Today is the 107th day of 2021. There are 258 days in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1961: Cuba is invaded at “Bay of Pigs” by a US-supported invasion force of 1,500 Cuban exiles, who are defeated by Fidel Castro’s forces. 

OTHER EVENTS

1194: Richard the Lionhearted returns to England, ending an epic journey which began with his victory over Muslim leader Saladin during the Third Crusade.

1492: Spain agrees to finance Christopher Columbus’s voyage of discovery; Columbus signs a contract with a representative of King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, giving him a commission to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.

1521: Martin Luther appears before the Holy Roman Emperor at Worms, Germany, and is cross-examined about his thoughts on religious reform. Luther goes into hiding soon after.

1946: Last French troops leave Syria, which becomes independent.

1964: The Ford Motor Company unveils its new Mustang model. Jerrie Mock of Columbus, Ohio, becomes the first woman to complete a solo aeroplane flight around the world.

1971: Egypt, Syria and Libya sign agreement to confederate.

1993: A federal jury in Los Angeles convicts two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten motorist Rodney King; two other officers are acquitted.

2000: Paul Kagame is selected president of Rwanda, the nation’s first Tutsi leader since independence in 1962 and a former rebel leader whose forces stopped the 1994 genocide.

2010: Some 100,000 Poles fill Warsaw’s biggest public square, joining together for a memorial and funeral mass for the 96 people killed in a plane crash in Russia a week earlier.

2012: In a scene unimaginable in many countries, Norway’s worst mass killer gets the chance to explain his fanatical views to the court and the world, unrepentant and dressed in a business suit. 

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Henry Vaughan, English poet (1622-1695); Samuel Chase, US jurist/signer of the US Declaration of Independence (1741-1811); J Pierpont Morgan, US financier (1837-1913); Thornton Wilder, US novelist/playwright (1897-1975); Nikita Khrushchev, Soviet statesman (1894-1971); Jennifer Garner, US actress (1972- ); Victoria Adams Beckham, British singer (1974- ) 

— AP