Highlights in history on this date:

1492 - Christopher Columbus discovers Cuba on his first voyage to New World.

1636 - Harvard College is founded in Massachusetts.

1708 - Sweden's King Charles XII takes Mohilev, Russia, and invades Ukraine.

1793 - U.S. inventor Eli Whitney applies for a patent for the cotton gin, used to separate green seeds from staple-cotton.

1836 - Federation of Peru and Bolivia is proclaimed.

1886 - The Statue of Liberty, a gift from the people of France, is dedicated in New York Harbor by U.S. President Grover Cleveland.

1890 - The German East Africa Company cedes its territorial rights to Germany.

1916 - Australian voters reject conscription for World War I by narrow margin.

1919 - Congress enacts the Volstead Act, which provides for enforcement of Prohibition, the ban on alcoholic beverages, over U.S. President Woodrow Wilson's veto.

1922 - Fascism comes to Italy as Benito Mussolini takes control of the government.

1940 - Italy invades Greece during World War II.

1956 - Israeli troops invade Sinai Peninsula, later to be joined by British and French forces, following Egypt's seizure of the Suez Canal from European control.

1958 - The Roman Catholic patriarch of Venice, Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, is elected pope, taking the name John XXIII.

1962 - Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev announces he has ordered the withdrawal of Soviet missiles from Cuba.

1965 - Pope Paul VI issues a decree absolving Jews of collective guilt for the crucifixion of Jesus Christ.

1971 - House of Commons votes in favor of Britain's entry into European Common Market.

1974 - Arab heads of state, including Jordan's King Hussein, issue declaration calling for creation of independent Palestinian state.

1977 - U.N. General Assembly censures Israel for establishing settlements in occupied Arab territories, calling action illegal and damaging to peace efforts.

1983 - The U.N. General Assembly approves a resolution calling on Vietnam to withdraw its occupation forces from Cambodia.

1989 - More than 10,000 rally in protest of the government on the 71st anniversary of Czechoslovakia's independence; scores are beaten or detained.

1990 - A coalition of noncommunist pro-independence parties wins the elections in Georgia, the last of the 15 Soviet constituent republics to hold such elections in 1990.

1993 - Georgian rebels repel an attack on their last stronghold of Zugdidi, then drive back government troops and recapture the town of Khobi in a powerful counteroffensive.

1994 - For the first time since violence erupted 25 years earlier, representatives of the Irish Republican Army meet with leaders from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland to discuss peace talks.

1995 - At least 289 people are killed and hundreds injured in a subway fire in Baku, the Azerbaijani capital.

1997 - Forces loyal to Zambian president Frederick Chiluba quash a coup by disgruntled military officers, arresting nine men including the captain who said an angel told him to overthrow the government.

1998 - Hurricane Mitch pauses over Honduras with 205 kph (120 mph) winds, sweeping away bridges, flooding neighborhoods and killing hundreds of people.

2001 - U.S. President George W. Bush announces creation of a Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force to find and deport foreigners who are in the United States illegally.

2004 - At least two people die and 21 are injured when a bomb explodes in a border town in Thailand's troubled Narathiwat province, where about 100 Muslims earlier gathered for the mass burial of 22 unidentified men killed in military custody after a violent protest.

2005 - Russia issues a scathing response to a U.N. report documenting massive corruption in the oil-for-food program, contending that documents indicting Russian companies are fake.

2006 - An overcrowded bus plunges off a mountain road in western Nepal, leaving at least 42 people dead and dozens injured.

2007 - First lady Cristina Fernandez claims victory in Argentina's presidential election to become the first woman elected to the post.

2008 - Former political prisoner Mohamed Nasheed defeats President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Asia's longest-serving ruler, in the Maldives' first democratic presidential election.

Today's Birthdays:

Evelyn Waugh, British novelist (1903-1966); Ivan Turgenev, Russian writer (1818-1883); Auguste Escoffier, chef par excellence (1846-1935); Francis Bacon, British painter (1909-1992); Dr. Jonas Salk, U.S. doctor, developer of first polio vaccine (1914-1995); Bill Gates, U.S. chairman of Microsoft (1955--); Julia Roberts, U.S. actress (1967--); Ben Harper, rock singer (1969--).

Thought for Today:

Life is easier to take than you'd think; all that is necessary is to accept the impossible, do without the indispensable and bear the intolerable _ Kathleen Norris, American author (1880-1960).