Today is the 108th day of 2019. There are 257 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT
1980: Rhodesia becomes independent Zimbabwe.
OTHER EVENTS
1328: Holy Roman Emperor Louis IV deposes Pope John XXII, but John stays on and the antipope Louis installed in Rome wins little support and abdicates two years later.
1663: Turks declare war against Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I.
1775: Paul Revere makes his legendary ride to Lexington and Concord, Massachusetts, conveying the warning that the British were coming.
1858: A 60-day-long rainfall begins in Chicago.
1906: Earthquake rocks San Francisco, touching off fires that almost destroy the city and killing about 700 people.
1924: Simon and Schuster publishes the first crossword puzzle book in the US.
1942: Lieutenant General James Doolittle leads the first US air raid on Japan in World War II.
1978: The US Senate votes 68-32 to turn the Panama Canal over to Panamanian control on December 31, 1999.
1991: Iraq submits list of chemical and biological weapons capabilities and nuclear facilities to the UN secretary general.
1994: Former President Richard M Nixon suffers a stroke at his home in New Jersey; he dies four days later at a New York hospital.
1998: The first official talks in four years between North and South Korea end with the two sides unable to resolve a dispute over aid to the starving North and reuniting families.
2013: Pope Francis, known for his frugal ways, decides Vatican employees will not be getting the bonus that traditionally comes with the election of a new pope.TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS
Leopold Stokowski, English-born conductor (1882-1977); Franz von Suppe, Austrian-born composer (1819-1895); Ian Smith, Rhodesian leader (1919-2007); Tadeusz Mazowiecki, first post-communist prime minister of Poland (1927-2013)
— AP
