Today is the 327th day of 2013. There are 38 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1998: The European Union lifts a worldwide export ban on British beef. The ban was imposed after experts announced a possible link between “mad cow” disease and a fatal disease in humans.

OTHER EVENTS

1499: Perkin Warbeck, pretender to English throne, is executed.

1848: The Female Medical Educational Society is established in Boston, Massachusetts the same year the all-male American Medical Association is formed.

1936: Life magazine, created by American Henry R Luce, is first published.

1945: Most US wartime rationing of foods, including meat and butter, ends.

1971: China takes seat as a permanent member of UN Security Council.

1993: Record cold is blamed for at least 34 deaths in parts of Europe and prompts the French army to send out troops to feed the homeless in Paris.

2000: The US presidential election stretches into the Thanksgiving Day holiday without a president-elect as the fierce tug of war between George W Bush and Al Gore over Florida’s crucial electoral votes reaches the US Supreme Court.

2005: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf is confirmed as the winner in Liberia’s first post-war elections. The new president says her victory marks a new beginning for her country and for African women.

2010: In a seismic shift on one of the most profound — and profoundly contentious — Roman Catholic teachings, the Vatican says that condoms are the lesser of two evils when used to curb the spread of AIDS, even if their use prevents a pregnancy.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Thomas Birch, English historian (1705-1766); Boris Karloff, British-born actor (1887-1969); Paul Celan, Romanian poet (1920-1970); Vo Van Kiet, former Vietnamese Prime Minister (1922-2008); Krzysztof Penderecki, Polish composer (1933-); Bruce Hornsby, US singer (1954-); Oded Fehr, Israeli actor (1970-)

— AP