Today is the 351st day of 2016. There are 15 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1773: American colonists, dressed as Indians, dump 342 chests of tea overboard from a British ship in Boston Harbor, staging a protest against British taxation. The event becomes known as “The Boston Tea Party”.

OTHER EVENTS

1653: Oliver Cromwell becomes lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.

1809: Napoleon Bonaparte divorces Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate.

1944: German forces begin “Battle of the Bulge” in the Ardennes area of Belgium in World War II.

1950: US President Harry Truman proclaims a national state of emergency in order to fight “Communist imperialism”.

1960: A United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collide over New York City, killing 134 people.

1966: UN Security Council votes 11-0 to invoke economic sanctions against white minority government in Rhodesia.

1972: US Apollo 17 spacecraft heads for Earth after the last US manned exploration of the Moon.

1990: Haitians elect populist priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide in the country’s first fully democratic election.

1991: The UN General Assembly rescinds its 1975 resolution equating Zionism with racism by a 111-25 vote.

2001: After nine weeks of siege, Afghan tribal leaders claim victory over al-Qaeda guerrillas at their last stronghold in Afghanistan. But Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts remain a mystery.

2002: The Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) claims an al-Qaeda terrorist network is operating in Canada. The statement follows the arrest of Mohammed Harkat, an Algerian immigrant who entered the country using a false Saudi Arabian passport in 1995.

2005: Hamas celebrates a landslide victory in key West Bank towns, the strongest sign yet of the Islamic militant group’s growing political clout ahead of parliamentary elections.

2009: Iran test fires an upgraded version of an advanced missile capable of hitting Israel and parts of Europe, an apparent show of strength aimed at discouraging attacks on its nuclear facilities.

2010: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is released on bail — confined to a supporter’s English estate but free to get back to work spilling US Government secrets on his website as he fights Sweden’s attempt to extradite him on allegations of rape and molestation.

2011: Alarming financial news flows out of Europe in a torrent, just a week after the European Union leaders struck a deal they thought would contain the continent’s debt crisis.

2012: Japan’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party returns to power in a landslide election victory after three years in opposition.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

John Selden, English jurist (1584-1654); Jane Austen, English novelist (1775-1817); Sir Noel Coward, English dramatist-composer (1899-1973); Margaret Mead, American anthropologist (1901-1978); Liv Ullmann, Norwegian actress (1938- ); Benny Andersson, Swedish musician-composer, former member of ABBA (1946- ); Benjamin Bratt, US actor (1963- )

—AP