HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY ON THIS DATE

1498 During his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrives at the island of Trinidad.

1658 Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mughal Emperor in India.

1789 Austrian and Russian troops under Francis Duke of Coburg and Count Alexander Suvorov defeat Turks at Focshani in Romania.

1812 Venezuelan Republic falls to Spanish forces, and Francisco de Miranda is arrested.

1919 Germany adopts Weimar Constitution.

1926 Afghanistan signs non- aggression pact with Soviet Union.

1944 US troops break through the German lines around the Normandy beachhead, opening the way to liberating the rest of France.

1951 French Brigadier General Charles Marie Chanson and governor Thai Lap Thanh, of Frenchbacked South Vietnam, are killed 97 km south of Saigon by a Communist suicide bomber.

1956 Britain and West Germany sign 10year agreement on nuclear cooperation.

1962 Britain agrees to establish wider Malaysian federation.

1964 US Ranger 7 spacecraft transmits to Earth first closeup pictures of the Moon.

1971 Two US Apollo 15 astronauts begin three days of Moon exploration in an electric car.

1974 Ceasefire takes effect between Turkey and Greece in fighting on Cyprus.

1978 Gunman shoots his way into Iraqi embassy in Paris and holds hostages for several hours before surrendering to French police.

1980 Eleven people are executed in Tehran after being convicted of participating in an attempted antigovernment coup earlier in the month. Ten of them were members of the armed forces.

1986 Britain’s Cabinet unanimously supports Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s resistance to stiff sanctions against South Africa.

1988 Pier jammed with thousands of festival travellers collapses at ferry terminal in northwest Malaysia, killing at least 30 people and injuring about 370.

1989 Thousands of residents flee Beirut, Lebanon, as fierce shelling continues.

1990 US government panel approves use of gene therapy for first time in treatment of human disease.