Today is the 76th day of 2014. There are 289 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2000: Some 500 members of a doomsday cult die in a church fire in a remote part of southwestern Uganda. After the inferno, mass graves containing 400 more corpses are discovered around cult leaders’ homes.

OTHER EVENTS

1229: Holy Roman Emperor Fredrick II, at the head of the Sixth Crusade, enters Jerusalem after gaining the city from the Muslims by treaty.

1328: Scotland wins its independence from England.

1526: France’s King Francis I is released from Spanish captivity.

1649: England’s Parliament abolishes House of Lords.

1813: Prussia’s Frederick William III declares war on France.

1860: Second Maori War breaks out in New Zealand.

1861: The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed by a parliament assembled in Turin, but Venice and Rome remain outside the power of King Victor Emmanuel.

1921: Poland’s Constitution is established.

1942: General Douglas MacArthur arrives in Australia to become supreme commander of Allied forces in the southwest Pacific theatre during World War II.

1948: Britain, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg sign Brussels Treaty for 50-year alliance against armed attack in Europe, and economic, social and military cooperation.

1962: Soviet Union accuses United States of fighting “undeclared war” in Vietnam and demands removal of American military forces there.

1969: Golda Meir becomes prime minister of Israel.

1973: Cambodian Air Force officer steals plane and bombs presidential palace in Phnom Penh, missing President Lon Nol but killing at least 20 people.

1977: Angolan troops invading Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of Congo) take important copper mining centre of Kolwezi.

1991: Majority of Soviet voters favour preserving the union, according to referendum.

1992: White voters in referendum overwhelmingly support reforms toward ending apartheid in South Africa.

1993: Hundreds of police in Assiut, Egypt, storm two buildings where bomb-throwing extremists are holed up.

1995: The Azerbaijani army smashes a two-day rebellion by mutinous police in a fierce battle in Northern Baku.

1997: The Italian coast guard rescues 900 Albanians from a sinking gunboat off Brindisi, Italy.

1998: Catholics hold the first St Patrick’s Day in the religiously divided city of Belfast.

1999: In an unprecedented purge, the International Olympic Committee expels six members for taking cash, travel and lavish gifts from the winning Utah bidders for the 2002 Winter Games.

2001: Explosions at four workers’ dormitories kill 108 in Shijiazhuang, China. The bomber plus three others charged with supplying explosives and detonators are sentenced to death.

2002: A grenade attack at a Protestant church near the US Embassy in the heavily guarded diplomatic enclave in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, kills five worshippers and wounds 40.

2004: A car bomb shatters a five-storey hotel housing foreigners in central Baghdad, killing 27 people just days before the anniversary of the start of the Iraq war.

2005: Under pressure from Egypt and the Palestinian leadership, the militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad agree for the first time to halt attacks against Israel.

2006: A roadside bomb kills five policemen as they travel in a convoy transporting four bodies believed to be Macedonian workers kidnapped in southern Afghanistan the previous week.

2007: Three suicide bombers driving chlorine-laden trucks strike targets in Iraq’s Anbar province, spreading panic and exposing 350 Iraqi civilians and six US troops to the poisonous gas.

2008: UN police storm a courthouse in northern Kosovo to remove Serb protesters occupying the building, setting off clashes that injure dozens of international peacekeepers and demonstrators.

2009: Pope Benedict XVI says condoms are not the answer to the AIDS epidemic in Africa and can make the problem worse, setting off criticism as he begins a week-long trip to the continent where some 22 million people are living with HIV.

2010: A Pakistani court charges five young Americans with planning terrorist attacks in the South-Asian country and conspiring to wage war against nations allied with Pakistan. They plead not guilty.

2011: The UN Security Council approves a resolution to impose a no-fly zone over Libya and authorise “all necessary measures” to protect civilians from attacks by Moammar Gadhafi’s forces. The vote was 10-0 with five abstentions, including Russia and China.

2013: A freed Palestinian prisoner is given a hero’s welcome in the Gaza Strip after ending his hunger strike in an Israeli jail and agreeing to a plea bargain that will confine him to the Hamas-run territory for the next 10 years.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Madame Roland, French author-revolutionary politician (1754-1793); Edmund Kean, British actor (1787-1833); Kate Greenaway, English illustrator (1846-1901); Rudolf Nureyev, Russian dancer (1938-1993); Bakili Muluzi, former president of Malawi (1943-); Kurt Russell, US actor (1951-); Gary Sinise, US actor (1955-); Billy Corgan, US musician (1967-)

–AP