TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2001: Peru’s Congress votes to lift the constitutional immunity of former President Alberto Fujimori, clearing the way for prosecutors to charge him with crimes against humanity.

OTHER EVENTS

1789: French National Assembly adopts Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights”.

1813: French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte wins his last great battle at Dresden, Germany, against a larger Austrian, Prussian and Russian force.

1828: Uruguay is formally proclaimed independent at preliminary peace talks between Brazil and Argentina.

1883: The most powerful volcanic eruption ever recorded blows apart Mount Krakatau in the Sunda Straits, Indonesia. Shock waves travel around the earth and tidal waves kill an estimated 36,000 people.

1916: Romania declares war against Austria-Hungary, thus entering World War I. The country is soon occupied by German and Bulgarian forces.

1921: British install Faisal, son of Sherif Hussein who led Arab revolt against Turks, as king of Iraq.

1927: American Bill Brock flies the Pride of Detroit over London on his way to completing the firstever flight around the world.

1928: The Kellog-Briand Pact or Pact of Paris is established by which countries vow to solve conflicts by peaceful means. It is eventually signed by most of the world’s nations.

1982: Turkish military diplomat Col Atilla Altikat is shot and killed in Ottawa. Justice Commandos against Armenian Genocide take responsibility, saying they were avenging the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915.

1993: A dam at the Gouhou reservoir in the western Chinese province of Qinghai bursts, releasing torrents of water that killed hundreds of people and destroyed several villages. 2000: Fire in Moscow spreads for 26 hours through a television tower that is the world’s secondtallest freestanding structure, killing three people.

2002: A judge in Tokyo District Court issues a ruling acknowledging Japan engaged in biological warfare in China in World War II and conducted experiments on Chinese prisoners of war.

2007: Under pressure to solve the contract-style killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, Russia’s chief prosecutor announces the arrest of 10 suspects, including a Chechen crime boss and five law enforcement officers.

2008: Iraq calls on companies to submit designs to build a giant Ferris wheel in Baghdad — the latest in a string of lavish proposals painting the capital as a leisure-friendly city.

2010: Cuba issues a pair of surprising free-market decrees, allowing foreign investors to lease government land for up to 99 years — potentially touching off a golf-course building boom — and loosening state controls on commerce to let islanders grow and sell their own fruit and vegetables.

TODAYS BIRTHDAYS

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher

(1770- 1831); Sophia Smith, US philanthropist, founded Smith College

(1796-1870); Theodore Dreiser, US author

(1871-1945); Samuel Goldwyn, US film producer

(1882-1974); Man Ray, US artist

(1890-1976); Lyndon B Johnson, US president

(1908- 1973); Mother Teresa, Albanian nun (1910-1997); Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Zulu nationalist leader in South Africa

(1928- ); Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), US actor

(1952- ); Sarah Chalke, actress (1976- )