Today is the 90th day of 2016. There are 276 days left in the year

 TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1981: John W Hinckley Jr shoots US President Ronald Reagan, who is wounded. The incident outside a Washington, DC, hotel also wounds three others.

OTHER EVENTS

1820:A Duc de Richelieu re-establishes censorship of French press.

1842: Ether is used as anaesthetic for the first time, by Dr Crawford Long in the US.

1858: The eraser-topped pencil is patented by H L Lipman of Philadelphia.

1867: US Secretary of State William H Seward reaches an agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for US$7.2 million, a deal roundly ridiculed as “Seward’s Folly”.

1870: The 15th amendment to the US Constitution, giving black men the right to vote, is declared in effect.

1905: Greeks in Crete revolt against Turkish rule.

1909: Queensboro Bridge, linking the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and Queens, opens.

1940: Japan establishes puppet government in occupied China.

1974: Chinese jetliner arrives in New York in what is described as first civilian flight from Chinese mainland to United States.

1990: Estonia’s Parliament declares Soviet Union an occupying power and pledges to seek full independence.

1995: Fleeing violence in Burundi, thousands of Rwandan refugees trek toward Tanzania.

1998: Blamed for the Government’s inability to implement economic reforms, Romania’s Prime Minister Victor Ciorbea bows to months of pressure and resigns; Rolls-Royce is purchased by German automaker BMW for US$570 million.

1999: Talks with a Russian official fail to move President Slobodan Milosevic of Yugoslavia to accept a peace offer with NATO, which expands the range of airstrike targets to include ministry buildings in Belgrade.

2002: Britain’s Queen Mary, widow of King George VI and mother of his successor to the throne, Queen Elizabeth II, dies at 101.

2003: Worldwide anti-war protests continue during the second week of the US-led invasion of Iraq, with major demonstrations in Indonesia, Pakistan and South Korea.

2005: British lawmakers say the death toll in Sudan’s Darfur region has been underestimated and is likely to be around 300,000, calling attacks against civilians “no less serious” than genocide.

2007: Nepal’s seven ruling political parties and the country’s former Maoist rebels agree to form a joint government, the latest step in ending a decade of civil war.

2008: A group of 200 Tibetan exiles and monks try to storm the Chinese Embassy visa office in Nepal’s capital, but police beat them back with bamboo batons. At least 130 protesters are arrested.

2010: The world’s largest atom smasher throws together minuscule particles racing at unheard of speeds in conditions simulating those just after the Big Bang — a success that kick-starts a mega-billion-dollar experiment that could one day explain how the universe began.

2011: Fears about contaminated seafood spread despite reassurances that radiation in the waters off Japan’s troubled atomic plant pose no health risk, as the country’s respected emperor consoles evacuees from the tsunami and nuclear emergency zone.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Francisco Goya, Spanish artist (1746 – 1828); Paul Verlaine, French author (1844 – 1896); John Astin, US actor (1930-); Warren Beatty, US actor (1937-); Eric Clapton, British guitarist/singer (1945-), Tracy Chapman, US singer (1964- ); Celine Dion, Canadian singer (1968- ); Norah Jones, US singer (1979- )

— AP