TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1996: A man armed with a semi-automatic rifle went on a rampage on the Australian island of Tasmania, killing 35 people; Martin Bryant was captured by police after a 12-hour stand-off at a guest cottage. (Bryant is serving a life sentence.)

OTHER EVENTS

1758: The fifth president of the United States, James Monroe, was born in Westmoreland County, Virginia.

1788: Maryland became the seventh state to ratify the Constitution of the United States.

1789: There was a mutiny on the HMS Bounty as rebelling crew members of the British ship, led by Fletcher Christian, set the captain, William Bligh, and 18 others adrift in a launch in the South Pacific. (Bligh and most of the men with him reached Timor in 47 days.)

1817: The United States and Britain signed the Rush-Bagot Treaty, which limited the number of naval vessels allowed in the Great Lakes.

1918: Gavrilo Princip, the assassin of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and the archduke’s wife, Sophie, died in prison of tuberculosis.

1925: The International Exposition of Modern Industrial and Decorative Arts, which gave rise to the term ‘Art Deco’, began a six-month run in Paris.

1945: Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, were executed by Italian partisans as they attempted to flee the country.

1952: War with Japan officially ended as a treaty signed in San Francisco the year before took effect. General Dwight D Eisenhower resigned as supreme allied commander in Europe; he was succeeded by General Matthew B Ridgway.

1967: Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali refused to be inducted into the army, the same day US Army General William C Westmoreland told Congress the US ‘would prevail in Vietnam’.

1974: A federal jury in New York acquitted former Attorney General John Mitchell and former Commerce Secretary Maurice H Stans of charges in connection with a secret US$200,000 contribution to President Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign from financier Robert Vesco.

1988: A flight attendant was killed and more than 60 persons injured when part of the roof of an Aloha Airlines Boeing 737 tore off during a flight from Hilo to Honolulu.

2001: A Russian rocket lifted off from Central Asia bearing the first space tourist, California businessman Dennis Tito, and two cosmonauts on a journey to the international space station.

2006: Storms battered eastern Texas with winds up to 100 miles per hour and hail the size of baseballs.

2011: President Barack Obama reshuffled his national security team, with CIA Director Leon Panetta succeeding Defence Secretary Robert Gates and General David Petraeus replacing Panetta at the CIA.

2015: Nigerian troops rescued nearly 300 girls and women during an offensive against Boko Haram militants in the north-east Sambia forest; those rescued did not include any of the schoolgirls kidnapped a year earlier from Chibok.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Former Secretary of State James A Baker III is 86. Actor Frank Vincent is 79. Actress-singer Ann-Margret is 75. Actor Paul Guilfoyle is 67. Former Tonight Show host Jay Leno is 66. Rock musician Chuck Leavell is 64. Actress Mary McDonnell is 63. Rock singer/musician Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) is 63. Actress Nancy Lee Grahn is 60. Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan is 56. Rapper Too Short is 50. Actress Simbi Khali is 45. Actress Bridget Moynahan is 45. Actor Chris Young is 45. Rapper Big Gipp is 43. Actor Jorge Garcia is 43. Actress Elisabeth Rohm is 43. Actress Penelope Cruz is 42. Actor Nate Richert is 38. Actress Jessica Alba is 35. Actor Harry Shum Jr is 34. Actress Jenna Ushkowitz is 30. Actress Aleisha Allen is 25.

— AP