TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2011: The Commonwealth countries agree to change centuries-old rules of succession that put sons on the British throne ahead of any older sisters. So any hypothetical daughter of Prince William and Kate Middleton — now known as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge — would have a prime place in history: the first princess to beat out any younger brothers and accede to the throne.

OTHER EVENTS

1492: Christopher Columbus discovers Cuba on his first voyage to New World.

1636: Harvard College is founded in Massachusetts.

1708: Sweden’s King Charles XII takes Mohilev, Russia, and invades Ukraine.

1793: US inventor Eli Whitney applies for a patent for the cotton gin, used to separate green seeds from staple-cotton.

1836: Federation of Peru and Bolivia is proclaimed.

1886: The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, is dedicated in New York Harbour by US President Grover Cleveland.

1919: Congress enacts the Volstead Act, which provides for enforcement of Prohibition, the ban on alcoholic beverages, over US. President Woodrow Wilson’s veto.

1922: Fascism comes to Italy as Benito Mussolini takes control of the government.

1962: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces he has ordered the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

1965: Pope Paul VI issues a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

1971: House of Commons votes in favour of Britain’s entry into European Common Market.

1974: Arab heads of state, including Jordan’s King Hussein, issue declaration calling for creation of independent Palestinian state.

1989: More than 10,000 rally in protest of the government on the 71st anniversary of Czechoslovakia’s independence; scores are beaten or detained.

1990: A coalition of non-communist pro-independence parties wins the elections in Georgia, the last of the 15 Soviet constituent republics to hold such elections in 1990.

1998: Hurricane Mitch pauses over Honduras with 205 kph (120 mph) winds, sweeping away bridges, flooding neighbourhoods and killing hundreds of people.

2001: US President George W Bush announces creation of a Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force to find and deport foreigners who are in the United States illegally.

2004: At least two people die and 21 are wounded when a bomb explodes in a border town in Thailand’s troubled Narathiwat province, where about 100 Muslims earlier gathered for the mass burial of 22 unidentified men killed in military custody after a violent protest.

2005: Russia issues a scathing response to a UN report documenting massive corruption in the oil-for-food programme, contending that documents indicting Russian companies are fake.

2006: An overcrowded bus plunges off a mountain road in western Nepal, leaving at least 42 people dead and dozens injured.

2007: First lady Cristina Fernandez claims victory in Argentina’s presidential election to become the first woman elected to the post.

2008: Former political prisoner Mohamed Nasheed defeats President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia’s longest-serving ruler, in the Maldives’ first democratic presidential election.

2010: Two volcanoes erupt on Russia’s far-eastern Kamchatka Peninsula, tossing massive ash clouds miles (kilometres) into the air, forcing flights to divert and blanketing one town with thick, heavy ash.

2012: Syria’s air force fires missiles and drops barrel bombs on rebel strongholds while opposition fighters attack regime positions, flouting a UN-backed ceasefire that was supposed to quiet fighting over a long holiday weekend but never took hold.

2013: A savage coastal storm powered by hurricane-force gusts slashes its way through Britain and western Europe, felling trees, flooding lowlands and snarling traffic in the air, at sea and on land. At least 13 people are reported killed.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Evelyn Waugh, British novelist (1903-1966); Ivan Turgenev, Russian writer (1818-1883); Auguste Escoffier, French chef par excellence (1846-1935); Francis Bacon, British painter (1909-1992); Dr Jonas Salk, US doctor, developer of first polio vaccine (1914-1995); Bill Gates, US chairman of Microsoft (1955- ); Julia Roberts, US actress

(1967- ); Ben Harper, US rock singer (1969- )

–AP