Today’s Highlight

1961: Kuwait, newly independent, is admitted to Arab League, but admission to UN is blocked by Soviet Union.

Other Events

1837: Queen Victoria succeeds to the British throne upon the death of her uncle, King William IV; Natal Republic is founded by Dutch settlers in southern Africa and a constitution is proclaimed.

1867: US President Andrew Jackson proclaims treaty for purchase of Alaska from Russia.

1891: Britain and the Netherlands define their boundaries in Borneo.

1933: Army stages coup in Siam, now Thailand.

1934: Agreement is reached on frontier between Sudan and Libya.

1973: Juan Peron returns to Argentina after 18-year exile.

1988: Lt Gen Henry Namphy declares himself president of Haiti after troops storm national palace and depose civilian President Leslie Manigat.

1990: Ion Iliescu is sworn in as president of Romania. The US boycotts the inauguration to protest his role in violent repression of opposition figures.

1991: German lawmakers narrowly vote to return Germany’s seat of power from Bonn to Berlin; PV Narasimha Rao becomes India’s ninth prime minister since it became independent in 1947. He begins reforms that start to open India’s closed and socialist economy.

1992: Czech leader Vaclav Klaus and Slovak leader Vladimir Meciar agree to split Czechoslovakia in two.

1993: The European Community authorises its mediator to negotiate the division of Bosnia-Herzegovina.

1994: US athlete OJ Simpson pleads innocent to murdering his ex-wife and her friend.

1995: Chechen rebels who stormed Budyonnovsk, Russia, return to their battered republic and release some 150 human shields who accompanied them.

1997: Turkey’s Islamic-influenced government falls when the president asks conservative politician Mesut Yilmaz to form a government, after the leader of the Islamic Welfare Party resigned as premier.

2006: Former Liberian President Charles Taylor’s UN-chartered plane arrives in the Netherlands for a war crimes trial on charges accusing him in the death, rape or mutilation of hundreds of thousands of people in West Africa.

2009: Thousands of protesters defy Iran’s highest authority and march on waiting security forces that fight back with batons and tear gas in a deepening crisis over a disputed presidential election.

2010: Israel pledges it will immediately allow all goods into Gaza except weapons and items deemed to have a military use under its decision to ease its three-year-old blockade of the Palestinian territory.

2011: Tunisia’s former ruler and his wife are convicted in absentia on embezzlement and other charges after $27 million (¤18.97 million) in jewels and public funds were found in one of his palaces.

Today’s Birthdays

Jacques Offenbach, German-born composer (1819-1880); Errol Flynn, Australian actor (1909-1959); Chet Atkins, country guitarist (1924-2001); Olympia Dukakis, actress (1931-); Lionel Richie, R&B singer (1949-); John Goodman, US actor (1952-); Nicole Kidman, actress (1967-); Josh Lucas, US actor (1971-); Brian Wilson, US singer/songwriter (1942-).