TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

2006: Several cats test positive for the deadly strain of bird flu in Austria and Poland reports its first outbreak of the disease, as the World Health Organization calls bird flu a greater global challenge than any previous infectious disease.

OTHER EVENTS

1834: The city of York in Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.

1836: Alamo mission in San Antonio, Texas, falls to Mexican army after 13-day siege in which Davy Crockett and 186 other defenders die.

1853: Verdi’s opera La Traviata premieres in Venice, Italy

1857: In its Dred Scott decision, the US Supreme Court holds that Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom in a federal court.

1922: United States prohibits export of arms to China.

1936: The British Supermarine Spitfire MKI takes to the air.

1945: German city of Cologne falls to US First Army in World War II.

1946: France recognises Vietnam as free state within Indochina Federation.

1953: G M Malenkov succeeds the late Joseph Stalin as Premier of Soviet Union.

1957: Two former British colonies of Gold Coast and Togoland form independent West African nation of Ghana; Israeli troops hand over Gaza Strip to UN force.

1962: United States pledges to defend Thailand against direct Communist aggression without waiting for action by Southeast Asia Treaty Organization.

1965: US Defense Department announces that 3,500 Marines are being sent to South Vietnam — the first US ground combat troops committed to fighting against Communist guerrillas.

1970: Alexander Dubcek, former Czech Communist Party boss, is suspended from party.

1975: Arab terrorist raid on a Tel Aviv hotel leaves 14 dead.

1988: Thousands of Tibetans demanding independence set fires throughout their capital city of Lhasa.

1989: At least 109 people, most of them labourers, die after drinking home-made liquor in India’s western city of Baroda.

1990: Afghan Defence Minister Shahnawaz Tanai leads unsuccessful coup attempt against government of Najibullah.

1991: Iraqi troops appear to have crushed a rebellion in Basra and are reported to be moving on other southern cities in revolt.

1993: UNITA rebels capture Angola’s second largest city, Huambo, after a two-month battle with government troops.

1994: Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid rejects a peace agreement reached by 12 other faction leaders in Cairo.

1995: The US dollar plummets to 92.70 yen, its lowest level against the yen anywhere in the world since modern exchange rates were established in the late 1940s.

1997: Separatist Tamil Tiger rebels break a two-month lull in Sri Lanka’s civil war by raiding an army base and an air field in coordinated, pre-dawn attacks that leave 213 people dead.

1998: US House of Representatives votes to let Puerto Rico decide in a referendum if it wants to remain a territory or become an independent nation or a US state.

1999: Ta Mok, the last leader of the murderous Khmer Rouge, is captured by the Cambodian army and flown to the capital for trial.

2003: An Algerian passenger jet crashes in the Sahara Desert shortly after take-off, killing 116 people.

2007: France and the United Arab Emirates sign an agreement to open a branch of the Louvre museum in Abu Dhabi, despite criticism that the French government is peddling the country’s artistic treasures.

2008: Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega announces that he is breaking relations with Colombia because of his opposition to the Colombian raid on a guerrilla base in Ecuador.

2010: Iran’s hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls the official version of the September 11, 2011 attacks a “big lie” used by the US as an excuse for battling terror.

2011: The two opposition parties that triumphed in Ireland’s election, conservative Fine Gael and left-wing Labour, agree to form the country’s next coalition government after compromising on repair of the debt-battered economy.

2012: The United States, Europe and other world powers announce that bargaining will begin again with Iran over its fiercely disputed nuclear efforts amid rising talk of war.

2013: Syria’s accelerating humanitarian crisis hits a grim milestone: the number of UN-registered refugees tops one million, half of them children.