Today is the 165th day of 2012. There are 201 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1993: Kim Campbell becomes party leader enroute to being Canada’s first female prime minister.

Other Events

323 BC: Alexander the Great dies of a fever at age 33 in Babylon. He leaves no heir, and his empire dissolves.

1886: Bavaria’s insane King Louis II drowns himself. His psychiatrist also drowns trying to save him.

1953: A military coup led by Colombia’s General Gustavo Rojas Pinilla overthrows unpopular government of President Laureano Gomez. Rojas Pinilla voluntarily steps down in 1957 when Colombia returns to democratic rule.

1974: Army in Republic of Yemen seizes power in bloodless coup.

1982: Saudi Arabia’s King Khaled dies and Crown Prince Fahd assumes the throne.

1994: Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela sign a free trade pact.

1997: Timothy J McVeigh is sentenced to death for bombing a US government building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.

2000: Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

2003: The 105-delegate European Convention completes 16 months of work by endorsing a new draft constitution for the European Union.

2004: Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s Social Democratic Party slumps to its worst nationwide showing in post-World War II Germany.

2006: East African nations try to bolster a largely powerless government in Somalia, imposing sanctions against warlords and threatening measures against their rival Islamic militiamen.

2009: Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clash with police in the heart of Iran’s capital, pelting them with rocks and setting fire in the worst unrest in a decade. They accuse the hardline president of using fraud to steal an election victory from a reformist candidate.

2010: A separatist party that advocates independence for the Dutch-speaking region of Belgium, leaving the country’s Francophones to fend for themselves, scores an unprecedented win in a general election.

2011: Libyan rebels break out toward Tripoli from the opposition-held port of Misrata 140 miles (225 kilometers) to the east, cracking a government siege as fighters across the country mount a resurgence in their four-month-old revolt against Moammar Gadhafi.

Today’s Birthdays

Richard Barnfield, English poet (1574-1627); James Clerk Maxwell, British physicist (1831-1879); William B Yeats, Irish poet (1865-1939); Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer (1888-1935); Ralph Edwards, host (This Is Your Life) (1913-2005); Siegfried, magician with Siegfried & Roy (1939-); Malcolm McDowell, British actor (1943-); Tim Allen, actor/comedian (1953-); Ally Sheedy, US actress (1962-); Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, US actresses (1986-); David Gray, British folk/rock singer/songwriter (1968-).