Today is the 29th day of 2013. There are 336 days left in the year.Today’s Highlight

1950: The first series of riots occur in Johannesburg, provoked by South Africa’s racial apartheid policy.

Other Events

1942: Ecuador and Peru sign Rio de Janeiro protocol, ending their war over a large swath of Amazon jungle. The treaty establishes the present-day border, which is still disputed.

1947: The US abandons its mediation role in China.

1949: Britain grants de facto recognition to new state of Israel.

1963: Britain is refused entry into the European Common Market by a French veto.

1990: Ousted East German Communist Party leader Erich Honecker is arrested and ordered to stand trial for high treason.

1991: South African political rivals Mangosuthu Buthelezi and Nelson Mandela meet for first time in 30 years and call for ceasefire between their supporters.

1992: Russian President Boris Yeltsin unveils a nuclear weapons reduction plan.

1995: The San Francisco 49ers become the first team in US National Football League history to win five Super Bowl titles, beating the San Diego Chargers 49-26.

1996: La Fenice, the 204-year-old opera house, burns down in

Venice, Italy.

1998: British Prime Minister Tony Blair announces a new inquiry

into the 1972 “Bloody Sunday” violence, in which British troops killed Catholic protesters in Northern Ireland.

2000: In Egypt, a 32-year-old housewife is the first woman to file for divorce under a new law that doesn’t require women to prove physical or psychological harm.

2002: In a direct defiance of South Africa’s patent laws, Doctors Without Borders, an international humanitarian organisation, begins importing a cheap, genetic version of patented AIDS drugs into

South Africa.

2003: US President George W Bush announces an initiative to spend $15 billion over five years for AIDS treatment and prevention in 12 African countries and two Caribbean nations.

2008: Gunmen hold more than 30 people hostage inside a Venezuelan bank for more than a day. They flee in an ambulance on January 30, but eventually surrender and free their last five captives.

2009: Zimbabwe’s government admits defeat in a fight against dizzying inflation, allowing business to be conducted in US dollars and bank notes of neighbouring countries.

2010: Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair fights for his place in history against critics who contend it was folly to join the Americans in invading Iraq based on intelligence that was faulty and weapons of mass destruction that turned out not to exist. He says it was the right decision and he would do it again.

2011: With protests raging, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak names his intelligence chief as his first-ever vice-president, setting the stage for a successor as chaos engulfs Cairo. The death toll from five days of anti-government fury rises sharply to 74.Today’s Birthdays

Emanuel Swedenborg, Swedish philosopher (1688-1772); Thomas Paine, American patriot-author (1737-1809); Daniel Huber, French composer (1782-1871); Frederick Delius, English composer (1863-1934); Germaine Greer, Australian born feminist (1939-); Oprah Winfrey, US actress/television personality (1954-).

—AP