Today is the 250th day of 2026. There are 115 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2020: Wildfires burn a record two million acres in California during the 2020 fire season, more than the state of Delawarein the United States, according to Cal Fire.

OTHER EVENTS

1776: The first submarine used in warfare makes an unsuccessful attempt to attach a mine to a British flagship in New York harbour.

1812: In the Battle of Borodino, Napoleon Bonaparte wins a Pyrrhic victory against Russian General Mikhail Kutuzov in the most ferocious battle of the Napoleonic era; 70,000 are killed.

1888: Edith Eleanor McLean is the first baby placed in an incubator at State Emigrant Hospital on Ward’s Island, New York, USA.

1901: With the signing of the Boxer Protocol, the Boxer Rebellion — an uprising against foreigners in China begun by peasants and eventually supported by the Government — officially ends.

1927: American television pioneer Philo T Farnsworth, 21, succeeds in transmitting the image of a line through purely electronic means with a device called an image dissector, at his San Francisco, USA, laboratory.

1971: Rhodesian (now known as Zimbabwe) security police kill seven and wound one member of FRELIMO, the Mozambique Liberation Front; the fighting takes place on the Rhodesian side of the Mozambique-Rhodesian border when guerrillas looking for food threaten the occupants of an African kraal.

1972: The International Olympic Committee bans Vince Matthews and Wayne Collett of the US from further competition for talking to each other on the victory stand in Munich during the playing of America’s national anthem, The Star-Spangled Banner, after winning the gold and silver medals, respectively, in the 400-metre run.

1977: The Panama Canal treaties, calling for the US to eventually turn over control of the waterway to Panama, are signed in Washington by President Jimmy Carter and Panamanian leader Omar Torrijos.

1979: The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network (ESPN) makes its cable TV debut.

1981: An Afghan Government announcement recalling young retired soldiers to active duty reportedly sparks protests and a flight of young men from Kabul.

1986: Desmond Tutu is installed as the first black clergyman to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

Lucius Walker, who had led an annual pilgrimage of aid volunteers to Cuba in defiance of the near-50-year US trade embargo, dies at 80..

1996: Rapper Tupac Shakur is shot and mortally wounded on the Las Vegas Strip; he dies six days later.

In Rome, an 18-year-old black woman is named Miss Italy after two judges at the pageant are dismissed for saying her skin colour doesn’t reflect true Italian beauty.

1999: Greece’s deadliest quake in more than 40 years strikes outside Athens, killing at least 101 people.

2001: Venus Williams and Serena Williams reach the finals of the US Open, defeating Jennifer Capriati and Martina Hingis, respectively, and becoming the first sisters to play for a Grand Slam championship in more than 100 years.

2002: Twenty Russian officers are disciplined for negligence connected to the deadly crash of an overloaded Mi-26 military transport helicopter in mid-August that killed 119 people .

President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, meeting at Camp David, say the world has to act against Saddam Hussein, arguing that the Iraqi leader defied the United Nations (UN) and reneged on promises to destroy weapons of mass destruction.

2004: Iran offers to stop some activities linked to uranium enrichment; the United States says the move will not stop it from trying to have Tehran hauled before the United Nations Security Council for allegedly trying to make nuclear arms.

2005: UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and his top deputy failed the ideals of the UN in their management of the oil-for-food programme by allowing corruption and waste to flourish, a year-long probe concludes.

2006: A fire breaks out in a Siberian gold and metals mine, killing 25 miners who fight the blaze or attempt to escape through long underground tunnels.

2007: Osama bin Laden appears in a video for the first time in three years, telling Americans they should convert to Islam if they want the war in Iraq to end.

2009: Three British Muslims are convicted of plotting to kill thousands by downing at least seven airliners bound for the US and Canada, in what was intended as the largest terrorist attack since September 11, 2001.

2010: The international crossfire over Iran’s stoning sentence for a woman convicted of adultery intensifies with a top European Union official calling it “barbaric” while an Iranian spokesman says it’s about punishing a criminal, not a human rights issue.

Lucius Walker, who had led an annual pilgrimage of aid volunteers to Cuba in defiance of the nearly half-century US trade embargo, dies in New York at the age of 80.

2015: Courting unions on Labour Day, President Barack Obama denounces Republicans for a “constant attack on working Americans”, telling a rally in Boston that he would be using his executive power to force federal contractors to give paid sick leave to their employees.

Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein. On this day in 2002 British Prime Minister Tony Blair and US President George W Bush say the world has to act against Hussein because the leader defied the UN and reneged on promises to destroy weapons of mass destruction.online

2017: Equifax, one of the three major US credit bureaus, announces that hackers gained access to credit information on 143 million Americans between mid-May and July.

A federal appeals court rejects the Trump Administration’s limited view of who is allowed into the country under the president’s travel ban, saying grandparents, cousins and other close relatives of people in the United States should not be kept out.

2018: Rappers Cardi B and Nicki Minaj come to physical blows at a New York fashion event.

2020: India overtakes Brazil to record the second-highest number of COVID-19 cases with 4.2 million.

2021: El Salvador becomes the first country to adopt Bitcoin as legal tender.

The Mexican Supreme Court rules that making abortion a crime is unconstitutional, setting an important precedent.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signs a law restricting voting rights in the state, including limiting the use of drop boxes and empowering partisan observers.

2022: New British Prime Minister Liz Truss appoints her Cabinet, and for the first time in British politics none of the “great offices of State” are held by white men.

2023: Intense flooding caused by the heaviest rainfall in 140 years in Hong Kong, Shenzhen, and southern Chinese cities turns streets into rivers.

2024: Cyclone Yagi, Asia’s most powerful storm of the year, makes landfall on Hainan, China, before striking Northern Vietnam with winds of 230 kilometres per hour (140 miles per hour), killing at least 127 people.

2025: Pope Leo XIV canonises English-Italian teenager Carlo Acutis after his death at 15 years old, making Acutis the first millennial saint.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Louise Bennett-Coverley (Miss Lou), Jamaican cultural icon (1919-2006); Stanislav Petrov, Russian officer in the Soviet air force who saved the world from nuclear annihilation in 1983 (1939-2017)

– Britannica.com/ OnThisDay.com/Jamaica Observer