Today is the 223rd day of 2025. There are 142 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2020: US Democratic candidate for President Joe Biden announces California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, the first woman of colour selected by a major party.

OTHER EVENTS

1868: Thaddeus Stevens, United States congressman, architect of Radical Reconstruction following the Civil War, dies in Washington, DC; Stevens battled for freedmen’s rights and insisted on stern requirements for readmission of Southern states into the Union.

1929: In a game against the Cleveland Indians, Babe Ruth of the New York Yankees hits his 500th career home run, becoming the first baseball player to reach that milestone.

1938: Samuel Insull’s will, probated in Chicago, discloses that the former multimillionaire utilities executive left a cash estate of about US$1,000.

1942: American actress Hedy Lamarr and composer George Antheil receive a patent for an electronic device that minimises the jamming of radio signals; it later becomes a component of satellite and cellular phone technology.

1949: A 60-nation diplomatic conference in session at Geneva, Switzerland, adopts four new conventions with respect to the treatment of the wounded at sea and on land, treatment of prisoners of war, and protection of civilians in occupied territory.

1960: Cuban Premier Castro denounces the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church for “systematic provocations” against his Government.

1964: The United States Senate approves by voice vote, and clear for the White House, a Bill authorising the appropriation of US$947,500,000 during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1965, to finance a programme to combat poverty and its causes.

1965: Race riots erupt in the Watts district of Los Angeles, USA, resulting in the deaths of 34 people.

1969: Zambian President Kenneth Kaunda announces plans to nationalise Zambia’s copper industry.

1970: The Nixon Administration rejects the recommendation of the Commission on Obscenity and Pornography, even though the report had not been released.

1973: A Jamaican immigrant at a back-to-school party in the Bronx, New York, United States, DJ Kool Herc (Clive Campbell) introduces the technique of playing the same album on two turntables and extending the drum section (which became known as the breakbeat); the night is widely recognised as the birth of hip hop.

1979: South Korean police raid the headquarters of the new Democratic Party in Seoul to eject women textile workers staging a sit-in to protest the loss of their jobs.

1984: At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles, USA, Carl Lewis becomes the third track and field athlete to win four gold medals in one Olympics, joining fellow Americans Alvin Kraenzlein (in 1900) and Jesse Owens (in 1936).

1992: A helicopter carrying Japanese tourists crashes near the Great Wall outside Beijing (Peking); 15 persons lose their lives.

1994: The Major League Baseball Players Association begin a labour strike following the games of August 11; the dispute eventually leads to the cancellation of the remainder of the season, including the World Series.

2000: An Iraqi train departs from Mosul bound for Aleppo, Syria — for the first time in 20 years.

2006: The United Nations Security Council unanimously adopts a resolution calling for hostilities between Israel and Lebanon to stop, peacekeeping troops to go to southern Lebanon, and armed groups — meaning Hezbollah — to be disarmed.

2012: The Jamaican quartet consisting of Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt set a new world record of 36.84 seconds in the 4x100m relay at the London Olympics; the record still stands today.

2013: Usain Bolt of Jamaica records the best time of the year (9.77 seconds) to edge out American Justin Gatlin and win the 100m at the World Athletics Championships in Moscow, Russia.

2014: American comedian and actor Robin Williams, known for his manic stand-up routines and diverse film performances, dies by suicide.

2016: American super-swimmer Michael Phelps wins the men’s 200m individual medley in 1:54.66 at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, becoming the third athlete and first swimmer to win four consecutive Olympic gold medals in one event.

2017: Chinese crime writer Liu Yongbiao, after announcing a novel titled Beautiful Writer Who Killed, is arrested for the murders of four people nearly 22 years earlier.

2019: Argentine President Mauricio Macri suffers defeat in a preliminary election to Alberto Fernández, prompting a 20 per cent fall in the value of the peso.

2021: Argentine soccer superstar Lionel Messi confirms signing a lucrative two-year contract with French Ligue 1 champions Paris Saint-Germain, after leaving FC Barcelona.

2022: A “monster” wildfire south-east of Bordeaux is fought by 1,000 firefighters but burns through 7,400 hectares (18,286 acres) during France’s driest summer since 1961.

2024: The closing ceremony for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics at Stade de France features Tom Cruise performing a stunt jump from the roof.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Alex Haley, African American writer (The Autobiography of Malcolm X, et al) (1921-1992); Pervez Musharraf, president of Pakistan (1943-2023); Viola Davis American actress (1965- )

– AP/Jamaica Observer

The Jamaican quartet of Nesta Carter, Michael Frater, Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt set a new world record of 36.84 seconds in the 4x100m relay at the London Olympics, this day in 2012. (Photo: AP)