Today is the 163rd day of 2010. There are 202 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1964: Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other anti-apartheid leaders sentenced to life in prison in South Africa.

Other Notable Events

1667: A 15-year-old boy becomes the first to receive a blood transfusion when Jean-Baptiste Denys, physician of French King Louis XIV, treats his fever with lamb’s blood.

1798: French forces capture island of Malta.

1901: Cuban Convention makes that nation virtually a protectorate of the US.

1935: Paraguay and Bolivia sign a truce ending bloody 3-year Chaco War. Paraguay gets most of the disputed Chaco region, while Bolivia gets a river port.

1952: Nordic nationals are for the first time able to cross the borders between their countries without passports.

1976: A military coup in Uruguay overthrows civilian president Juan Bordaberry, beginning a nine-year dictatorship.

1987: Central African Republic’s former Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa is sentenced to death for murder, arbitrary arrest and embezzlement of public funds.

1988: Demonstrations erupt over controversial constitutional amendment making Islam the state religion in Bangladesh.

1991: Boris Yeltsin is elected president of Russia.

1994: The ex-wife of US football star O J Simpson and one of her friends are found murdered. The trial consumes American media for months.

2002: A three-judge panel in the New Jersey State Superior Court rules the US government may keep secret the names of immigrants detained in the wake of September 11, 2001 attacks.

2005: Palestinian authorities carry out their first executions since 2002, killing four convicted murders by firing squad in a campaign meant to halt a growing wave of lawlessness.

2007: Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicts former Croatian Serb leader Milan Martic of mass murders, torture and persecution of non-Serbs from 1991-1995.

2008: Nepalese officials take control of the main royal palace in Kathmandu, a day after deposed King Gyanendra left to begin life as a civilian. The Narayanhiti palace will soon be turned into a museum.

Today’s Birthdays

Sir Anthony Eden, British prime minister (1897-1977); Anne Frank, German author (1929-1945); George H W Bush, former US president (1924-); Richard Sherman, composer (1928-); Chick Corea, jazz keyboardist (1941-); Jenilee Harrison, US actress (1958-); Grandmaster Dee, US rapper (1962-); Paula Marshall, US actress (1964-).

–AP