Today is the 143rd day of 2024. There are 223 days left in the year

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1948: Jamaican-born writer and poet extraordinaire Claude McKay (born Festus Claudius McKay) dies on this day.

OTHER EVENTS

1370: Jews are expelled and massacred in Brussels, Belgium.

1761: The first life insurance policy in the United States is issued in Philadelphia.

1833: A new constitution in Chile gives greater power to the president and establishes Roman Catholicism as the State religion.

1840: The transportation of British convicts to New South Wales, Australia, officially ends.

1849: Future US President Abraham Lincoln is granted a patent for a boat-lifting device — the only US president to have a patent.

1867: Canada becomes the first dominion of the British Empire to gain a Parliament, Cabinet, and a large measure of independence.

1868: The Great Train Robbery takes place near Marshfield, Indiana, USA as seven members of the Reno gang make off with US$96,000 in cash, gold and bonds.

1885: French poet, novelist, and dramatist Victor Hugo, who was the most important of the French Romantic writers, dies at age 83.

1914: Britain acquires control of oil properties in the Gulf from the Anglo-Persian Oil Company.

1933: The first modern sighting of the Loch Ness Monster is experienced by Aldie and John Mackay who saw “something resembling a whale”.

1937: The Soviet Government reports the execution of more than 20 anti-Stalin conspirators in Tiflis, Georgia.

1969: The lunar module of Apollo 10 separates from the command module and flies to within 14 kilometres (nine miles) of the moon’s surface, in a dress rehearsal for the first lunar landing.

1972: The island nation of Ceylon becomes the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka with the adoption of a new constitution.

1975: The white-ruled African nation of Rhodesia, now known as Zimbabwe, is expelled from the Olympics because of its racial policies.

1986: American singer and actress Cher calls David Letterman an “a**hole” while a guest on his Late Night with David Letterman TV programme on
NBC
.

1990: American inventor Edwin S Votey receives a patent for a pneumatic piano player.

1992: The United States slaps political and diplomatic sanctions on Serbia for perpetuating a “humanitarian nightmare” in the Balkans.

1994: Musical sequel The Best Little W****house Goes Public closes at Lunt-Fontanne Theatre, New York City, after 16 performances

1995: Half a million Poles turn out to catch a glimpse of their native son, Pope John Paul II, during his 10-hour visit in southern Poland.

1996: American and French planes carry foreigners out of Bangui, Central African Republic, as President Ange-Felix Patasse rejects army mutineers’ demands that he resign.

1998: Voters in Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland vote overwhelmingly for a peace agreement to end 20 years of sectarian strife.

2003: In Fort Worth, Texas, Annika Sörenstam becomes the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.

2004: The US town of Hallam, Nebraska, is wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado that breaks the width record at an astounding 2.5 miles wide; it also kills one local resident.

2013: Two men with butcher knives hack another man to death near a military barracks in London before police wound them in a shoot-out, in what authorities say appeared to be an act of terrorism.

2014: Pro-Russian insurgents attack a military checkpoint in eastern Ukraine, killing 16 soldiers in the deadliest raid (at that time) on the nation’s soldiers.

2016: At the 23rd Billboard Music Awards, The Weeknd wins eight times and Adele cops six categories.

2019: UN General Assembly votes for a motion condemning UK occupation of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean and for them to reunite with nearby Mauritius.

2021: The 30-year-old Scottish light-welterweight boxer Josh Taylor becomes Britain’s first undisputed world champion in the four-belt era by beating Jose Ramirez by unanimous decision in Las Vegas.

2022: A report released on sexual abuse in the US Southern Baptist Convention, the country’s largest Protestant denomination, details 20 years of suppressing many allegations.

2023: A new deal cutting water usage of the Colorado River, agreed to by California, Arizona and Nevada, aims to conserve three million acre-feet of water by 2026.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Richard Wagner, German dramatic composer (1813-1883); Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, English author and creator of the Sherlock Holmes and Professor Challenger characters (1859-1930); Daniel F Malan, South African statesman who instituted apartheid (1874-1959); Louis Marriott, Jamaican playwright, actor, broadcaster and historian (1935-2016); Ted Kaczynski, American serial murderer and domestic terrorist (1942-2023); Naomi Campbell, British model (1970- ); Novak Noković, Serbian professional tennis player (1987- )

– AP/ Jamaica Observer