Friday, September 07

2007-09-07 07:59

Today is Friday, September 7, the 250th day of 2007. There are 115 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1599 - Britain's Earl of Essex signs truce with Irish rebel Tyrone.

1701 - Treaty of the Hague, known as the Grand Alliance, is signed, whereby Britain, Holland and Holy Roman Empire ally against France.

1714 - France signs Peace of Baden with Holy Roman Empire, whereby France keeps Alsace and Strasbourg.

1764 - Stanislaus Poniatowski, protege of Russia, is elected king of Poland.

1776 - The first submarine used in warfare makes an unsuccessful attempt to attach a mine to a British flagship in New York harbour.

1812 - Russians begin to abandon Moscow after defeat by French at Borodino.

1822 - Brazil proclaims independence from Portugal.

1848 - Serfdom is abolished in Austria.

1860 - Forces under Giuseppe Garibaldi enter Naples, the capital of the Kingdom of Two Sicilies, four months after he landed with 1 000 volunteers in Sicily.

1901 - Peace of Peking ends Boxer Rebellion in China.

1927 - American television pioneer Philo T Farnsworth succeeds in transmitting an image through purely electronic means by using a device called an image dissector.

1939 - German army overruns Pomerania and Silesia in Poland.

1940 - The Blitz, during World War 2, begins in earnest: German planes bomb London for the first of 57 consecutive nights.

1962 - Laos establishes diplomatic relations with China and North Vietnam.

1966 - Nearly 4 000 US troops land in Vungtau, South Vietnam; raising the number of US ground forces in the country to about 308 000 men.

1971 - Rhodesian security police kill seven and wound one member of Frelimo, the Mozambique Liberation Front. The fighting took place on the Rhodesian side of the Mozambique-Rhodesian border when guerrillas looking for food threatened the occupants of an African kraal. Rhodesia is now known as Zimbabwe.

1977 - The Panama Canal treaties, calling for the United States to eventually turn over control of the waterway to Panama, are signed in Washington DC.

1981 - An Afghan government announcement recalling young retired soldiers to active duty reportedly sparks protests and a flight of young men from Kabul.

1986 - Desmond Tutu is installed as the first black person to lead the Anglican Church in southern Africa.

1992 - Opposition leaders force Tajikistan President Rakhman Nabiyev to resign after more than a week of armed protests against his rule.

1995 - Nato jets step up raids on Bosnian Serb military targets and set off thunderous blasts, trying to force the Serbs to withdraw heavy weapons from Sarajevo.

1996 - In Rome, an 18-year-old black woman is named Miss Italy after two judges at the pageant are dismissed for saying her skin colour doesn't reflect true Italian beauty.

1999 - Greece's deadliest quake in more than 40 years strikes outside Athens, killing at least 101 people.

2002 - Twenty Russian officers are disciplined for negligence connected to the deadly crash of an Mi-26 military transport helicopter in mid-August. A Chechen rebel's missile attack caused the crash that killed 119 people. The aircraft was overloaded, resulting in the high number of casualties.

2004 - Iran offers to stop some activities linked to uranium enrichment. The United States said the move would not stop it from trying to have Tehran hauled before the UN Security Council for allegedly trying to make nuclear arms.

2005 - UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan and his top deputy failed the ideals of the United Nations in their management of the oil-for-food programme by allowing corruption and waste to flourish, a year-long probe concludes.

2006 - A fire breaks out in a Siberian gold and metals mine, killing 25 miners, who fight the blaze or attempt to escape through long underground tunnels.

Today's Birthdays: Giacomo Ancionio, Italian theologist (1492-1566); England's Queen Elizabeth I (1533-1603); August Kekule von Stradonitz, German chemist (1829-1896); Elia Kazan, US. film director (1909); Todor Zhivkov, Communist ruler of Bulgaria (1911-1998); Belgium's King Baudouin (1930-1993); Sonny Rollins, US jazz musician (1930), Gloria Gaynor, US singer (1949), Chrissie Hynde, US singer (1951).

Thought for Today: My definition of an educated man is the fellow who knows the right thing to do at the time it has to be done. ... You can be sincere and still be stupid - Charles F Kettering, American inventor (1876-1958).

- AP