Today is the 259th day of 2025. There are 106 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1972: The monument for Jamaican National Hero Norman Washington Manley, designed by H D Repole, is dedicated at National Heroes’ Park in Kingston, Jamaica.

OTHER EVENTS

655: Martinus I, banished Pope who served from 649-53, dies.

1380: Charles V, king of France from 1364 and who led the country in a miraculous recovery from the devastation of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War (1337–1453), dies at age 42.

1498: Tomas de Torquemada, Castilian grand inquisitor during the Spanish Inquisition and who burned 10,000 people, dies at 77.

1810: A local revolt in Mexico is sparked by Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, a parish priest in Dolores who calls for an end to the rule of Spanish peninsulars, for equality of races, and for redistribution of land.

1932: British actress Peg Entwistle commits suicide at 24 by jumping from the letter “H” in the “Hollywoodland” (now “Hollywood”) sign in Los Angeles, California.

1953: The first movie in CinemaScope, The Robe, directed by Henry Koster, starring Richard Burton and Jean Simmons, premieres.

1979: Russian Bolshoi Ballet dancers Leonid and Valentina Kozlov defect to the United States in Los Angeles, California.

1987: Two dozen countries sign the Montreal Protocol, designed to reduce emission of gases that deplete the ozone layer by the year 2000.

1993: Sitcom Frasier
— a spin-off of Cheers and starring Kelsey Grammer — debuts on NBC and becomes one of the most popular American television shows of the late 20th century.

1997: Apple Computer Inc names co-founder Steve Jobs as interim CEO.

1998: The Basque separatist organisation ETA announces an indefinite ceasefire after 30 years of terrorist guerrilla attacks in Spain that are blamed for 800 deaths; the peace lasts 14 months.

2002: Talk show Dr. Phil, with Phil McGraw and co-created by Oprah Winfrey, debuts on syndicated US television.

2004: Izora Rhodes Armstead, American disco singer (It’s Raining Men), dies of heart failure at 62.

2005: American physicist Gordon Gould, inventor of the laser, dies at 85.

2009: Mary Travers, American folk singer of Peter Paul & Mary fame (Leaving On A Jet Plane), dies of leukaemia at 72.

2012: Anti-Japanese protesters set fire to the Panasonic plant in Qingdao, China.

2014: Barbra Streisand releases the album Partners, featuring duets with other artistes; when it reaches number one Streisand becomes the only recording artiste with a top album in each of six decades.

2015: A total of 700 million malaria cases have been prevented in Africa since the year 2000, according to a report by University of Oxford in the journal Nature.

2018: Kansas City quarterback Patrick Mahomes sets a National Football League (NFL) record of 10 touchdowns in the first two weeks of a season.

2020: Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley announces the country’s intention to remove Queen Elizabeth II as its head of State and become a republic.

2022: The death of Jina Mahsa Amini — an Iranian woman in her early 20s who was in the custody of Iran’s “morality policy” for improper clothing — ignites a sustained and widespread protest movement which adopts the slogan: “Woman, Life, Freedom”.

2023: Rolling Stone co-founder Jann Wenner is removed from Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s board of directors after disparaging remarks about female and black musicians.

2024: American music mogul Sean Combs is arrested and charged the next day with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Yuan Shikai, general, president and emperor of the Republic of China (1859-1916); James Cash Penney, American department store founder (1875-1971); Lee Kuan Yew, former prime minister of Singapore (1923-2015); Nick Jonas, American singer-songwriter (1992- )

–AP/Jamaica Observer