Today is the 348th day of 2023. There are 17 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1998: In the presence of US President Bill Clinton, the Palestinian Council votes to revoke a paragraph in its charter that demanded the destruction of Israel.

OTHER EVENTS

557: Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine Empire, is significantly damaged by a 6.4 magnitude earthquake.

644: Uthman ibn Affan, companion of Muhammad, appointed 3rd Caliph of Islam.

835: Chinese Emperor Wenzong conspires with chancellor Li Xun and general Zheng Zhu to kill all the eunuchs, but the plot is foiled. Also known as the Sweet Dew Incident.

867: Adrian II begins his reign as Catholic Pope

872: John VIII elected as Catholic Pope.

1287: During St Lucia’s Flood in Northwest Netherlands, the Zuiderzee seawall collapses with loss of over 50,000 lives.

1542: Accession of Mary Queen of Scots following the death of King James V.

1799: George Washington, the first president of the United States, dies at his Mount Vernon, Virginia, home at age 67.

1911: Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen becomes first man to reach South Pole.

1912: Louis Botha resigns as South Africa’s premier.

1916: People of Denmark vote to sell Danish West Indies to United States for US$25 million.

1927: Britain recognises Iraq’s independence; China and Soviet Union break relations.

1937: Japan establishes puppet Chinese Government in Peking — now Beijing.

1939: The Soviet Union is dropped from the League of Nations.

1941: US Marines make stand in battle for Wake Island in Pacific during World War II.

1946: UN General Assembly votes to establish UN headquarters in New York City.

1952: Eighty-four Korean Communist prisoners interned on Pongam Island are killed during a riot after attempting to escape.

1958: The United States, Britain and France reject Soviet demands that they withdraw their troops from West Berlin and agree to liquidate the Allied occupation in West Berlin.

1962: North Rhodesia’s first African-dominated Government is formed under Kenneth Kaunda.

1972: US Apollo 17 astronauts blast off from the moon after three days of exploration on lunar surface.

1977: The South African Government eases job restrictions on blacks.

1985: Wilma Mankiller becomes the first woman to lead a major American Indian tribe, taking office as principal chief of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma.

1988: Sixty more survivors are pulled from rubble of earthquake that rocked Armenia.

1989: Opposition leader Patricio Aylwin is elected president in Chile’s first free election since 1970.

1990: In Hong Kong, 10 Vietnamese boat people set fire to themselves to protest a screening policy that could prevent them from settling in the West.

1991: Former East German leader Erich Honecker, facing extradition to Germany and trial on manslaughter charges, is offered asylum in North Korea.

1992: Easing a 17-year trade embargo, the United States allows its companies to sign contracts in Vietnam.

1999: US and German negotiators agree to establish a fund of $5.2 billion for Nazi-era slaves and forced labourers.

2000: Vladimir Putin, the first Russian president to visit Cuba since the collapse of the Soviet Union, holds talks with Fidel Castro in Havana.

2003: Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf escapes an assassination attempt when a powerful bomb explodes on a bridge in Rawalpindi less than a minute after his motorcade crosses it.

2004: Hundreds of Belgrade university students and other Serbs demonstrate in the capital to protest the election of Ramush Haradinaj, Kosovo’s new prime minister — a former ethnic Albanian rebel leader whom Serbs accuse of war crimes.

2006: The Israeli Supreme Court upholds Israel’s policy of targeted killings of Palestinian militants, allowing the army to maintain a practice that has drawn widespread international condemnation.

2010: Silvio Berlusconi pulls off another astonishing escape from the political dead, scraping through two confidence votes in a dramatic parliamentary showdown as violent street protests show growing unease with his rule.

2011: A commercial US satellite company says it has captured a photo of China’s first aircraft carrier in the Yellow Sea off China’s coast.

2012: A man opens fire inside an elementary school in the north-east state of Connecticut, killing 26 people including 20 children, in the second-deadliest school shooting in the US.

2015: Bus plunges off bridge into Balboa River near Argentina city of Rosario de la Frontera, killing 43 frontier police on board.

2016: Amazon announces its 1st delivery by drone 2 km from their warehouse in the UK. University of Toronto scientists present findings of the world’s oldest water — 2 billion years old from a mine in Canada

2017: British surgeon Simon Bramhall admits to branding the liver of two patients with his initials. Suicide bomber kills at least 18 police officers at a training centre parade in Mogadishu, Somalia, Islamic group al-Shabab claim responsibility.

2019: Bel Air mansion featured in TV series The Beverly Hillbillies sells for US$150 million, becoming California’s most expensive property. Miss World won by Miss Jamaica Toni-Ann Singh in London (First time all five major beauty titles held by black women.)

2020: America begins its first COVID-19 vaccinations using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on the same day it records over 300,000 deaths. Russia reveales to have been behind massive cyberattack on US government agencies and private companies since the Spring. Total solar eclipse visible across southern Chile and Argentina. US Attorney General William Barr resigns. US Electoral College votes 306-232 to officially affirm Joe Biden’s presidential election victory.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Nostradamus, French astrologer and physician (1503-1566); Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer (1546-1601); James Bruce, Scottish explorer (1730-1794); Roger Fry, English artist (1866-1934); Shirley Jackson, US author (1919-1965); Lee Remick, US actress (1935-1991); Patty Duke, US actress (1946-2016)

— AP