TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1992: The pyramids, the Sphinx, and other monuments survive Cairo earthquake that kills at least 400 and injures more than 4,000.

OTHER EVENTS

1775: The US Navy is founded as the Continental Congress orders the construction of a naval fleet.

1792: The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion, later known as the White House, is laid during a ceremony in Washington, DC.

1815: British occupy South Atlantic island of Ascension to prevent Napoleon’s escape from St Helena, the closest island.

1880: Transvaal declares independence from Britain.

1889: Boers rebel against British in South Africa.

1923: Ankara, formerly Angora, becomes new capital of Turkey.

1937: Germany guarantees inviolability of Belgium.

1943: Italy, during World War II, declares war on Germany — its former Axis partner.

1952: Egypt reaches agreement with Sudan on Nile waters.

1957: The East German Government seals its borders and recalls all East-mark holdings for conversion into a new currency.

1960: Richard M Nixon and John F Kennedy participate in the third televised debate of their presidential campaign, with Nixon in Hollywood, California, and Kennedy in New York.

1969: Soviet Union sends third spacecraft into orbit in as many days, putting seven cosmonauts in space.

1970: Canada and China announce they will establish diplomatic relations. Taiwan promptly breaks ties with Canada.

1981: Voters in Egypt participate in a referendum to elect Vice-President Hosni Mubarak as the new president one week after the assassination of Anwar Sadat.

1985: Tamil guerrillas attack government troops in two ceasefire violations in Sri Lanka.

1987: Costa Rica’s President Oscar Arias Sanchez wins Nobel Peace Prize for sponsoring plan to end civil wars in Central America.

1988: Egyptian author Naguib Mahfouz becomes first Arabic-language writer to win Nobel Prize for literature.

1990: General Michel Aoun, the Christian army commander who defied the Syrian-backed Lebanese Government for more than two years, surrenders power in the face of a Syrian-led military attack during the civil war.

1991: Twenty-one blacks are killed in a series of attacks in South Africa’s black townships.

1993: A fanatic fan of tennis star Steffi Graf is convicted in the stabbing of rival Monica Seles and receives a two-year suspended sentence.

1994: In the largest deal between software firms, Intuit Inc accepts a US$1.5-billion takeover offer from Microsoft Corp.

1997: Queen Elizabeth II begins visit to India to mark the 50th anniversary of the subcontinent’s independence from Britain.

1999: French lawmakers adopt a law giving unwed gay and straight couples the same rights previously limited to the married. Similar legislation already exists in several European countries.

2000: Muslim-Christian riots result in the deaths of 13 people in Lagos, Nigeria’s most populous city.

2001: President Hosni Mubarak issues an order that 83 suspected Islamic militants stand trial in Egypt’s state security court.

2005: Islamic militants launch a major attack on police and government buildings in the provincial capital of Nalchik in Russia’s volatile Caucasus region, turning the city into a war zone wracked by gunfire and explosions. At least 49 people, including 25 militants, are killed.

2006: Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and the Grameen Bank he founded win the Nobel Peace Prize for their pioneering use of tiny loans — microcredit — to lift millions out of poverty.

2010: With remarkable speed — and flawless execution — miner after miner climbs into a cramped cage deep beneath the Chilean earth, and is hoisted through 2,000 feet (600 metres) of rock to see precious sunlight after the longest underground entrapment in history.

2011: Raj Rajaratnam, the hedge fund billionaire at the centre of the biggest insider-trading case in US history, is sentenced to 11 years behind bars — the stiffest punishment ever handed out for the crime.

2012: Iran says it is ready to show flexibility at nuclear talks to ease Western concerns over its contentious nuclear programme as tensions rise in the stand-off between the Islamic Republic, Israel and the West.

2014: Gay rights groups hail a “seismic shift” by the Catholic church toward gays after bishops say homosexuals have gifts to offer the church.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Yves Montand, Italian-born French singer-actor (1921-1991); Margaret Thatcher, British prime minister (1925-2013); Paul Simon, US singer (1941- ); Marie Osmond, US actress/singer (1959- ); Sacha Baron Cohen, British actor (1971- )