Today is the 288th day of 2015. There are 77 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHTS

1990: Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev is awarded Nobel Peace Prize.

OTHER EVENTS

1583: The Gregorian calendar goes into effect in the Papal States by decree of Pope Gregory XIII and is soon adopted in

other countries.

1928: German dirigible Graf Zeppelin makes the first commercial flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in the US.

1951: The situation comedy

I Love Lucy starring Lucille Ball premieres in the United States on CBS television.

1958: US Atomic Energy Commission scientists detonate nine nuclear devices at their Nevada test site as they race to complete tests before October 31, when a one-year suspension of US and British atomic tests will be announced.

1968: Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia sign a treaty allowing Soviet troops to remain in Czechoslovakia.

1974: Israel denounces as illegal a decision by the UN General Assembly to invite the Palestine Liberation Organisation to participate in debate on Palestinian issue.

1989: Thousands of blacks hold “victory marches” in South Africa to celebrate the imminent release of eight political prisoners, including Walter Sisulu.

1991: Clarence Thomas narrowly wins confirmation as a justice of the US Supreme Court, overcoming accusations of sexual harassment.

1992: Andrei Chikatilo is sentenced to die in Russia after committing at least 52 sadistic murders.

1993: US scientists report that gene therapy is effective in correcting the underlying molecular defect believed to cause cystic fibrosis.

1994: Democratically elected President Jean-Bertrand Aristide returns to Haiti after US troops landed there in September.

1996: Italy’s highest court orders the retrial of Erich Priebke, a former Nazi officer who was acquitted in the World War II slaying of 335 civilians in Rome.

1997: Rebels, backed by foreign troops, enter Brazzaville in the Republic of Congo, ending President Pascal Lissouba’s four-month struggle to remain in power.

1999: Pakistan’s army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, declares a state of emergency and names himself chief executive, two days after he and his troops ousted the democratically elected government in a bloodless coup.

2000: Oil companies evacuate 132 employees from Ecuador’s Amazon region after the kidnapping of 10 foreign oil workers.

2006: Thousands of people are evacuated from their homes in the central German city of Hanover as experts dispose of three freshly unearthed World War II bombs.

2007: European Union foreign ministers give their final approval to deploy a 3,000-strong EU peacekeeping force for one year to help refugees and displaced people living along the borders of Sudan’s Darfur region with Chad and the Central African Republic.

2008: Thousands of Christians from around the world march in a colourful holiday parade in Jerusalem to commemorate a Jewish holiday and show their support for Israel.

2010: Workers hug, cheer and set off fireworks as the huge drill breaks through the last stretch of rock deep in the Swiss Alps. There was delight at the end of the tunnel — the world’s longest — when it is completed.

2012: Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton takes responsibility for security at the US consulate in Libya, where the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed in a September 11, 2012, attack.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Virgil, Roman poet (70 BC-19 BC); Evangelista Torricelli, Italian inventor of barometer (1608-1647); Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche, German philosopher (1844-1900); P(elham) G(renville) Wodehouse, British-American writer (1881-1975); Richard Carpenter, US singer/drummer (1946- ); Penny Marshall, US actress/director (1943- )