Today is the 222nd day of 2023. There are 143 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1977: US postal employee David Berkowitz is arrested after being accused of being the “Son of Sam” gunman responsible for six random slayings and wounding seven people. He is serving six consecutive terms of 25 years to life in state prison.

OTHER EVENTS

1566: Iconoclastic riots by fanatical Calvinists break out in the Netherlands.

1627: French forces under Cardinal Richelieu begin siege of La Rochelle, held by Huguenots. Three-quarters of its inhabitants die of starvation during the 15-month siege.

1628: The Swedish warship Vasa capsizes in Stockholm harbour on its maiden voyage. It is raised in 1961.

1664: Truce of Vasvar ends war between Turkey and Holy Roman Empire, whereby rival armies are to withdraw from Transylvania.

1741: Prussia’s King Frederick II takes Breslau in Poland.

1787: Turkey declares war on Russia, fearing designs on Georgia.

1792: French monarchy is overthrown when mobs in Paris attack palace of King Louis XVI.

1842: Lord Ashley’s Mine Act prohibits women and children under 10 from working underground in Britain.

1866: Bolivia cedes territory between Andes and Pacific Ocean to Chile.

1885: Leo Daft opens America’s first commercially operated electric streetcar in Baltimore.

1897: A young researcher at German chemical firm Bayer, Felix Hoffman, first synthesises acetylsalicylic acid, aspirin’s active ingredient.

1904: Japan’s navy destroys much of Russian fleet off Port Arthur.

1913: Bulgaria gives up its claim to Macedonia in a peace treaty signed in Bucharest, ending Second Balkan War. Tensions remain in the region, exploding a year later in World War I.

1914: France declares war on Austria-Hungary at the start of World War I.

1919: Anglo-White Russian forces defeat Soviet forces in North Dvina.

1945: Japan offers to surrender in World War II if Emperor Hirohito is permitted to keep his throne.

1962: Soviet Union rejects proposed US inspection plan as part of any disarmament agreement.

1972: The US House defeats an end-the-war amendment for withdrawal of all US forces from Indochina. This was caused by a split in anti-war forces over the pullout date from Vietnam.

1987: Police disperse striking mine workers who halted rail and road travel as more than 100 strikes hurt South Korea’s industries.

1988: US President Ronald Reagan signs a measure providing US$20,000 payments to Japanese-Americans interned by the US Government during World War II.

1991: Serbs and Croats exchange prisoners for first time during their undeclared war.

1993: The United States says Bosnian Serbs could face a NATO air strike unless they abandon positions on two strategic mountains near Sarajevo. The Serbs evacuate four days later.

1995: Two of Saddam Hussein’s daughters, their husbands and a group of army officers flee to Jordan. King Hussein grants them political asylum.

1996: Chechen rebels drive back Russian troops from the centre of Grozny and withstand barrages of Russian aircraft and artillery fire.

1997: Photos of British Princess Diana embracing film producer Dodi Fayed are published in London’s Sunday Mirror, raising speculation about her future.

1998: More than 2,000 people die in flooding in China.

2001: A two-year-old girl dies after she is left inside a day-care centre van for three hours on a sweltering summer afternoon in Florida. Temperatures in the van likely reached 140 degrees Fahrenheit (60 degrees Celsius).

2002: Turkey’s economy minister, Kemal Dervis, resigns from the Government of ailing Premier Bulent Ecevit ahead of early November elections.

2005: Police in Brazil examine fingerprints and other evidence left behind by thieves who stole US$67.8 million from the central bank in one of the world’s biggest heists.

2006: British authorities thwart an alleged terrorist plot to simultaneously blow up 10 aircraft heading to the US using explosives smuggled in hand luggage.

2008: Russia and Georgia clash on land and at sea despite a Georgian ceasefire offer and claim of withdrawal from the separatist province of South Ossetia.

2010: Scottish lawmakers demand that their Government publish full details of the medical advice that led to the release from prison of the Lockerbie bomber almost a year ago.

2011: China’s first aircraft carrier sweeps through fog-shrouded waters to open sea trials that underscore concerns about the country’s growing military strength.

2013: Dozens of suspected militants openly join a mass funeral procession for four slain Egyptian insurgents killed in an Israeli drone strike in the Sinai Peninsula.

2014: Israel and the Hamas militant group accept an Egyptian ceasefire proposal, clearing the way for a long-term truce to end a month of heavy fighting in the Gaza Strip that has taken nearly 2,000 lives.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Count Camillo Cavour, Italian statesman (1810-1861); Jay Cooke, US financier (1821-1905); Charles Keene, British artist and illustrator (1823-1891); Alexander Glazounov, Russian composer (1865-1936); Herbert Hoover, US president (1874-1964); Leo Fender, US guitar manufacturer (1909-1991); Rosanna Arquette, US actress (1959- ); Antonio Banderas, Spanish actor (1960- )

– AP