Today is the 334th day of 2023. There are 31 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2000: South and North Korean relatives, separated for half a century, are reunited in the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

OTHER EVENTS

1710: Turkey declares war on Russia.

1718: Sweden’s “warrior king” Charles XII dies at Fredrikshald in Norway after being hit by a bullet in the head. The day was later declared a holiday for Swedish nationalists.

1782: Americans and British sign preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending American Revolutionary War.

1838: Mexico declares war on France after French occupation of Vera Cruz.

1853: Turkish fleet is destroyed by Russia off Sinope.

1918: Transylvania proclaims union with Romania.

1939: The Soviet Union invades Finland.

1949: Chinese Communists capture the city of Chungking.

1962: U Thant of Burma is elected UN secretary general, succeeding the late Dag Hammarskjold.

1964: Soviet Union launches spacecraft toward Mars in apparent race with US Mariner 4.

1966: The former British colony of Barbados gains independence.

1967: Aden, South Yemen and Protectorate of South Arabia gain independence from Britain.

1980: The Uruguayan military dictatorship loses a plebiscite to amend the constitution.

1981: The United States and the Soviet Union open negotiations in Geneva aimed at reducing nuclear weapons in Europe.

1992: The European Community agrees to speed up expulsions of bogus asylum seekers and turns down an appeal by Germany to share the influx of refugees.

1993: US President Bill Clinton signs into law the Brady Bill, which requires a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of prospective buyers.

1998: The British hospital where General Augusto Pinochet is staying says he doesn’t need medical care — a blow to the Chilean ex-dictator’s plan to plead he is too ill to stand trial for extradition to Spain.

2005: For the first time, women win elected posts in Saudi Arabia, picking up two seats in a city chamber of commerce after the Government forced the body to allow businesswomen to vote and run.

2007: A new form of the deadly Ebola virus is detected in an outbreak in western Uganda that has so far killed 16 people, the World Health Organization says.

2008: Space shuttle Endeavour returns to Earth after a nearly 16-day mission to repair and upgrade the international space station.

2010: British police make 153 arrests during student demonstrations in London against proposed university tuition hikes.

2011: The central banks of the wealthiest countries, trying to prevent a debt crisis in Europe from exploding into a global panic, sweep in to shore up the world financial system by making it easier for banks to borrow American dollars

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Jonathan Swift, English satirist (1667-1745); Sir Winston Churchill, British statesman (1874-1965); Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910); Ridley Scott, British film director (1937- ); Mandy Patinkin, US actor/singer (1952- ); David Mamet, US writer/director (1947- ); G C Foster (Gerald Claude Eugene Foster), dynamic sportsman (1885-1966)

— AP/Jamaica Observer