Today is the 56th day of 2022. There are 309 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1870: Hiram R Revels became the first black member of the US Senate, as he is sworn in to serve out the unexpired term of Jefferson Davis.

OTHER EVENTS

1570: England’s Queen Elizabeth I is excommunicated by Pope Pius V.

1601: England’s Earl of Essex, former favourite of Queen Elizabeth I, is executed for treason after his attempt to start a rebellion fails.

1713: Sweden’s King Charles XII is taken prisoner by the Ottoman Sultan.

1793: American President George Washington convenes the first Cabinet meeting on record — at his home.

1836: American inventor Samuel Colt patents his revolver.

1885: Germany annexes Tanganyika and Zanzibar.

1913: The 16th Amendment of the US Constitution, authorising an income tax, goes into effect.

1940: A hockey game is televised for the first time, by New York City station W2XBS, as the New York Rangers defeat the Montreal Canadians 6-2 at Madison Square Garden.

1948: Communists stage a coup in Czechoslovakia.

1956: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev denounces late dictator Josef Stalin before Communist Party Congress in Moscow, beginning the “de-Stalinisation” movement. The Twentieth Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union comes to a close after First Secretary Nikita S Khrushchev delivers a secret speech denouncing the late Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.

1964: Cassius Clay — who changed his name to Muhammad Ali — defeats Sonny Liston to become the world’s heavyweight boxing champion at age 22.

1976: United States vetoes UN resolution deploring Israel’s annexation of Jerusalem.

1986: Philippines President Ferdinand E Marcos resigns, brought down by a “people’s power” uprising, military revolt, and US pressure.

1990: Nicaraguans vote in an election that leads to an upset victory for opponents of the ruling Sandinistas.

1991: Iraqi President Saddam Hussein orders his forces, under attack by allied ground troops, to withdraw from Kuwait. An Iraqi Scud missile hits a US Marine barracks near the Saudi city of Dhahran, killing 28 soldiers and wounding several others.

1992: Imelda Marcos accepts Philippine government conditions for returning her husband’s body.

1993: US Marines and Nigerian soldiers blast at snipers in central Mogadishu, Somalia, in a five-hour battle that kills one Somali.

1994: American-born Jewish settler Baruch Goldstein opens fire inside the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank, killing 29 Muslims before he is beaten to death by worshippers.

1995: Two bombs blow apart a train car reserved for the military in north-eastern India, killing at least 26 soldiers and wounding more than 30.

1996: Militant Palestinian suicide bomber sets off an explosion on a Jerusalem bus, killing 26.

2001: Peace talks aimed at resolving Burundi’s seven-year-old civil war end without resolution. The talks had sought to revive a multiethnic power-sharing agreement signed by many of the warring groups.

2003: Two bomb blasts damage the Colombian consulate and Spanish Embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, wounding five people. The explosions come two days after President Hugo Chavez accuses Spain and Colombia of meddling in Venezuela’s internal affairs.

2005: Argentina completes the biggest debt restructuring in history, hoping to end its status as an international financial pariah three years after a devastating economic crisis.

2007: In Detroit, Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan stresses religious unity during what is billed as his final major speech, saying the world is at war because Christians and Muslims are divided.

2011: Hundreds of thousands pour out of mosques and stage protests across the Arab world, some trying to shake off autocratic rulers and others pressuring embattled leaders to carry out sweeping reforms.

2012: A gunman kills two American military advisers with shots to the back of the head inside a heavily guarded ministry building, and North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) orders military workers out of Afghan ministries as protests rage for a fifth day over the burning of copies of the Quran at a US Army base.

2013: Miguel Diaz-Canel is tapped to be Cuban President Raul Castro’s chief lieutenant and likely successor.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

CBS newsman Bob Schieffer (1937- ); actress Diane Baker (1938- ); actress Karen Grassle (1942- ); Latin singer Julio Iglesias Jr (1973- ); comedian-actress Chelsea Handler (1975- ); legendary Jamaican sprinter and Olympic gold medalist Donald Quarrie (1951- )

— AP