Today is the 239th day of 2021. There are 126 days left in the year

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2004: Armed with knives, Eritrean deportees hijacked a plane that left Libya carrying about 80 fellow Eritreans and forced it to land in the Sudanese capital before surrendering to security forces.

OTHER EVENTS

1789: French National Assembly adopts Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, proclaiming that “men are born and remain free and equal in rights”.

1813: French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte wins his last great battle at Dresden, Germany, against a larger Austrian, Prussian, and Russian force.

1828: Uruguay is formally proclaimed independent at preliminary peace talks between Brazil and Argentina.

1883: The most powerful volcanic eruption ever recorded blows apart Mount Krakatau in the Sunda Straits, Indonesia. Shock waves travel around the Earth and tidal waves kill an estimated 36,000 people.

1916: Romania declares war against Austria-Hungary, thus entering World War I. The country is soon occupied by German and Bulgarian forces.

1921: British install Faisal, son of Sherif Hussein who led Arab revolt against Turks, as king of Iraq.

1927: American Bill Brock flies the Pride of Detroit over London on his way to completing the first-ever flight around the world.

1928: The Kellog-Briand Pact or Pact of Paris is established by which countries vow to solve conflicts by peaceful means. It is eventually signed by most of the world’s nations.

1943: Japanese forces evacuate New Georgia Island in the Pacific in World War II.

1969: Israeli commando force penetrates deep into Egyptian territory to stage mortar attack on regional army headquarters in Nile Valley of Upper Egypt.

1971: A coup attempt fails in African nation of Chad. The Government accuses Egypt of playing a role in the attempt and breaks diplomatic relations.

1975: The governor of Portuguese Timor abandons the capital of Dili and flees to Atauro Island, leaving the control of Timor to a rebel group.

1979: British war hero Lord Louis Mountbatten is killed off the coast of Ireland in a boat explosion; the Irish Republican Army claims responsibility. Two other bomb attacks kill 18 British soldiers.

1982: Turkish military diplomat Colonel Atilla Altikat is shot and killed in Ottawa. Justice Commandos against Armenian Genocide take responsibility, saying they were avenging the massacre of 1.5 million Armenians in 1915.

1990: The five permanent members of the UN Security Council agree to a plan to end the 11-year-old Cambodian civil war. The plan would take effect only with the approval of the four warring factions.

1991: During session of national legislature, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev appeals to 15 Soviet republics to at least preserve military and economic union.

1992: US and British warplanes impose allied flight ban over southern Iraq.

1993: A dam at the Gouhou reservoir in the western Chinese province of Qinghai bursts, releasing torrents of water that kill hundreds of people and destroy several villages.

1994: Algeria closes its border with Morocco in an escalating dispute over the arrest of two Algerians accused of plotting to attack Moroccan banks, security forces, and civilians.

2000: Fire in Moscow spreads for 26 hours through a television tower that is the world’s second-tallest free-standing structure, killing three people.

2001: Peru’s Congress votes to lift the constitutional immunity of former President Alberto Fujimori, clearing the way for prosecutors to charge him with crimes against humanity.

2002: A judge in Tokyo District Court issues a ruling acknowledging Japan engaged in biological warfare in China in World War II and conducted experiments on Chinese prisoners of war.

2005: Right-wing paramilitary warlords formally surrender control of a government-granted haven in north-west Colombia, in what officials say is a step toward wrapping up demobilisation talks with the Government.

2006: Iran tests a new anti-ship missile fired by a submarine during war games, raising worries it could disrupt vital oil tanker traffic in the Gulf amid its stand-off with the West over its suspect nuclear activities.

2007: Under pressure to solve the contract-style killing of journalist and Kremlin critic Anna Politkovskaya, Russia’s chief prosecutor announces the arrest of 10 suspects, including a Chechen crime boss and five law enforcement officers.

2008: Iraq calls on companies to submit designs to build a giant Ferris wheel in Baghdad — the latest in a string of lavish proposals painting the capital as a leisure-friendly city.

2009: Fighting reportedly breaks out between an ethnic militia and government security forces in north-eastern Myanmar, breaching a two-decade ceasefire.

2010: Cuba issues a pair of surprising free-market decrees, allowing foreign investors to lease government land for up to 99 years — potentially touching off a golf-course building boom — and loosening State controls on commerce to let islanders grow and sell their own fruit and vegetables.

2011: US and Pakistani officials say that al-Qaeda’s second in command Atiyah Abd al-Rahman, has been killed in Pakistan, delivering another big blow to a terrorist group that the US believes to be on the verge of defeat.

2012: Mexican authorities are unable to overcome the resistance of an apocalyptic religious sect in western Mexico that has refused to allow public school teachers to hold classes in their town of Nueva Jerusalem or New Jerusalem.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, German philosopher (1770-1831); Sophia Smith, US philanthropist, founded Smith College (1796- 1870); Theodore Dreiser, US author (1871-1945); Samuel Goldwyn, US film producer (1882-1974); Man Ray, US artist (1890-1976); Lyndon B Johnson, US president (1908-1973); Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Zulu nationalist leader in South Africa (1928- ); Paul Reubens (Pee Wee Herman), US actor (1952- )

— AP