Today is the 8th day of 2016. There are 358 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1996 – A cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in Kinshasa, Zaire (Congo), killing 255 people by the official count. The unofficial death toll reaches 1,000.

OTHER EVENTS

1654: Ukraine joins Russia.

1679: French explorer la Salle reaches Niagara Falls.

1815: The Battle of New Orleans takes place with Andrew Jackson defeating the British army in the closing engagement of the War of 1812.

1912: The African National Congress is founded in Bloemfontein.

1915: Heavy fighting breaks out in areas of the Assee Canal in Belgium and Soissons, France, in World War I.

1918: US President Woodrow Wilson outlines his 14 points for peace after World War I.

1926: Ibn Saud becomes king of Hejaz on King Hussein’s expulsion and changes name of kingdom to Saudi Arabia.

1974: Khmer Rouge in Cambodia intensify pressure on Phnom Penh with strikes north and south of the capital.

1987: The Dow Jones industrial average closes above 2,000 for the first time, ending the day at 2,002.25.

1989: Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev says Kremlin is besieged by financial problems that are sapping his reforms.

1998: Ramzi Yousef, an Arab of uncertain nationality, is sentenced to life in prison plus 240 years for masterminding the World Trade Center bombing in New York that killed six people in 1993.

2007: Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez announces plans to nationalise the country’s electrical and telecommunications companies, one of his boldest moves in trying to transform Venezuela into a socialist state.

2011: Spain’s leading broadcaster says it will no longer show the country’s centuries-old tradition of bullfighting in order to protect children from viewing violence.

2015: Sri Lanka’s long-time President Mahina Rajapaksa acknowledges that he has been defeated by a one-time political ally, signalling the fall of a family dynasty and the rise of former Cabinet minister Maithripala Sirisena.