Today is the 207th day of 2017. There are 158 days left in the year

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1847: Liberia becomes the first African colony to declare its independence.

OTHER EVENTS

1821: Turkey and Russia sever relations after Turkey refuses to protect Christian subjects.

1891: France annexes South Sea island of Tahiti.

1908: The Federal Bureau of Investigation — the FBI — is established in the United States.

1926: Philippines legislature calls for plebiscite on independence, but it is vetoed by US governor general.

1945: Britain, United States, and China demand Japan’s unconditional surrender as terms for peace in World War II; Winston Churchill resigns as Britain’s prime minister, after his Conservatives are defeated by the Labour Party.

1947: The US Department of Defence is established under the National Security Act of 1947.

1952: Eva Peron, popular leader and wife of Argentine President Juan Peron, dies of cancer at age 33; Egypt’s King Farouk abdicates in favour of his infant son, after a military coup led by Gamal Abdel Nasser.

1953: Fidel Castro leads an attack on army barracks in Santiago, Cuba, in the hope of sparking a popular uprising. Most of the 160 revolutionaries are killed and Castro is captured, but later receives an amnesty.

1990: Iraq agrees to pull thousands of troops back from Kuwaiti border after Kuwait agrees to cut oil production.

1991: Communist leaders overwhelmingly approve Mikhail Gorbachev’s new party platform, abandoning decades of Marxist dogma.

1992: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein ends a three-week stand-off and allows UN inspectors to search the Agriculture Ministry in Baghdad for chemical weapons.

1994: Israel warns of a new wave of terrorism by Islamic extremists after a car bomb wrecks part of its London embassy, injuring 14 people.

1997: K R Narayanan takes the oath of India’s presidency, the first member of the class once known as “untouchables” to do so.

1998: Prime Minister Hun Sen’s party wins a majority in Cambodia elections, a year after he ousted his rival Prince Norodom Ranariddh in a bloody coup.

2000: The European Union proposes a ban on the import of “conflict diamonds” from Sierra Leone. The proposal matches a similar resolution passed by the UN Security Council.

2002: A court in Jakarta, Indonesia, convicts Hutomo Mandala Putra, son of former President Suharto, of hiring the assassins who murdered the Supreme Court justice who convicted Putra of fraud.

2005: Judges in Amsterdam hand down a rare maximum sentence of life with no possibility of parole for the Dutch-born Muslim who confessed to — and expressed no regret for — shooting, stabbing and nearly decapitating film-maker Theo van Gogh.

2006: Israeli aircraft and artillery fire at Palestinian militants in Gaza killing 18 Palestinians, including at least three little girls, as Israel presses ahead with its offensive alongside fighting in Lebanon.

2008: At least 29 people were killed and 88 wounded when a series of small explosions hit the western Indian city of Ahmadabad.

2009: In a drive to inoculate people against swine flu before winter, many European governments say they will fast-track the testing of a vaccine, arousing concern among some experts about safety and proper doses.

2011: Kosovo’s prime minister defends an order for his special police to take control of two contested border crossings with Serbia, saying it was “the right decision” despite condemnation from the European Union.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

George Bernard Shaw, Irish writer (1856-1950); Carl Jung, Swiss psychologist (1875-1961); Antonio Machado, Spanish writer (1875-1939); George Grosz, German painter (1893-1959); Aldous Huxley, British author (1894-1963); Blake Edwards, producer/director (1922-2010), Stanley Kubrick, US film director (1928-1999); Mick Jagger, British pop singer (1943- ); Kevin Spacey, US actor (1959- ); Sandra Bullock, US actress (1964- ); Kate Beckinsale, English actress (1973- )

— AP