Today's Highlight

2006: Haiti's president, René Preval, appoints a coalition government in an effort to unite the impoverished nation two years after a *lo**y revolt toppled the last elected president.

Other Notable Events

1660: Peace of Copenhagen ends a generation of war between Sweden and Denmark and fixes the borders the way they are today, with Denmark regaining Fyn and Bornholm from Sweden.

1871: Alsace is annexed to Germany after French army is defeated in Franco-Prussian War.

1944: "D-day" Allied troops land on German-held beaches in Normandy, France.

1964: Malawi gains independence from Britain with Kamuzu Banda as prime minister.

1967: Egyptians close Suez Canal during Six-Day Arab-Israeli War. It remains closed to international shipping for eight years.

1973: West Germany completes ratification of treaty to normalise its relations with East Germany.

1985: Israel withdraws bulk of its troops from Lebanon after three-year occupation, but retains border strip.

1993: At least 460 refugees, most of them women and children, are massacred in Liberia, allegedly by rebels led by faction leader Charles Taylor.

1996: Turkish Prime Minister Mesut Yilmaz resigns paving the way for the first Islamic-led government in history of modern Turkey.

1997: German authorities decide to place the Scientology movement under surveillance for one year, claiming the group is aiming to undermine democratic society.

2000: A former Japanese doomsday cult leader is sentenced to life in prison for the 1995 nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subways that killed 12 people and sickened thousands.

2001: Russian lawmakers defy public opposition and pass a law allowing nuclear waste to be imported and stored indefinitely.

2002: Deliberations begin in the trial of accounting American firm Arthur Andersen LLP. The firm is accused of obstructing justice by shredding files of international energy-trading firm Enron Corp.

2005: The International Criminal Court announces the investigation of alleged war crimes in Sudan's Darfur region, where an estimated 180,000 people have died and two million have been displaced since the conflict began in 2003.

2007: Three gunmen kill Zakia Zaki, owner and manager of Peace Radio in Afghanistan since its opening after the fall of the Taliban, in her house in front of her eight-year-old son.

2009: President Barack Obama honours valiant dead at the 65th anniversary of the decisive World War II invasion even as he remakes wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today's Birthdays