Today is the 51st day of 2013. There are 314 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1998: Fifteen-year-old American Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold medallist in winter Olympics history when she wins the ladies’ figure skating title at Nagano, Japan.

Other events

1962: Astronaut John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit Earth on the Friendship 7 Mercury capsule.

1967: Indonesia’s President Sukarno surrenders all executive powers to General Suharto, keeping only the title of president.

1986: Russia launches the Mir space station.

1991: Slovenia’s legislators vote overwhelmingly to initiate secession from Yugoslavia.

1996: Gen Hussein Kamel, son-in-law of President Saddam Hussein, returns to Iraq after having defected to Jordan. He is killed with his relatives a few days later.

1997: The US government refuses to recognise World Trade Organisation authority in its dispute with the European Union over trade with Cuba.

1999: Atal Bihari Vajpayee becomes the first Indian prime minister to go to Pakistan in 10 years when he rides the first commercial bus service between the two countries in 51 years.

2004: A police-commission audit says that Atlanta underreported crime for years to help land the 1996 Olympics and pump up tourism.

2008: Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew return to Earth, wrapping up a five-million-mile (eight-million-kilometre) journey highlighted by the successful delivery of a new European lab to the international space station.

2009: Israeli President Shimon Peres chooses Benjamin Netanyahu to form new government.

2010: Darfur’s most powerful rebel group initials a truce with the Sudanese government, marking the rebel group’s return to peace talks aimed at ending the conflict in the western part of Africa’s largest country.

2011: Libyan protesters defy a fierce crackdown by Moammar Gadhafi’s regime, returning to a square outside a court building in the flashpoint city of Benghazi to demand the overthrow of the long-time ruler.Today’s Birthdays

Sidney Poitier, US actor (1927-); Peter Strauss, US actor (1947-); Cindy Crawford,  US model (1966-); Lili Taylor, US actress (1967-); Rihanna, Bajan singer (1988-).

—AP