Today is Saturday, February 27, the 58th day of 2009. There are 307 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1999: Nigeria elects Gen Olusegun Obasanjo in the first presidential elections after fifteen years of military rule, but the results are disputed.

Other Notable Events

1700: Southwest Pacific island of New Britain is discovered by English navigator William Dampier.

1889: Burma — now Myanmar — opens railroad from Rangoon to Mandalay.

1922: The US Supreme Court unanimously upholds the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guaranteed the right of women to vote.

1933: Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, catches fire. The Nazis, blaming the Communists, use the fire as a pretext for suspending civil liberties.

1939: Britain and France recognise General Francisco Franco’s government in Spain; the US Supreme Court outlaws sit-down strikes.

1968: Britain’s House of Commons approves bill to restrict immigration to Britain.

1972: US President Richard Nixon and Chinese Premier Chou En-lai issue the Shanghai Communiqué at the conclusion of Nixon’s historic visit to China.

1991: US President George H W Bush announces a cessation of offensive military action in the Gulf War.

1994: A bomb explodes in a packed Maronite Catholic church in Lebanon, killing nine worshippers and wounding at least 60 as they lined up at the altar to take Communion.

1995: Baring Brothers and Co, one of Britain’s oldest and most prestigious investment banks, goes broke when a trader loses more than US$800 million gambling in Asian futures markets.

1996: The UN suspends sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs after NATO verifies that Serb forces have withdrawn from buffer zones.

1998: US Vice President Al Gore announces that the United States is lifting a 35-year-old arms embargo against South Africa.

2000: After a stormy debate and vociferous opposition from legislators, Egypt’s parliament endorses President Hosni Mubarak’s decision to extend the country’s 19-year-old state of emergency for three more years.

2001: A mob of native Dayak fighters in Indonesia attack and massacre at least 118 migrants travelling under police escort. Security forces called in to quell the ethnic violence instead turn their guns on each other.

2003: Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva deploys 3,000 troops to Rio de Janeiro to back up the 30,000 state and local police officers during the city’s six-day Carnival celebration. It is the first time troops are sent to guard the city during Carnival.

2005: Iran and Russia ignore US objections and sign a nuclear fuel agreement that is key to bringing Tehran’s first reactor online by mid 2006.

2008: Masked thieves drill a tunnel into the Damiani showroom in Milan, Italy, making off with gold, diamonds and rubies worth an estimated $20 million. Nine men are arrested in December in connection with the robbery.

Today’s Birthdays

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, US poet (1807-1882); John Steinbeck, US writer (1902-1968); Joanne Woodward, US actress (1930-); Elizabeth Taylor, US actress (1932-); Ralph Nader, US consumer activist (1934-); Josh Groban, US singer (1981-).

–AP