Today is the 364th day of 2013. There is one day left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
 Saddam Hussein
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2006: Saddam Hussein, 69, the shotgun-waving dictator who ruled Iraq for a quarter-century and was driven from power by a US-led war that left his country in shambles, is taken to the gallows and executed.
OTHER EVENTS
1777: Bavaria, on death of Maximillian III, passes to Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine, igniting the War of the Bavarian Succession.
1853: Gadsden Purchase signed with Mexico to sell southern portion of Arizona and New Mexico to the United States for $10 million.
1903: Some 600 people die in the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago.
1949: France transfers sovereignty to Vietnam.
1964: UN Security Council calls for an end to all foreign intervention in the Congo, a ceasefire and withdrawal of mercenaries.
1988: Yugoslavia’s Premier Branko Mikulic and entire Cabinet resign following mounting criticism of how they handled the nation’s economic crisis.
1990: Albanian Jews are allowed to begin emigrating to Israel for the first time.
1997: China announces stronger restrictions on the use of the Internet, aiming to curtail the use of e-mail and the World Wide Web among dissidents; armed men massacre 412 men, women and children in four mountain villages in Algeria.
2002: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg signs a law banning smoking in almost all bars and restaurants in the city starting March 30, 2003.
2007: Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki wins a second term amid allegations that the government stole the vote from opposition candidate Raila Odinga, sparking deadly riots for weeks that kill at least 500 people.
2008: Ugandan rebels have killed more than 400 people in northeastern Congo since Christmas, aid agency Caritas says.
2010: Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav is convicted of rape, a dramatic fall from grace for a man who rose from humble beginnings to become a symbol of achievement for Jews of Middle Eastern origin.
TODAY’S BITHDAYS
Rudyard Kipling, English author (1865-1936); Stephen Leacock, Canadian humorist (1869-1944); Carol Reed, English film director (1906-1976); Skeeter Davis, US singer (1931-2004); Patti Smith, US punk musician (1946-); Tracey Ullman, British actress-singer (1959-)
— AP
