Today is the 39th day of 2013 There are 326 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

2012: Russian experts drill down and finally reach the surface of a gigantic freshwater lake miles under the Antartic ice, an achievement the mission chief likens to placing a man on the moon.

Other Events

1904: The Russo-Japanese War begins.

1910: The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.

1924: The first US execution by gas takes place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

1940: German troops shoot every tenth person in two Polish villages near Warsaw in reprisal for deaths of two German soldiers.

1949: Republic of Ireland declares it is unable to participate in NATO while the island remains divided. 1964: Holland’s Princess Irene renounces her rights to the throne to marry Roman Catholic Spanish prince, Carlos Hugo of Bourbon-Parma.

1968: Three college students die in a confrontation with highway patrolmen in Orangeburg, South Carolina, during a civil rights protest against a whites-only bowling alley.

1997: In Tirana, Albania, police beat protesters but fail to prevent thousands from demonstrating against the government’s shutdown of getrich schemes that had eaten up their savings. 1998: New tremors kill 250 people in an area of Afghanistan hit by a quake that killed 4,500 people just days earlier.

1999: Hundreds of dignitaries and heads of state, many of them bitter enemies, attend the funeral of King Hussein of Jordan.

2000: Electronic vandals disrupt some of the Web’s most popular sites by using dozens of powerful computers to spew out a crippling flood of fake data.

2001: Astronauts on the space shuttle Atlantis prepare to dock with the international space station 360 kilometres above Earth.

2002: The UN ends talks with the Cambodian government on a genocide tribunal for leaders of the 1975-79 Khmer Rouge communist regime.

2003: Fighting between Russian troops and Chechen rebels leaves six Russians dead — while the region’s prime minister Mikhail Babich resigns in a dispute with Akhmad Kadyrov, the leader of the Moscow-backed administration.

2005: Elated and exhausted, Ellen MacArthur finishes a solo around-the-world sailing record after more than 71 days of navigating stormy seas, 65 mph (105 kph) winds and a broken sail. She completes the 26,000-mile (42,000-kilometre) circumnavigation near the south coast of England aboard her 75-foot (23-metre) trimaran.

2006: Nepal’s first election in seven years is tainted with rebel attacks, the army’s shooting of protesters and low turnout — dealing a blow to the absolute rule of a king who seized power a year ago to stamp out the insurgents and restore political order.

2007: Colombia’s Constitutional Court rules that gay couples in long-term relationships should have the same rights to shared assets as heterosexual couples, marking the first recognition of gay couples’ rights in this South American nation.

2008: Officials confirm that Amit Kumar, the alleged mastermind of an organ transplant operation in India that illegally removed hundreds of kidneys — sometimes from unwilling donors — has been arrested at a jungle resort in southern Nepal.

2009: Zurich voters break with long-standing Swiss policy by ending tax breaks for wealthy foreigners like the American singer Tina Turner and the Russian billionaire Viktor Vekselberg.

2010: Iran presses ahead with plans that will increase its ability to make nuclear weapons as it formally informs the UN nuclear agency of its intention to enrich uranium to higher levels.

Today’s Birthdays

John Ruskin, English author-artist (1819-1900); Jules Verne, French author (1828-1905); Tunku (Prince) Abdul Rahman Putra Alhaj, first prime minister of independent Malaya (Malaysia) (1903-1990); Jack Lemmon, US actor (1925-2001); James Dean, US actor (1931-1955); Nick Nolte, US actor (1941-); John Grisham, US author (1955-); Gary Coleman, US actor (1968-2010); John Williams, composer/conductor (1933-).

— AP