Today is the 354 day of 2023. There are 11 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHIGHTS

1989: Some 12,000 US troops arrive in Panama to overthrow the Government of General Manuel Antonio Noriega.

1998: Nkem Chukwu of Houston, Texas, becomes the first woman to give birth to eight live babies.

1999: The Vermont Supreme Court rules that gay couples must be granted the same benefits and protections given married couples of the opposite sex, in the first ruling of its kind in the United States.

2005: New York City’s Transport Workers Union Local 100 goes on strike over pension and wage increases, shutting down all subway and bus services for three days.

2009: China, the world’s largest emitter of greenhouse gases, lauds the outcome of a historic UN climate conference that ended with a non-binding agreement that urges major polluters to make deeper emissions cuts, but does not require it.

OTHER EVENTS

1879: Inventor Thomas Edison privately demonstrates his incandescent light in Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1922: Fourteen republics merge to form the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

1944: The Cuban Government agrees with importers to establish a flour subsidy to end shortages that have left Havana without bread.

1958: Venezuela announces a tax reform programme under which oil companies would have to pay at least 60 per cent of their profits to the Government.

1963: The Berlin Wall opens for the first time to West Berliners, who are allowed one-day visits to relatives in the eastern sector for the holidays.

1986: Up to 30,000 students march for democracy through the streets of Shanghai, in China’s largest demonstration since the Cultural Revolution.

1997: Two days after winning the presidential election in South Korea, President Kim Dae-jung pardons former presidents Chun Doo-hwan and Roh Tae-woo, two ex-military dictators who tried to kill him when he was a dissident.

2001: Fire department officials in New York City declare that the fires from the World Trade Center disaster on September 11, 2001 have finally been extinguished.

2003: Political opponents of President Hugo Chavez submit to the National Electoral Council petitions with 3.4 million signatures seeking a referendum to recall Chavez.

2004: The Repertory Theatre in Birmingham, England, cancels a production of Behzti, a play that depicts sexual abuse and murder within a Sikh temple, after hundreds of Sikh demonstrators protest strenuously, causing the theatre to fear for the safety of theatregoers and those involved in the production.

2005: The first full session of Afghanistan’s new Parliament almost breaks down in an uproar after a woman lawmaker demands that all warlords — some of whom are lawmakers — be brought to justice.

2006: Jamaican renowned radio broadcaster Neville Willoughby dies following a motor vehicle crash. Journalist Gao Qinrong, serving a 13-year jail term in China for reporting about a bogus irrigation project, is released five years early. UN Security Council extends its ban on the export of diamonds from Liberia (first imposed in 2001) until further review in June 2007.

2010: After weeks of soaring tensions North Korea backs off threats to retaliate against South Korea for military drills and reportedly offers concessions on its nuclear programme.

2011: Around 10,000 women march through central Cairo demanding Egypt’s ruling military step down — an unprecedented show of outrage over soldiers who abused them during a fierce crackdown on activists the past week.

2012: Intercontinental Exchange purchases the New York Stock Exchange, the largest in the world, for US$8 billion.

2014: Ismaaiyl Abdullah Brinsley kills two New York Police Department officers in Brooklyn, New York, supposedly in revenge for the killing of Eric Garner, before killing himself.

2015: A landslide from construction waste in Shenzhen, China, leaves 74 dead or missing and buries 30 buildings.

2018: New figures show the average US male weighs 198 pounds and stands 5 feet 9 inches while women on average weigh 171 pounds and measure 5 feet 4 inches.

2021: The first Hong Kong legislative elections held with only ‘patriot’ candidates allowed to stand has a low turnout of 30 per cent.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Leopold von Ranke, German historian (1795-1886); W Eugene Smith, US photojournalist (1918-1978); George Roy Hill, US film director (1922-2002); Kim Young-sam, former president of South Korea (1927-2015 ); Nalo Hopkinson, acclaimed Jamaican author (1960- ); Kylian Mbappé, French footballer (1998- ); Dylan Wang, Chinese actor (1998- )

— AP/Jamaica Observer