Today is the 117th day of 2013. There are 248 days left in the year.

TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT

1992: Russia and 12 other former Soviet republics win entry into the International Monetary Fund and World Bank; the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is proclaimed in Belgrade by the Republic of Serbia and its lone ally, Montenegro.

OTHER EVENTS

1830: Simon Bolivar abdicates as president of Colombia.

1910: Louis Botha and James Hertzog found South African Party.

1937: The US Social Security system makes its first benefits payment.

1938: Greece and Turkey sign treaty of friendship.

1941: Athens falls to German invaders after 180 days of Greek resistance in World War II.

1945: Austrian statehood is proclaimed under Allied occupation.

1950: Communist Party is outlawed in Australia; Britain recognises Israel.

1960: Rhee Syngman resigns as president of South Korea; Togo becomes independent republic.

1961: Sierra Leone becomes independent from Britain.

1978: Mohammed Daoud is thrown out in a bloody coup and replaced by Afghanistan’s first communist ruler, Nur Mohammed Taraki. Daoud and 30 family members, including women and children, are executed.

1993: Eritreans overwhelmingly choose independence from Ethiopia in a referendum that ratifies a rebel victory in Africa’s longest secessionist struggle; semiofficial representatives of Taiwan and China meet in Singapore for the first time since 1949.

2000: Paleontologists unveil the most complete ape-man skull ever excavated, a 1.5-million to two-million-year-old skull of a female Paranthropus robustus, a cousin of early man. The fossil was found in South Africa.

2002: Soldiers loyal to Afghan warlord Padsha Khan Zadra launch more than 200 rockets at Gardez, the capital of Paktia province. At least 25 people are killed in fighting between his soldiers and fighters loyal to the leaders installed by the government of Hamid Karzai.

2003: Nicanor Duarte Frutos is elected president of Paraguay, extending the Colorado Party’s uninterrupted 55 years of rule.

2012: Space shuttle Enterprise sails over the New York skyline on top of a modified jumbo jet on its final flight before it becomes a museum piece. TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS

Edward Gibbon, English historian (1737- 1794); Samuel FB Morse, US inventor of first practical telegraph (1791-1872); Ulysses S Grant, US president and general (1822-1885); Jack Klugman, US actor (1922-2012); Sheena Easton, Scottish singer/actress (1959-).

— AP