Today is Friday, May 14, the 134th day of 2010. There are 231 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

2006: René Preval, the only elected president in Haiti’s history to finish his term, is sworn in to again lead the impoverished nation in its latest attempt at democracy after decades of armed uprisings and lawlessness.

Other Notable Events

1796: First smallpox inoculation in England is administered by Edward Jenner.

1811: Paraguay gains independence from Spain. Now celebrated as National Independence Day holiday.

1921: Fascists gain in Italian elections, supplying a springboard for Benito Mussolini’s dictatorship.

1948: British mandate in Palestine ends, and an independent state of Israel is formed; Arab Legion of Transjordan invades Palestine and enters Jerusalem.

1955: Warsaw Pact formed by Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia, East Germany, Hungary, Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union.

1972: Okinawa reverts to Japan after 27 years under US jurisdiction.

1987: Troops storm Fiji Parliament, declaring military government after kidnapping prime minister and his cabinet in South Pacific’s first coup.

1988: Iraqi warplanes attack and set ablaze five ships at offshore oil-loading terminal that belongs to Iran.

1989: Baltic nationalists call for economic independence from Moscow by following year.

1991: Winnie Mandela sentenced to six years in prison following conviction on kidnapping charges in South Africa, but is freed on the equivalent of $72 bail.

1992: Intense fighting in Sarajevo traps 350 UN personnel in the Bosnian city.

1994: In a challenge to the US, North Korea says that is has begun removing nuclear fuel from its largest reactor without international inspectors present.

1995: President Carlos Menem wins a second term by a wide margin in Argentine elections.

1996: A Nigerian freighter with 3,500 Liberian war refugees is allowed to dock in Ghana after being turned away from African ports for 10 days.

1997: Turkish soldiers, tanks and jets invade northern Iraq to root out Kurdish guerrillas from mountain hideouts.

1999: Yugoslavs say 87 civilians die when NATO bombs a village in Kosovo. NATO says the village was a military base, and that the dead were forced to be human shields by Serb soldiers.

2000: Tens of thousands attend the “Million Mom March” in Washington to demand stricter gun control and to memorialise those lost to gun violence.

2001: European Commission, the European Union’s executive body, establishes diplomatic relations with North Korea.

2003: South Korean President Roh Moo Hyun meets for the first time with President George W Bush in Washington during Roh’s first visit to the US.

2005: Turkish soldiers kill nine Kurdish rebels in a military operation in Turkey’s predominantly Kurdish southeast following a European court judgement that the rebels’ imprisoned leader did not receive a fair trial.

2007: A Chinese rocket blasts a Nigerian communications satellite into orbit, marking an expansion of China’s commercial launching services for foreign space hardware.

2008: Rescuers arrived for the first time in the epicentre of China’s massive earthquake, scouring flattened mountain villages for thousands of victims and distributing air-dropped supplies to survivors.

2009: Democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is charged with breaking the terms of her house arrest just two weeks before she was to go free, a move seen as an attempt by Myanmar’s military junta to silence its chief opponent ahead of the 2010 elections.

Today’s Birthdays

Gabriel D Fahrenheit, German physicist (1686-1736); Otto Klemperer, German conductor (1885-1973); Pakistani ruler Ayub Khan (1907-1974); George Lucas, US film director and producer (1944-); Robert Zemeckis, US film director (1952-); David Byrne, Scottish-born pop singer (1952-); Shanice, singer (1973-); Cate Blanchett, Australian actress (1969-).