Today is the 214th day of 2022. There are 151 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2012: Kofi Annan announces his resignation as peace envoy to Syria and issues a blistering critique of world powers, bringing to a dramatic end a frustrating six-month effort to achieve even a temporary ceasefire as the country plunges into civil war.

OTHER EVENTS

1100: King William II of England (William Rufus) is killed by an arrow shot by Sir Walter Tyrell while hunting in the New Forest.

1552: Treaty of Passau in which Emperor Charles V accepts Lutheran religion.

1578: Battle of Rijmenam during which Spanish Habsburg forces are defeated by Dutch troops (Eighty Years’ War).

1610: English explorer Henry Hudson enters the bay later named after him, the Hudson Bay.

1665: French expedition against Barbarians in Tunis and Algiers.

1695: Daniel Quare receives a British patent for his portable barometer.

1738: France offers Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI mediation in his war against Turkey.

1776: Fifty-six members of the Continental Congress begin formally adding their signatures to the United States Declaration of Independence. (date most accepted by modern historians).

1782: George Washington creates Honorary Badge of Distinction.

1787 Swiss alpine explorer Horace Bénédict de Saussure becomes the third person to reach the top of Mont Blanc.

1790: First US census conducted, the population was 3,939,214 including 697,624 slaves.

1791: Samuel Briggs and his son are granted US patent for a nail-making machine.

1802: Napoleon Bonaparte is declared “Consul for Life” after winning national referendum.

1830: France’s King Charles X abdicates after July Revolution is waged against his conservative policies.

1832: Battle of Bad Axe, Wisconsin takes place in which 1,300 Illinois militia defeat Sauk & Fox Native Americans, ending the Black Hawk War in the US.

1858: Government of India transferred from East India Company to the British Crown.

1865: Transatlantic cable being laid by SS Great Eastern between Great Britain and America snaps and is lost.

1870: Tower Subway, the world’s first underground tube railway, opens in London.

1873: First trial run of San Francisco cable car, Clay Street between Kearny and Jones.

1880: British Parliament officially adopts Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).

1887: Chester A Hodge of Beloit, Wisconsin, patents ‘spur’ barbed wire.

1892: George A Wheeler is granted a US patent for a prototype of the escalator.

1894: Death duties first introduced in Britain.

1907: Legendary pitcher Walter Johnson, at 19, begins his 21 year Baseball Hall of Fame playing career for Washington with 3-2 loss v Detroit.

1909: Army Air Corps formed as army takes 1st delivery from Wright Brothers.

1911: Haiti’s dictator Simon flees on US warship near Jamaica.

1916: During World War I Austrian sabotage causes the sinking of the Italian battleship Leonardo da Vinci in Taranto.

1920: Marcus Garvey presents his “Back To Africa” programme in New York City.

1921: After 3 hours deliberation a Chicago jury acquits 8 Chicago White Sox accused in Black Sox scandal; next day they are banned from organised baseball for life.

1922: China is hit by a typhoon; about 60,000 die.

1928: Italy signs 20-year treaty of friendship with Ethiopia.

1932: Carl David Anderson discovers and photographs a positron, the first known antiparticle.

1934: Germany’s President Paul von Hindenburg dies at age 87, and Adolf Hitler assumes the title of “Der Fuehrer”.

1935: Britain passes the Government of India Act, separating Burma and Aden from India and granting self-government with a central legislature in New Delhi.

1939: Scientist Albert Einstein says in letter to United States President Franklin D Roosevelt that America should start an atomic research programme.

1943: A United States Navy patrol torpedo boat, PT-109, commanded by Lieutenant John F Kennedy, sinks after being hit by a Japanese destroyer off the Solomon Islands. Kennedy is credited with saving members of the crew.

1951: In an effort to slow down the influx of illegal immigrants to the United States, a Mexican-US migrant labour treaty is signed, bringing 300,000 Mexicans to work on US harvests.

1963: The United States tells United Nations it will halt all sales of military equipment to South Africa because of its apartheid policy.

1995: King Fahd replaces his oil and finance ministers in Saudi Arabia’s most significant leadership shake-up since he came to power in 1982.

1999: In India, 226 people die when two trains crash head-on in the pre-dawn darkness near Gaisal, about 500 kilometres (310 miles) north of Calcutta.

2000: In Kashmir, Islamic guerrillas open fire on a crowd of unarmed Hindu pilgrims and Muslim porters during supper; the 24-hour wave of violence that follows leaves 101 dead.

2001: Muslim extremists seize 36 Filipinos on the southern Philippine island of Basilan; at least four are beheaded.

2002: Kazakh authorities sentence Galymzhan Zhakiyanov, founding member of the reform movement Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DCK), to seven years in prison for corruption and abuse of power.

2003: The United States State Department suspends two programmes that allowed foreign air travellers on certain routes to enter the country without a visa.

2005: Snipers and soldiers in green berets keep watch as King Fahd, one of the world’s wealthiest monarchs, is laid to rest in Riyadh, Saudia Arabia.

2006: Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko says that he is nominating his former Orange Revolution foe, Viktor Yanukovych, to become prime minister.

2007: An overnight train derails in central Congo after its brakes fail, killing about 100 people.

2008: Two French humanitarian aid workers kidnapped on July 18 in Afghanistan are released.

2009: Nigerian Government forces hunt for surviving members of a radical Islamist sect after heavy fighting leaves at least 700 people dead and buildings and cars scorched.

2010: President Barack Obama hails August’s planned withdrawal of all US combat troops from Iraq — “as promised and on schedule” — as a major success despite deep doubts about the Iraqis’ ability to police and govern their country.

2011: Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak, 83 and ailing, goes on trial on charges of corruption and ordering the killing of protesters during the 18-day uprising that toppled him, and many Egyptians celebrate the chance at retribution against a long-time authoritarian ruler.

2018: Apple becomes the first American public listed company to reach US$1 trillion in value.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Edward A Freeman, English historian (1823-1892); Romulo Gallegos, Venezuelan president and novelist (1884-1969); Myrna Loy, US actress (1905-1993); James Baldwin, US author (1924-1987); Peter O’Toole, British actor (1932-2013); Isabel Allende, Chilean author (1942- ); Joanna Cassidy, US actress (1945- ); Tajay Gayle, long jumper and 2019 World Champion (1996- ).

— AP and Jamaica Observer