Today is the 286th day of 2023. There are 79 days left in the year

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1988: A concert is held in London for victims of Hurricane Gilbert in Jamaica; it is titled Smile Jamaica.

OTHER EVENTS

1793: After the French Revolution begins Marie-Antoinette, queen consort of Louis XVI, is targeted by agitators who, enraged by her extravagance and attempts to save the monarchy, ultimately behead her.

1916: Margaret Sanger, an activist for women’s reproductive rights, opens the first birth control clinic in the United States, in Brooklyn, New York.

1946: A group of 10 leading nazis, who had been convicted of crimes against humanity by the international war crimes tribunal, are hanged in a prison gymnasium at Nuernberg; Hermann Goering commits suicide by swallowing poison less than two hours before he is slated to hang.

1962: The Cuban missile crisis begins when US President John F Kennedy is informed by his aides that reconnaissance photographs reveal Soviet missile bases in Cuba.

1964: China, eager to join the nuclear race, successfully detonates its first atomic bomb.

1968: During the awards ceremony for the 200-metre race at the Mexico City Olympics, American sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos give a Black-power salute for which they are later ordered to leave the Games.

1987: In Midland, Texas, rescuers free Jessica McClure, an 18-month-old girl trapped in an abandoned well for 58 hours.

1990: US President George H W Bush signs the Older Workers Benefit Protection Act, prohibiting employers from discriminating against older workers in providing pensions and disability payments.

1991: A man crashes a pickup truck into a restaurant in Killeen, Texas, and shoots patrons, killing 23 people before taking his own life.

1995: A vast throng of black men gather in Washington for the Million Man March led by Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan.

1996: The European Union (EU) requests that the World Trade Organization decide whether the Helms-Burton Act violates international trade laws; this US law was an attempt to force other nations to observe the economic embargo the US had imposed on Cuba, but Canada, Mexico, and members of the EU challenged the right of the US to dictate their policy toward Cuba, arguing the Helms-Burton Act is an illegal extraterritorial extension of US law.

1998: British police arrest former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet in London for questioning about allegations he had murdered Spanish citizens during his years in power.

2002: The North Korean Government admits it had been conducting a major, covert, nuclear weapons development programme for several years, in violation of international agreements.

2010: Bracing for a possible fuel shortage, following a new round of protests against plans to raise the retirement age to 62, officials warn some flights landing at France’s main airport to come with enough fuel to return home.

2014: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announces a plan to simplify labour laws to make it easier for manufacturers to hire permanent employees and give added protection to employers and employees.

2016: Ed Whitlock, at 85, becomes the oldest person to complete a marathon under four hours, doing so in three hours 56 minutes during the Toronto Waterfront Marathon.

2017: The findings of a neutron star collision that occurred two months prior, on August 17, are published and confirm that heavy elements, such as gold, are the result of such collisions.

2018: The chairman of China’s Xinjiang’s Government defends its detention camps for Uighur Muslims, saying they provided “vocational education and training”.

2020: French teacher Samuel Paty is beheaded by an 18-year-old Islamist militant in the Paris suburb of Éragny.

2022: More than 600 people perish in Nigeria’s worst floods in a decade, with more than 1.3 million displaced according to a government minister.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

David Ben-Gurion, Polish-born first prime minister of Israel (1886-1973); Naomi Osaka, Japanese tennis player who won her first two major titles in back-to-back tournaments: 2018 US Open and 2019 Australian Open (1997- )

— AP/ Jamaica Observer