Today is Tuesday the 348th day of 2010. There are 17 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

2001: Dubai gets a $10 billion lifeline from oil-rich Abu Dhabi, securing a last-minute cash infusion aimed at preventing a default that risked sparking broader fears about the city-state’s shaky finances.

Today’s Events

1799: The first US president George Washington dies at his Mount Vernon, Virginia home at age 67.

1819: Alabama joins the Union as the 22nd state.

1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen and his group became the first men to reach the South Pole, beating out an expedition led by Robert F Scott.

1939: The Soviet Union is expelled from the League of Nations for invading Finland.

1946: The UN General Assembly votes to establish UN headquarters in New York.

1962: US space probe Mariner 2 approached Venus, transmitting information about the planet.

1975: Six South Moluccan extremists surrendered after holding 23 hostages for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen (BY’-luhn).

1981: Israel annexes the Golan Heights, which it had seized from Syria in 1967.

1985: Wilma Mankiller becomes the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe, taking office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

1995: Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia signed the Bosnian peace treaty in Paris.

2000: President-elect George W Bush receives a flood of congratulatory calls from world leaders on his first full day as president-elect; The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.

2005: President George W Bush defends his decision to wage the Iraq war, even as he acknowledges that “much of the intelligence turned out to be wrong”.

Today’s Birthdays

Entertainment executive Michael Ovitz is 64. Actress Dee Wallace is 62. Rhythm and-blues singer Ronnie McNeir (The Four Tops) is 61. Rock musician Cliff Williams (AC/DC) is 61. Actor-comedian T K Carter is 54. Rock singer-musician Mike Scott (The Waterboys) is 52. Singer-musician Peter “Spider” Stacy (The

Pogues) is 52. Actress Cynthia Gibb is 47. Actress Natascha McElhone is 41.

Actress Sophie Monk is 31. Actress Vanessa Hudgens is 22.