Today is the 58th day of 2012. There are 308 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1911: Inventor Charles F Kettering demonstrated his electric automobile starter in Detroit by starting a Cadillac’s motor with just the press of a switch, instead of hand-cranking.

Other Events

1942: The Battle of the Java Sea began during World War II; Imperial Japanese naval forces scored a decisive victory over the Allies.

1801: The District of Columbia was placed under the jurisdiction of Congress.

1912: Author Lawrence Durrell, author of The Alexandria Quartet, was born in India.

1922: The Supreme Court, in Leser v Garnett, unanimously upheld the 19th Amendment to the Constitution, which guaranteed the right of women to vote.

1933: Germany’s parliament building, the Reichstag, was gutted by fire. Chancellor Adolf Hitler, blaming the Communists, used the fire as justification for suspending civil liberties.

1939: The Supreme Court, in National Labour Relations Board v Fansteel Metallurgical Corporation, outlawed sit-down strikes.

1951: The 22nd Amendment to the Constitution, limiting a president to two terms of office, was ratified.

1973: Members of the American Indian Movement occupied the hamlet of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the site of the 1890 massacre of Sioux men, women and children. The occupation lasted until May.

1979: Jane M Byrne confounded Chicago’s Democratic political machine as she upset Mayor Michael A Bilandic to win their party’s mayoral primary. Byrne went on to win the election.

1982: Wayne Williams was found guilty of murdering two of the 28 young blacks whose bodies were found in the Atlanta area over a 22-month period. Williams, who was also blamed for 22 other deaths, has maintained his innocence.

1991: President George HW Bush declared that “Kuwait is liberated, Iraq’s army is defeated,” and announced that the allies would suspend combat operations at midnight, Eastern time.

2002: US officials announced a $5-million reward for information in the kidnap-murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl.

2007: A suicide bomber struck Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan during a visit by Vice-President Dick Cheney, who was rushed to a bomb shelter. (Twenty-three people were killed; Cheney was unhurt.)

2011: Frank Buckles, the last surviving American veteran of World War I who’d also survived being a civilian prisoner of war in the Philippines in World War II, died in Charles Town, West Virginia, at age 110.

Today’s Birthdays: Actress Joanne Woodward (1930-). Consumer advocate Ralph Nader (1934-). Actor Adam Baldwin (1962-). Actor Donal Logue (1966-). Singer Chilli (TLC) (1971-). Chelsea Clinton (1980-). Singer Bobby Valentino (1980-). Singer Josh Groban (1981-). Actress Kate Mara (1983-).