Today is the 154th day of 2016. There are 212 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1953: The coronation of Queen Elizabeth II takes place in London’s Westminster Abbey, 16 months after the death of her father, King George VI.

OTHER EVENTS

1863: During the Civil War, Union Major General William T Sherman writes a letter to his wife, Ellen, in which he commented, “Vox populi, vox humbug” (The voice of the people is the voice of humbug).

1886: President Grover Cleveland, 49, marries Frances Folsom, 21, in the Blue Room of the White House. (To date, Cleveland is the only president to marry in the executive mansion.)

1897: Mark Twain, 61, is quoted by the New York Journal as saying from London that “the report of my death was an exaggeration”.

1924: Congress passes, and President Calvin Coolidge signs, a measure guaranteeing full American citizenship for all Native Americans born within US territorial limits.

1941: Baseball’s “Iron Horse”, Lou Gehrig, dies in New York of a degenerative disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis; he was 37.

1946: Italy holds a referendum which results in the Italian monarchy being abolished in favour of a republic.

1966: US space probe Surveyor 1 lands on the moon and begins transmitting detailed photographs of the lunar surface.

1976: Arizona Republic investigative reporter Don Bolles is mortally injured by a bomb planted underneath his car; he dies 11 days later. (Prosecutors believed Bolles was targeted because he had written stories that upset a liquor wholesaler; three men were convicted of the killing.)

1981: The Japanese video arcade game Donkey Kong is released by Nintendo.

1983: Half of the 46 people aboard an Air Canada DC-9 are killed after fire broke out on board, forcing the jetliner to make an emergency landing at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport.

1986: For the first time, the public could watch the proceedings of the US Senate on television as a six-week experiment began.

1997: Timothy McVeigh is convicted of murder and conspiracy in the 1995 bombing of the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. (McVeigh was executed in June 2001.)

2006: The United Nations General Assembly conclude a conference on AIDS by promising to set “ambitious national targets”, but falling short of setting exact financial goals for the fight against the disease. Canadian authorities announce they had foiled a home-grown terrorist attack to set off bombs outside Toronto’s Stock Exchange, a building housing Canada’s spy agency and a military base.

2011: Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney announces his bid for the Republican presidential nomination during an appearance in New Hampshire. A 73-year-old man opens fire in the Yuma, Arizona, area, killing five people and wounding one other before fatally shooting himself. A judge in Placerville, California, sentences serial sex offender Phillip Garrido to life in prison for kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard; Garrido’s wife, Nancy, receives a decades-long sentence. 2015: President Barack Obama signs the USA Freedom Act, extending three expiring surveillance provisions of the 9/11-era USA Patriot Act. FIFA President Sepp Blatter announces his resignation as head of soccer’s governing body just four days after being re-elected to the post amid a widening corruption scandal.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Actor-comedian Wayne Brady is 44. Actor Dominic Cooper is 38. Actress Nikki Cox is 38. Actor Justin Long is 38. Actor Deon Richmond is 38. Actress Morena Baccarin is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Irish Grinstead (702) is 36. Rock musician Fabrizio Moretti (The Strokes) is 36. Olympic gold medal soccer player Abby Wambach is 36. Country singer Dan Cahoon (Marshall Dyllon) is 33. Singer-songwriter ZZ Ward is 30. Actress Brittany Curran is 26. Actor Sterling Beaumon is 21.

— AP