Today is the 122st day of 2012. There are 244 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1989: Government of Kampuchea changes country’s name to Cambodia.

Other Events

1707: Union between England and Scotland goes into effect under name Great Britain.

1819: Freedom of the press is introduced in France.

1884: Construction of the first skyscraper in the US, the 10-storey Home Insurance Building in Chicago, begins.

1896: Naser od-Din, the unpopular shah of Persia, is murdered by a fanatic.

1919: Mount Kelud erupts in Indonesia, killing 5,000 people.

1925: Cyprus is declared a British crown colony.

1942: Japanese forces take Mandalay, Burma, in World War II, while British retreat along Chindwin Valley to India.

1948: The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, known as North Korea, is proclaimed.

1967: Anastasio Somoza Debayle becomes president of Nicaragua; Elvis Presley marries Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas. They divorce in 1973.

1979: Greenland gains home rule from Denmark.

1986: Millions of blacks stay away from jobs and schools in what is described as largest anti-apartheid protest in South Africa’s history.

1987: During a visit to West Germany, Pope John Paul II beatifies Edith Stein, a Jewish-born Carmelite nun gassed in the Nazi concentration camp at Auschwitz.

1990: Soviet protesters heckle President Mikhail Gorbachev at May Day parade on Red Square.

1991: Iraq tells international regulators that 18 of its 24 nuclear facilities were destroyed in allied bombing.

1993: Sri Lankan President Ranasinghe Premadasa is killed by a Tamil separatist rebel suicide bomber in Colombo.

1996: Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat visits Washington, where he criticises Israel for keeping its borders closed to Palestinian workers and picks up a $20 million World Bank loan.

1997: Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness win two of Northern Ireland’s 18 seats in British Parliament.

1998: The former prime minister of Rwanda, Jean Kambanda, becomes the first person ever to plead guilty before an international tribunal, admitting in Arusha, Tanzania, to his role in the 1994 genocide of more than 500,000 Rwandans.

2002: Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II opens her Golden Jubilee, a national celebration of her 50 years on the throne.

2003: UN international staff return to Baghdad for the first time since the US invasion.

2004: Montreal archbishop Andrew Hutchison is elected as new leader of the Anglican Church of Canada. Hutchison says he personally favours church blessings for same-sex couples but remains open regarding how he’ll vote on that issue.

2005: Pyongyang test fires a short-range missile that plunges into the Sea of Japan. The White House, pushing hard for international action against North Korea, says it is not surprised by the launch.

2006: Illegal immigrants and their allies gather for marches, prayers and demonstrations on a planned national day of economic protest, boycotting work, school and shopping to show their importance to the US

2007: President Hugo Chavez’s government takes over Venezuela’s last privately run oil fields, intensifying a power struggle with international companies over the world’s largest known petroleum deposit.

2008: Al-Jazeera cameraman Sami al-Haj is released from US custody at Guantanamo Bay and returned home to Sudan after six years of imprisonment that drew worldwide protests.

2009: Jamaican Stephen Fray is charged with assault, robbery with aggravation, illegal possession of a firearm and ammunition; shooting with intent;; and breaching hte Civil Aviation Act. He is later sentenced to 20 years on each count.

2010: Pope Benedict XVI cracks down on the scandal-plagued Legionaries of Christ, announcing that a papal envoy would take over and reform the conservative order that has been discredited by revelations that its founder sexually abused seminarians and fathered at least one child.

2011: Angry mobs attack Western embassies and UN offices in Tripoli after NATO bombs Moammar Gadhafi’s family compound in an attack officials said killed the leader’s second-youngest son and three grandchildren.

Today’s Birthdays

Joseph Addison, English poet-politician (1672-1719); Arthur Wellesley, English soldier-statesman (1769-1852); Jose Alencar, Brazilian novelist/playwright (1829-1877); Kate Smith (1909-1986); US singer; Glenn Ford, US actor (1916-2006); Joseph Heller, US writer (1923-1999); Judy Collins, US singer (1939-), Rita Coolidge, US singer (1945-); Ray Parker Jr , US singer (1954-); Wes Anderson, US director (1969-).

— AP