Today is the 219th day of 2017. There are 146 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1974: French stuntman Philippe Petit walks a tightrope strung between the twin towers of New York’s World Trade Center.

OTHER EVENTS

1502: French drive Spaniards from Canossa in southern Italy.

1647: Oliver Cromwell’s parliamentary army marches into London after proposals to Crown are rejected.

1782: General George Washington creates the Order of the Purple Heart, a decoration to recognise merit in enlisted men and non-commissioned officers in the Continental Army in the American Revolutionary War.

1794: The Whiskey Rebellion, a fight over taxes imposed on whiskey-making in the United States, takes place in Pennsylvania.

1804: US fleet bombards Mediterranean port of Tripoli, a pirate lair.

1819: Simon Bolivar and Francisco de Paula Santander lead Colombian troops to victory against Spain in the Battle of Boyaca, effectively ending Spanish control of Nueva Granada.

1858: First game of Australian rules football reportedly played in Melbourne, with 40 players on each team and a pitch 800 metres long.

1912: Russia and Japan sign an agreement determining spheres of influence in Mongolia and Manchuria.

1934: US Court of Appeals upholds a lower court ruling against the Government’s attempt to ban the James Joyce novel Ulysses.

1941: Soviet planes carry out their first bombing raids against Berlin, Germany, in World War II.

1942: US forces land on Guadalcanal in Pacific, marking the start of the first major allied offensive in the Pacific during World War II.

1945: Soviet Union declares war on Japan seven days before Japanese surrender in World War II.

1951: As India and Pakistan call up military troops over Kashmir dispute, a UN mediator begins new efforts to negotiate an agreement between both countries.

1957: An estimated 1,000 people are killed in Cali, Colombia, when a military truck convoy carrying dynamite and gasoline blows up, levelling eight city blocks and causing US$10 million in damage.

1960: Ivory Coast becomes independent of France.

1964: The Warren Commission concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in the assassination of US President John F Kennedy.

1968: At the Paris peace talks, Vietnamese representatives press demands for an unconditional halt to the US bombing of North Vietnam.

1986: Edward Lee Howard, a fugitive former CIA agent suspected of selling information, is granted political asylum in the Soviet Union.

1990: US President George H W Bush orders US troops to Saudi Arabia to defend against Iraq, and says US ships will enforce UN embargo on Iraq.

1991: Croatian Government accepts a federal peace plan in Yugoslavia and says it will not be first to break a ceasefire in the republic.

1998: Terrorist bombs explode minutes apart outside the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, killing 224 people and injuring thousands.

2002: Alvaro Uribe is sworn in as president of Colombia. During the inauguration, nearby mortar attacks, suspected to have been launched by leftist rebels, kill 19 people and wound 60.

2006: Alvaro Uribe is inaugurated as president of Colombia for a second term, promising to seek an elusive peace with leftist rebels while maintaining hard-line security policies.

2008: A US military jury sentences Osama bin Laden’s driver to 5 1/2 years for aiding terrorism, making him eligible for release in five months.

2009: Pakistan’s Taliban chief, who has led a violent campaign of suicide attacks and assassinations against the Pakistani Government, is killed in a US missile strike.

2010: A lively and healthy-looking Fidel Castro appeals to President Barack Obama to stave off global nuclear war, in an emphatic address to parliament that marks his first official Government appearance since emergency surgery four years ago.

2011: New unrest erupts on north London’s streets, a day after rioting and looting in a deprived area amid community anger over a fatal police shooting.

2012: Prosecutors call for three-year prison sentences for feminist punk rockers who gave an impromptu performance In Moscow’s main cathedral to call for an end to Vladimir Putin’s rule, in a case that has caused international outrage and split Russian society.

2013: President Barack Obama’s five-year effort to reboot US-Russian relations finally crashes as the White House abruptly cancels his planned face-to-face summit with President Vladimir Putin.

2014: Russia retaliates for sanctions over the crisis in Ukraine by banning most food imports from the West.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Stanley J Weyman, English author (1855-1928); Emil Nolde, German painter (1867-1956); Mata Hari, Dutch spy (1876-1917); Louis Leakey, British anthropologist (1903-1972); Ralph Bunche, US diplomat and civil rights activist (1904-1971); Nicholas Ray, US film director (1911-1979); Garrison Keillor, US humourist (1942- ); Charlize Theron, South African actress/model (1975- )

— AP