Today is the 349th day of 2015. There are 16 days left in the year

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1640: The Duke of Braganca is crowned John IV, the first king of Portugal after 60 years of Spanish rule.

OTHER HIGHLIGHTS

1711: The plague breaks out in Copenhagen.

1939: The motion picture

Gone With the Wind premieres in Atlanta.

1944: The plane carrying American bandleader Glenn Miller, a US Army major, disappears over the English Channel, probably the victim of bombs jettisoned from British bombers returning from an unsuccessful raid.

1961: Former Nazi Adolf Eichmann is sentenced to death in Jerusalem.

1978: US President Jimmy Carter announces he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year’s Day, and sever official relations with Taiwan.

1986: Rival ethnic groups battle in Karachi and set hundreds of homes and shops ablaze in the city’s worst rioting since Pakistan’s Independence 39 years earlier.

1994: The Swedish government decides not to salvage the bodies from the ferry Estonia, which sank in the Baltic, killing 800 people. The decision is opposed by the victims’ relatives.

1999: Venezuelans overwhelmingly approve a new constitution that eliminates the Senate and vastly increases the power of President Hugo Chavez, allowing him to stay in office for up to 13 years.

2004: The ex-Iraqi general known as “Chemical Ali”, who is accused of using chemical weapons attacks to kill thousands of Kurds, is announced as the first detained former Saddam Hussein regime figure to stand trial.

2011: Former President Jacques Chirac is convicted of corruption related to his 18-year term as mayor of Paris, becoming France’s first leader to be convicted of crime since the end of World War II.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Nero, Roman emperor (AD 37- AD 68); Henri Becquerel, French chemist (1852-1908); Gustave Eiffel, French engineer (1832-1923); Maxwell Anderson, US playwright (1888-1959); J Paul Getty, US oil tycoon (1892-1976)

— AP