opens fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he is beaten to death by worshippers.

1995: Two bombs blow apart a train car reserved for the military in northeastern India, killing at least 26 soldiers and wounding more than 30.

1999: China vetoes an extension of the UN peacekeeping mission in Macedonia, which borders war-torn Kosovo province. Macedonia had established diplomatic relations with Taiwan a month earlier.

2003: Two bomb blasts damage the Colombian consulate and Spanish Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, wounding five people. The explosions come two days after President Hugo Chavez accuses Spain and Colombia of meddling in Venezuela’s internal affairs.

2004: A protest in northern Uganda about the government’s inability to crush the Lord’s Resistance Army, a quasi-religious movement that seeks to overthrow the administration of President Yoweri Museveni, erupts into a frenzy of gunfire and revenge, with police opening fire on unruly crowds and demonstrators lynching rival tribesmen. At least nine people are killed.

2005: Argentina completes the biggest debt restructuring in history, hoping to end its status as an international financial pariah three years after a devastating economic crisis.

2006: A six-storey building housing shops and offices collapses in Dhaka, Bangladesh, killing 20 people and crushing tin-roof homes in a surrounding shanty town.

2007: Guinea’s powerful union chiefs call off a crippling strike after the president agrees to appoint a new prime minister in an attempt to end simmering unrest caused by a year of strikes, some of which turned bloody when put down by police.

2008: Communist leader Dimitris Christofias wins Cyprus’ crucial presidential run-off and pledges to restart talks to reunify the island, immediately agreeing to meet the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots.

2009: A Turkish Airlines jetliner plows into a muddy field near Amsterdam’s main airport. Only nine — including both pilots — are killed.

Today’s Birthdays

Gen Jose de San Martin, hero of Argentine independence (1778-1850); Pierre Auguste Renoir, French artist (1841-1919); Enrico Caruso, Italian opera singer (1873-1921); Dame Myra Hess, English pianist (1890-1965); George Harrison, English singer and Beatle member (1943-2001); Tom Courtenay, English actor (1937-); Herb Elliott, Australian Olympic champion athlete (1938-); Tea Leoni, US actress (1966-); James and Oliver Phelps, English actors (Harry Potter movies) (1986-). –AP