This is the 157th day of 2023. There are 208 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2005: The International Criminal Court announces the investigation of alleged war crimes in Sudan’s Darfur region, where an estimated 180,000 people had died and two million had been displaced since the conflict began in 2003.

OTHER EVENTS

1622: Pope Gregory XV creates the Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith, for the organisation and direction of the missions of the Roman Catholic Church to the non-Christian world.

1660: The Peace of Copenhagen ends a generation of war between Sweden and Denmark and fixes the borders the way they are today, with Denmark regaining Fyn and Bornholm from Sweden.

1716: The French transport the first African slaves to Louisiana.

1844: George Williams originates the Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) in London.

1892: Chicago’s elevated Loop train line (commonly known as “The L”) begins operating and becomes one of the longest and busiest mass transit systems in the United States.

1925: Automobile manufacturer Chrysler Corporation is incorporated, with Walter P Chrysler as president.

1916: The death of Yuan Shikai, ruler of much of China since 1912, causes the central government to virtually collapse in the face of warlords, including Sun Yat-sen.

1931: George and Ira Gershwin’s musical Girl Crazy, starring Ginger Rogers and featuring the debut of Ethel Merman, closes at the Alvin Theater, New York City, after 272 performances, making stars of Rogers and Merman.

1934: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) — a US regulatory agency — is established.

1964: Malawi gains independence from Britain, with Kamuzu Banda as prime minister.

1967: Egyptians close the Suez Canal during the Six-Day Arab-Israeli War; it remains closed to international shipping for eight years.

1982: Israel invades Lebanon with 60,000 troops to drive out the Palestine Liberation Organization.

1985: Israel withdraws the bulk of its troops from Lebanon after a three-year occupation but it retains the border strip.

1986: The Storms of Life debut album by Randy Travis is released; it later wins Billboard Album of the Year in 1987.

1991: Larry Kert, actor (West Side Story), dies of AIDS at 60.

1992: Larry Riley, American actor (Soldier Story, Knots Landing), dies of AIDS at 39.

1994: An earthquake in Colombia sets off a landslide that buries several villages, killing as many as 1,000 people and leaving thousands more homeless.

1997: German authorities decide to place the Scientology movement under surveillance for one year, claiming the group is aiming to undermine democratic society.

1998: With a border dispute escalating into bombing raids, hundreds of foreigners scramble out of Eritrea, fearing war with Ethiopia. American TV show Sex and the City begins airing on HBO and becomes one of the most popular and influential television series of the late 1990s and early 2000s.

2000: A former Japanese doomsday cult leader is sentenced to life in prison for the 1995 nerve gas attack on Tokyo subways that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.

2002: Deliberations begin in the trial of American accounting firm Arthur Andersen LLP; the firm is accused of obstructing justice by shredding the files of international energy-trading firm Enron Corp. (Accounting fraud led to Enron’s collapse in December 2001).

2004: For her performance in A Raisin in the Sun, Phylicia Rashad becomes the first African American to win a Tony Award for Best Actress.

2006: Haiti’s president, Rene Preval, appoints a coalition government in an effort to unite the impoverished nation — two years after a bloody revolt toppled the last elected president.

2008: Bombs rip through two buses in Sri Lanka, including one packed with commuters near the country’s heavily fortified capital, officials say; at least 23 people are killed and 67 wounded.

2010: The Vatican says the international community is ignoring the plight of Christians in the Middle East, and that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the war in Iraq, and political instability in Lebanon have forced thousands to flee the region.

2012: The US and its allies in Europe, Turkey and the Arab world agree to work on a political transition plan for Syria, hoping to persuade President Bashar Assad’s powerful ally Russia to join a broadened diplomatic effort to ease the embattled leader out of power.

2013: A leaked document reveals the US Government’s telephone surveillance programme that, besides collecting records of hundreds of millions of Americans’ calls, includes listening in on some foreign leaders, most notably German Chancellor Angela Merkel — the first hard evidence of a massive data collection programme aimed at combating terrorism.

2015: American Pharoah wins the Belmont Stakes, becoming the first Thoroughbred in more than 35 years to capture horse racing’s Triple Crown.

2018: At least 46 Ethiopian migrants drown after their boat capsizes off the coast of Yemen. It is announced that a French man won France’s €1 million My Lottery for the second time in two years — the odds of this occurrence are 1 in 16 trillion.

2019: Amir Ohana becomes the first openly gay minister in Israel as acting justice minister. Germany’s worst post-war serial killer, Nurse Niels Hoegel is jailed for a second life sentence for the murder of 85 more people (previously convicted for six).

2021: Four members of a London, Ontario, family are killed when they are struck by a truck during an anti-Muslim attack.

2022: Former chairman of far-right group the Proud Boys, Enrique Tarrio and four others are indicted on seditious conspiracy for their role in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Alexandra, empress consort of Russia (1872-1918); Thomas Mann, German novelist (1875-1955); Sukarno, Indonesia’s first president (1901-1970); Aram Khachaturian, Soviet composer (1903-1978); Levi Stubbs, American lead singer with The Four Tops (1936-2008); Monty Alexander (born Montgomery Bernard Alexander), Jamaican piano virtuoso (1944- ); Sandra Bernhard, US actress-comedian (1955- ); Bjorn Borg, Swedish tennis player (1956- )

— AP/ Jamaica Observer