Today is the 223rd day 2023. There are 142 days left in year.

TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT

2010: Researchers say two ancient animal bones from Ethiopia show signs of butchering by human ancestors, moving back the earliest evidence for the use of stone tools by about 800,000 years.

OTHER EVENTS

1950: King Leopold III of Belgium abdicates because of criticism of his actions during World War II. His son Baudouin becomes king the next year.

1952: Prince Hussein is proclaimed King Hussein of Jordan on termination of King Talal's reign.

1954: Formal peace announcement in Indochina ends more than seven years of fighting with the French and Communist Vietminh. Vietnam is partitioned into North and South.

1965: Race riot begins in the Watts section of Los Angeles, United States, lasting six days. Thirty-four people are killed and more than 1,000 injured.

1983: The US Agency for International Development agrees to send US$75 million in aid to Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia to help reconstruction efforts following the worst droughts and floods in four decades.

1992: Heavy fire blasts Sarajevo, and UN officials say about 28,000 people, mostly Muslims, are being forced from their homes in northern Bosnia in one of the biggest single acts of "ethnic cleansing".

1993: UN forces kill seven Somali gunmen who shot at a surveillance helicopter, as militias of warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid intensify an offensive against peacekeepers.

1995: The Serbian Government disperses bitter Serb refugees driven from Croatia by an army offensive that put an end to the Serb rebellion.

1996: Bosnian Serb troops refuse to let foreign inspectors see a military compound, prompting the NATO-led peace force to recall its representatives from the Bosnian Serb stronghold, Pale.

1997: An international meeting called to rescue Thailand's shaky economy offers the country US$16 billion in loans.

1998: Congolese rebels fighting President Laurent Kabila say they are closing in on the capital, while the government rounds up Tutsis, suspected of supporting the rebellion.

2002: Clashes among local militias, a rebel group and the Ugandan army kill at least 90 people. The victims, many of whom had been hacked to death, include women and children.

2011: France, Italy, Spain and Belgium ban short-selling on select stocks amid efforts to calm market turmoil that has sent bank shares gyrating wildly and aggravated worries about Europe's huge debts.

2013: Israel approves building nearly 1,200 more settlement homes and agrees to release 26 long-held Palestinian security prisoners — highlighting an apparent settlement-for-prisoners trade-off that got both sides back to peace talks after a five-year freeze.

TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS

James Bryan Herrick, US cardiologist (1861-1954); Enid Blyton, British author (1897-1968); Alex Haley, US author (1921-1992); Ian Charleston, British actor (1949-1990); Angus Wilson, British author (1913-1991); Hulk Hogan, US wrestler/actor (1953- )

— AP