Today is the 228th day of 2022. There are 137 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

2003: Ugandan military ruler Idi Amin, 78, who presided over an eight-year reign of terror from 1971-1979 during which an estimated 300,000 people were killed and tortured to death, dies of multiple organ failure.

OTHER EVENTS

1812: During the War of 1812, American Brigadier General William Hull, who was with his troops at Fort Detroit, surrenders to the British without a fight, leading to a celebrated court martial in which he was sentenced to death; he is saved by a presidential pardon.

1858: A telegraphed message from Britain’s Queen Victoria to US President James Buchanan is transmitted over the new transatlantic cable.

1886: Ramakrishna, Indian mystic and yogi, dies at 50.

1888: Inventor of Coca-Cola, John Pemberton, who was an American pharmacist, dies of stomach cancer at 55.

1896: Gold is first discovered in Klondike, found at the Bonanza Creek in the Yukon, Canada, by George Carmack.

1899: Robert Bunsen, German chemist who invented the Bunsen burner, dies at 88.

1920: Sir Norman Lockyer, English physicist, co-founder of helium gas, and founder and editor of Nature magazine, dies at 84.

1930: The first colour sound cartoon, Fiddlesticks by Ub Iwerks (ex Walt Disney studio), is released.

1938: Robert Johnson, US Delta-blues singer/guitarist, is poisoned at 27.

1940: Henri Desgrange, French cyclist, journalist and founder of the Tour de France, dies at 75.

1944: More than 1,000 US bombers from Britain attack aircraft bases and factories in Germany. Thirty-two German planes are shot down and 23 bombers go missing.

1945: Puyi, the last Chinese emperor and ruler of Manchukuo, is captured by Soviet troops.

1946: Direct Action Day takes place with widespread riots erupting in Calcutta between Muslims and Hindus over whether Pakistan should be a separate State; over 4,000 are killed and 100,000 are left homeless.

1948: Babe Ruth, American Baseball Hall of Fame slugger, dies of nasopharynx cancer at 53.

1949: Margaret Mitchell, American author of Gone With The Wind, dies at 48.

1954: The first issue of Sports Illustrated is released, and the weekly publication (later changed to monthly) becomes the leading sports magazine in the United States.

1956: Dracula actor Bela Lugosi dies of a heart attack at the age of 73.

1960: Britain grants independence to Crown colony of Cyprus, with Archbishop Makarios as president.

1962: The US recognises Jamaica’s independence with the establishment of the American Embassy in Kingston; Irving Cheslaw is chargé d’affaires.

1972: Morocco’s King Hassan II escapes an assassination attempt by Moroccan Air Force jets in a military coup attempt.

1974: Turkish invaders of Cyprus complete division of island into two areas.

1977: Elvis Presley, known as the king of rock and roll, is found dead at his home in Memphis, Tennessee.

1987: An American Northwest Airlines flight crashes while trying to take off from a Detroit airport, killing 156 people. Four-year-old Cecelia Cichan is the only survivor.

1989: Palestinian activists in Gaza Strip call for two-week boycott of jobs in Israel to protest computerised identity cards for day labourers.

1990: With spears and axes men hack their way through a train station in Soweto, South Africa, killing at least nine people.

1991: United Nations and South African Government agree on amnesty terms for political exiles, clearing the way for an estimated 40,000 refugees to return to South Africa.

1996: France takes a tough position on African immigrants, saying those who arrive illegally — including 10 on the 43rd day of a hunger strike — will not be allowed to stay.

1999: Russia’s Lower House of Parliament approves Vladimir Putin as the country’s new president.

2001: NATO allows British servicemen and women to head to Macedonia for a mission to collect and destroy rebel arms.

2002: Monsoon floods in South Asia kill more than 900 people and displace or maroon some 25 million more over the next two months.

2004: Venezuelans vote to keep President Hugo Chavez in office in a popular referendum, following a long and bitter campaign by his Opposition to oust him.

2005: A chartered jet filled with tourists returning home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashes in western Venezuela, killing all 160 people on-board.

2006: The Israeli army begins its withdrawal from southern Lebanon, handing over some of their positions to a UN force.

2007: A powerful 7.9-magnitude earthquake shakes Peru’s coast near the capital, toppling buildings, setting off landslides, injuring at least 827, and killing at least 500.

2009: Usain Bolt shatters his 100m World record of 9.69 seconds — set at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China — to win the final of the World Championships in Berlin, Germany, in 9.58 seconds. Prime Minister Gordon Brown affirms Britain’s commitment to Afghanistan on a weekend in which roadside bombs kill five more soldiers, pushing the UK death toll past 200.

2010: A Boeing 737 jetliner filled with vacationers crashes in a thunderstorm and breaks apart as it slides onto the runway on a Caribbean island near Colombia. Only one of the 131 people on-board dies, and the island’s governor calls it a miracle.

2012: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange wins asylum in Ecuador but legal experts say the decision by the South American nation to identify him as a refugee and let him reside in its London embassy does little to help him avoid extradition to Sweden on sexual assault allegations.

2016: Brazilian businessman and sports official João Havelange — who served as president of Fifa (the governing body of soccer) from 1974 to 98 and transformed it into one of the world’s largest and most powerful sports organisations, but who was later implicated in a massive corruption scandal — dies at age 100.

2018: American singer Aretha Franklin, who defined the golden age of soul music of the 1960s and was known as the Queen of Soul, dies at age 76.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Jean de la Bruyere, French essayist-novelist (1645-1696); Menachem Begin, Israeli prime minister (1913-1992); Shimon Peres, prime minister and president of Israel (1923- ); Eydie Gorme, US singer (1932-2013); Bruce Beresford, Australian film director (1940- ); Suzanne Farrell, US ballerina (1945- ); Madonna, US pop singer (1958- ); Steve Carell, actor (1962- ); James Cameron, Canadian film-maker (Titanic and Avatar) (1954- ).

— AP / Jamaica Observer