Today is the 264th day of 2021. There are 101 days left in the year. 

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1996: The Carib cinema, one of Kingston’s most famous landmarks, is destroyed by fire.

OTHER EVENTS

1327: Edward II of England is murdered at Berkely Castle, eight months after he was forced to abdicate by his queen and her lover.

1529: Turks under Suleiman I begin an unsuccessful siege of Vienna.

1746: French forces conquer Madras, India, after brief siege.

1792: The National Convention formally abolishes the monarchy in France and declares a republic the next day.

1802: Napoleon Bonaparte of France annexes Piedmont in Italy.

1860: Anglo-French troops defeat Chinese at Pa-Li-Chau.

1896: British force under Horatio Kitchener takes Dongola in the Sudan.

1898: Tzu-Hsi, dowager Empress of China, seizes power and revokes reforms.

1931: Britain goes off the gold standard.

1938: Hurricane kills more than 700 people in New England and on Long Island in the north-eastern United States.

1939: Premier Armand Calinescu of Romania is assassinated by the Iron Guard.

1949: West Germany comes into existence as US, British and French occupation zones are transferred to German control; People’s Republic of China is proclaimed by its Communist leaders.

1950: UN forces spring an offensive in South Korea by invading Inchon and Seoul with US Marines fighting on the outskirts of Seoul.

1956: Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza is shot by a liberal poet. He dies eight days later and is succeeded by his son.

1960: United Nations deploys 4,000 troops to Katanga to prevent the massacre of Baluba tribesmen by provincial troops and police in Congo.

1964: Malta becomes independent state within British Commonwealth.

1969: More than 120 people are killed in rioting in western India that stems from alleged Muslim abuse of cattle, which Hindus regard as sacred.

1972: Ferdinand Marcos proclaims martial law in the Philippines and jails thousands of opponents. He stays in power till 1986.

1985: Mexico counts at least 2,000 dead from earthquake that devastate four states.

1987: Iraqi warplanes make bombing forays deep into Iran in Gulf War.

1988: Coup leader General San Maung is named Burma’s prime minister.

1991: Nine members of Iran’s only legal domestic opposition party are convicted and sentenced to prison as “enemies of the Islamic revolution” for signing a letter critical of the Iranian Government.

1992: The last power line to Bosnian capital Sarajevo is severed by shellfire. The electricity supply to the besieged city is intermittent for years.

1993: Russian President Boris Yeltsin dissolves parliament. Hard-line lawmakers subsequently vote to impeach him and hole up in parliament building.

1995: Pakistan expels 13 Afghan diplomats in retaliation for a deadly attack on its embassy in Islamabad.

1996: In Bogota, Colombia, an anonymous tip leads to the discovery of nearly four kilogrammes (nearly 9 pounds) of heroin on the jet President Ernesto Samper was to fly to the United States. His Government calls it a set-up.

1998: The first trial against Croats accused of wartime atrocities against Serb rebels opens in Croatia. The three soldiers are later acquitted.

1999: Taiwan’s strongest quake in decades with a 7.6 magnitude, kills more than 2,300 people, injures 10,000 and destroys hundreds of homes.

2000: The Russian Government says that it will freeze a deal to sell laser technology to Iran in light of US concerns that the laser technology would be used to develop nuclear weapons.

2001: Japanese foreign ministry says all banks and financial institutions operating in Japan are forbidden to make transactions with companies and individuals linked to bin Laden and the Taliban without first obtaining Government permission.

2003: NASA directs the unmanned space probe Galileo to plunge into the atmosphere of the planet Jupiter, destroying the craft after a 14-year mission to observe the planet and its satellites. NASA opted to crash Galileo after it ran out of fuel.

2004: Floodwaters recede and rescue workers reach homes buried in mud, but Tropical Storm Jeanne kills more than 700 Haitians and left a quarter-million homeless.

2005: Indonesia scrambles to calm public fears of a possible bird flu epidemic after two children suspected of having the disease die, potentially raising the death toll to six.

2006: Hundreds of Hezbollah supporters from across southern Lebanon march toward Beirut for a rally to showcase the group’s insistence it will not disarm.

2007: Floods hit nations across Africa including Ghana and Togo in the west, and Sudan, Uganda, Somalia and Kenya in the central and eastern regions, killing 200 people and displacing hundreds of thousands.

2008: South African President Thabo Mbeki resigns.

2009: Iran’s president, Mahmound Ahmadinejad, says he is proud to stoke international outrage with his latest remarks denying the Holocaust as he heads for the United Nations this week — showing he is as defiant as ever while his country comes under greater pressure to curtail its nuclear programme.

2010: Italian authorities seize euro23 million (US$30 million) from a Vatican bank account and say they have begun investigating top officials of the Vatican bank in connection with a money-laundering probe.

2011: After more than two years in Iranian custody, two Americans convicted as spies take their first steps toward home as they bound down from a private jet and into the arms of family for a joyful reunion in the Gulf state of Oman.

2012: A shoot-out along the Israel-Egypt border, in which three Islamic militants and an Israeli soldier were killed, highlights the growing threat posed by al-Qaeda-inspired groups that have taken hold in the vast desert of the Sinai peninsula.

TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Girolamo Savonarola, Italian preacher and reformer (1452-1498); H(erbert) G(eorge) Wells, English author (1866-1946); Gustav Holst, British composer (1874-1934); Chuck Jones, US animator (1912-2002); Leonard Cohen, Canadian poet-singer (1934-2016); Kwame Nkrumah, first prime minister and president of Ghana (1909-1972); Stephen King, US writer (1947- ); Bill Murray, actor (1950- ); Luke Wilson, actor (1971- ); Daddy U-Roy (born Ewart Beckford) (1942-2021); Chrstopher Gayle, Jamaican cricketer (1979- )

—AP/JamaicaObserver