Today, Sunday, April 11, is the 101st day of 2010. There are 264 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

2002: Wouter Basson, a scientist who headed South Africa’s covert chemical- and germ-warfare operations during the apartheid era, is acquitted on 46 charges of murder, conspiracy, drug possession and fraud.

Other Notable Events

1843: Britain separates Gambia from Sierra Leone as crown colony.

1894: Uganda is declared a British protectorate.

1899: The treaty ending the Spanish-American War is declared in effect; the Philippines are transferred from Spain to the US.

1961: Nigeria imposes total boycott on trade with South Africa.

1979: Idi Amin is deposed as president of Uganda as rebels and exiles backed by Tanzanian forces seize control.

1980: US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission issues regulations specifically prohibiting sexual harassment of workers by supervisors.

1986: Washington state employees win a lawsuit requiring the state to pay women as much as men for comparable work.

1991: UN Security Council announces a formal end to the Gulf War, accepting Iraq’s pledge that it will pay for war damages and scrap its weapons of mass destruction.

1993: Despite appeals for calm, two white people are burned to death in South Africa by a black crowd, a day after the assassination of black leader Chris Hani.

1998: The Cambodian army takes Anlong Veng, the last major Khmer Rouge base, sending the rebels fleeing into the jungle.

1999: India tests an improved medium-range missile, capable of carrying a nuclear warhead more than 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles). Pakistan tests a similar missile two days later.

2001: Israeli tanks and bulldozers rumble into the Khan Yunis refugee camp in Palestinian-controlled territory in the Gaza Strip, damaging 30 homes and triggering fighting that kills two Palestinians and wounds more than two dozen.

2002: Venezuelan police fight pitched battles with protesters after more than 150,000 people march on the presidential palace demanding President Hugo Chavez’s ouster as a general strike grips the country. Nineteen people are killed and 350 injured.

2003: Hong Kong bans quarantined residents from leaving the city as the deadly SARS virus turns up in Indonesia and the Philippines, in both cases among foreigners who had recently been to Hong Kong.

2006: Centre-left economist Romano Prodi emerges the winner of Italy’s election by a razor-thin margin, but Premier Silvio Berlusconi claims voting irregularities and demands a recount.

2007: Powerful bombs rip through the Algerian prime minister’s office and a police station, killing 23 people and wounding 160 in an attack orchestrated by al-Qaeda’s wing in North Africa. The premier escapes unharmed.

2008: French troops capture six pirates after they released 30 hostages who were aboard a tourist yacht off Somalia’s coast.

Today’s Birthdays

John I, King of Portugal (1385-1433); George Canning, English statesman (1770-1827); Manuel Quintana, Spanish poet (1772-1857); John Davidson, Scottish poet/playwright (1857-1909); Gustav Vigeland, Norwegian sculptor (1869-1943); Bill Irwin, US actor (1950-); Joss Stone, British singer (1987-).