Today is the 25th day of 2022. There are 340 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HGHLIGHTS

1994: Without admitting guilt, Michael Jackson settles a lawsuit that said he molested a young boy. Terms of the settlement leave the boy “very happy”, the youngster’s attorney said.

OTHER EVENTS

1533: Henry VIII marries Anne Boleyn.

1787: Small farmers in Springfield, Massachusetts, led by Daniel Shays, revolt against tax laws. Federal troops break up the protesters of what becomes known as Shay’s Rebellion.

1802: France’s Napoleon Bonaparte becomes president of the Italian Republic.

1831: Polish Diet proclaims independence of Poland, dethrones Nicholas, and deposes the Romanovs.

1890: The United Mine Workers of America is founded; writer Nellie Bly completes her trip around the world in 72 days.

1915: The inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurates US transcontinental telephone service.

1924: The first Winter Olympics begins.

1942: Thailand, allied to Japan, declares war on Britain and the United States.

1944: Battle for Cassino begins in Italy in World War II.

1949: The first Emmy Awards are presented; there were only six categories, and nominated shows were limited to those that aired in the Los Angeles area.

1952: Crisis arises between France and Germany over administration of the Saar region.

1959: Britain signs trade pact with East Germany; American Airlines opens the jet age in the United States with the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707.

1961: The animated film One Hundred and One Dalmatians is released in the United States. It becomes a Disney classic, especially noted for the villainous character Cruella De Vil.

1964: Comedian and actor Bill Cosby marries Camille Olivia Hanks.

1971: Charles Manson and three female followers are convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate. Military coup in Uganda under Major General Idi Amin.

1975: Sheik Mujibur Rahman abolishes parliamentary rule in Bangladesh and assumes absolute powers as president.

1977: The world’s first solar power plant is opened.

1981: The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days return home.

1989: Cambodia’s Premier Hun Sen rejects proposal for international peacekeeping force in his country.

1991: Leaders of rival Yugoslav republics Serbia and Croatia meet in effort to defuse tensions there.

1992: Russian President Boris Yeltsin says Russia will stop targeting US cities with nuclear missiles.

1996: The leading Nicaraguan presidential candidate, Arnoldo Aleman, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt that kills a bodyguard.

1997: A cyclone sweeps across the island nation of Madagascar, spawning floods that leave 100 people missing and thousands homeless.

1998: The pope holds a sermon on the virtues of democracy in Havana, Cuba, with dictator Fidel Castro in the audience.

1999: An earthquake devastates a coffee-growing region in Colombia, killing at least 940 people and leaving hundreds of thousands homeless.

2005: Outspoken former communist-era government spokesperson Jerzy Urban is convicted of libel and fined for insulting the Polish-born Pope John Paul II in his satirical magazine. The result shows the Polish “justice system is overly influenced by religion”, says Urban.

2006: Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians crowd polling stations in their first parliamentary elections in a decade. The vote results in a stunning victory for Islamic radicals when Hamas emerges as the winner.

2007: Russian President Vladimir Putin offers to build four new nuclear reactors for energy-starved India, cementing his country’s traditional role as India’s main nuclear benefactor.

2010: Suicide bombers strike in quick succession at three Baghdad hotels favoured by Western journalists in well-planned assaults that kill at least 37 people and wound more than 100.

2011: Egyptian Revolution of 2011 begins with a series of street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, labour strikes and violent clashes in Cairo, Alexandria and other major cities. Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vows revenge for the suicide bombing that killed 35 people at a Moscow airport — a familiar tough-on-terrorism stance that has underpinned his power but also led to a rising number of deadly attacks in Russia.

2012: A bold, dark-of-night rescue by US Navy commandos frees an ailing American woman and a Danish man from a Somali encampment that the commandos slipped into, killing nine captors.

2017: US President Donald Trump moves aggressively to tighten the nation’s immigration controls, signing executive actions to jumpstart construction of his promised US-Mexico border wall and cut federal grants for immigrant-protecting “sanctuary cities”. Death claims actress Mary Tyler Moore at age 80 and actor John Hurt at age 77.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Edmund Campion, English Jesuit (1540-1581); Witold Lutoslawski, modern Polish composer and conductor (1913-1994); Robert Burns, Scottish poet (1759-1796); W Somerset Maugham, English author (1874-1965); Virginia Wolff, English author (1882-1941); Dinah Manoff, US actress (1958- ); Alicia Keys, US R&B singer (1981- ); Etta James, US blues singer (1938-2012); Paul Foreman, Jamaican Olympian (1939- )

— AP/Jamaica Observer