Today is the 286th day of 2014. There are 79 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1992: The pyramids, the Sphinx and other monuments survive Cairo earthquake that kills at least 400 and injures more than 4,000.

OTHER EVENTS

1775: The US Navy is founded as the Continental Congress orders the construction of a naval fleet.

1792: The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion, later known as the White House, is laid during a ceremony in Washington, DC.

1815: British occupy South Atlantic island of Ascension to prevent Napoleon’s escape from St Helena, the closest island.

1937: Germany guarantees inviolability of Belgium.

1960: Richard M Nixon and John F Kennedy participate in the third televised debate of their presidential campaign, with Nixon in Hollywood, California, and Kennedy in New York.

1969: Soviet Union sends third spacecraft into orbit in as many days, putting seven cosmonauts in space.

1981: Voters in Egypt participate in a referendum to elect Vice-President Hosni Mubarak as the new president, one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

1993: A fanatic fan of tennis star Steffi Graf is convicted in the stabbing of rival Monica Seles and receives a two-year suspended sentence.

1994: In the largest deal between software firms, Intuit Inc accepts a US$1.5-billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp.

1997: Queen Elizabeth II begins visit to India to mark the 50th anniversary of the subcontinent’s independence from Britain.

1999: French lawmakers adopt a law giving unwed gay and straight couples the same rights previously limited to the married. Similar legislation already exists in several European countries.

2001: President Hosni Mubarak issues an order that 83 suspected Islamic militants stand trial in Egypt’s state security court.

2006: Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded win the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering use of tiny loans — microcredit — to lift millions out of poverty.

2009: Russia publicly pushes back against US efforts to threaten tough new sanctions if Iran fails to prove its nuclear programme is peaceful, dealing an apparent setback to President Barack Obama’s hopes for Moscow’s backing for fresh penalties against Tehran.

2010: With remarkable speed and flawless execution miner after miner climbs into a cramped cage deep beneath the Chilean earth, and is hoisted through 2,000 feet (610 metres) of rock and sees precious sunlight after the longest underground entrapment in history.

2011: Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire at the centre of the biggest insider-trading case in US history, is sentenced to 11 years behind bars — the stiffest punishment ever handed out for the crime.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Yves Montand, Italian-born French singer-actor (1921-1991); Margaret Thatcher, British prime minister (1925-2013); Paul Simon, US singer (1941- ); Marie Osmond, US actress/singer (1959- ); Sacha Baron Cohen, British actor (1971- )

— AP