Today is the 52nd day of 2013. There are 313 days left in the year.

Today’s Highlight

1965: Black Muslim leader Malcolm X is shot and killed by assassins identified as Black Muslims as he was about to address a rally in New York City.

Other Events

1795: Dutch surrender Ceylon — now Sri Lanka — to British; freedom of worship is established in France.

1838: American Samuel Morse gives the first public demonstration of the telegraph in New York.

1916: Battle of Verdun in France begins with a massive German artillery bombardment. It is the longest and bloodiest battle of World War I, with more than one million killed.

1925: The New Yorker magazine makes its debut.

1963: Soviet Union warns US that an American attack on Cuba would mean world war.

1986: South African government opens “whites only” downtown districts of Johannesburg and Durban to all races in the first break with apartheid policy of segregated business areas.

1992: For the first time since the Communist revolution of 1949, China welcomes foreigners back to its Shanghai stock market.

1995: The US and Mexico agree on the terms of a $20 billion rescue package for Mexico.

1996: In Port-au-Prince, Haiti, police fire into a carnival crowd after a man pulls out a gun near a float. Two people are killed and more than 50 injured.

1997: Belgrade’s first non-Communist government in a half-century takes office and elects opposition leader Zoran Djindjic as mayor of the Yugoslav capital.

1999: The party of Gen Olusegun Obasanjo narrowly wins in Nigeria’s legislative elections, giving him the edge in an upcoming presidential election and signaling a return to democracy.

2000: In a clear endorsement of moderate President Mohammed Khatami, voters reject Iran’s hard-liners, giving reformists the largest number of seats in parliament.

2001: More than 1,000 people watch as two women convicted of prostitution are hanged in Kandahar, the headquarters of the Taliban in Afghanistan. The women, also convicted of “corrupting society”, are executed in the sports stadium.

2005: Tens of thousands march through Beirut in the biggest anti-Syrian protest in Lebanese history amid signals that Syria will soon begin withdrawing its troops.

2007: Leaders in Britain and Denmark announce plans for a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

2008: Nearly 200,000 people demonstrate in downtown Belgrade, Serbia, against Kosovo independence, storming the US Embassy and setting fire to offices and police guardhouses. Firefighters find a charred body inside the embassy, and more than 150 are injured.

2010: Israel’s air force introduces a fleet of huge pilotless planes that can remain in the air for a full day and fly as far as the Gulf, putting rival Iran within its range.

2012: Greece gets a second massive financial bailout when its eurozone partners stich together a euro130 billion ($170 billion) rescue meant to avoid a potentially disastrous default and secure the euro currency.

Today’s Birthdays

John Henry Newman, English cardinal (1801-1890); Leo Delibes, French composer (1836-1891); WH Auden, English poet (1907-1973); Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe (1924-); Kelsey Grammer, US actor (1955-); Mary Chapin Carpenter, US country singer (1958-); Jack Coleman, US actor (1958-); Christopher Atkins, US actor (1961-); Jennifer Love Hewitt, US actress/singer (1979-); Ellen Page, US actress (1987-).

— AP