Today is the 223rd day of 2014. There are 142 days left in the year

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1935: Nazi storm troopers stage mass demonstrations against Jews in Germany.

1937: Iraqi dictator Bakr Sidqi is assassinated, a year after he staged the first-ever military coup in modern Arab history.

1952: Prince Hussein is proclaimed King Hussein of Jordan on termination of King Talal’s reign.

1965: Race riot begins in the Watts section of Los Angeles, United States, lasting six days. Thirty-four people are killed and more than 1,000 injured.

1991: Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon free American hostage Edward Tracy and French hostage Jerome Leyraud.

1992: Heavy fire blasts Sarajevo, and UN officials say about 28,000 people, mostly Muslims, are being forced from their homes in northern Bosnia in one of the biggest single acts of “ethnic cleansing”.

1998: Congolese rebels fighting President Laurent Kabila say they are closing in on the capital, while the government rounds up Tutsis, suspected of supporting the rebellion.

2003: Liberian President Charles Taylor resigns and leaves the country for exile in Nigeria. Taylor’s departure was seen as a major step in bringing peace to the nation, which had been plagued by civil war for 14 years.

2013: Israel approves building nearly 1,200 more settlement homes and agrees to release 26 long-held Palestinian security prisoners — highlighting an apparent settlement-for-prisoners trade-off that got both sides back to peace talks after a five-year freeze.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

James Bryan Herrick, US cardiologist (1861-1954); Bertram Mills, English circus entrepreneur (1873-1938); Enid Blyton, British author (1897-1968); Alex Haley, US author (1921-1992); Ian Charleston, British actor (1949-1990); Angus Wilson, British author (1913-1991); Hulk Hogan, US wrestler/actor (1953- ); Ali Shaheed Muhammad, hiphop artist (1970-)

— AP