Highlights in history on this date:

1512 - Michelangelo paintings on the ceiling of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel are exhibited.

1604 - William Shakespeare's tragedy "Othello" is first presented, at Whitehall Palace in London.

1755 - Earthquake rocks Lisbon, Portugal, killing 60,000 people, many in collapsed churches.

1918 - The Hapsburgs, the Austro-Hungarian monarchy, comes to an end after King Charles renounces his share in state affairs.

1945 - Britain announces it has evidence indicating Adolf Hitler killed himself in a bunker in Berlin.

1950 - Two Puerto Rican nationalists try to force their way into Blair House in Washington to assassinate President Harry Truman. The attempt fails, and one of the pair is killed.

1952 - The United States explodes the first hydrogen bomb at Eniwetok in the Marshall Islands.

1954 - The north African nation of Algeria begins its rebellion against French rule.

1961 - Eighty-five people are killed in nationalist demonstrations in Algiers.

1968 - U.S. military halts all air, naval and artillery bombardment of Vietnam. But U.S. reconnaissance flights over the North continue.

1971 - A dance hall fire in Saint Laurent-du-Point, France, claims 142 lives.

1975 - Chinese troops ambush Indian security patrol along India's northern border, killing four men in the first flare-up between the two countries in eight years.

1981 - The Caribbean islands of Antigua and neighboring Barbuda form an independent state, ending nearly 350 years of British rule.

1987 - Top leader Deng Xiaoping resigns from the governing body of China's Communist Party in order to allow his reform-minded proteges to consolidate power.

1989 - After travel restrictions are lifted, hundreds of East Germans flock to the West German embassy in Prague seeking passage to the West.

1990 - The world's largest industrial countries agree to phase out dumping waste into the sea by 1995.

1991 - Thirteen members of the Canadian military are rescued after spending more than 40 hours stranded in the Arctic after their plane crashed. Five additional crew members, including the pilot, survived the crash but froze to death before they were rescued.

1992 - Russia sends more troops to the Caucasus region after fighting flares between Ingush and Ossetian forces.

1993 - In the worst clashes since the Russians were drawn into Georgia's civil war, Russian soldiers kill several rebels trying to oust Georgian leader Eduard Shevardnadze.

1995 - Peace talks on the Bosnian conflict open in the United States in Dayton, Ohio, with the leaders of Bosnia, Croatia and Serbia present. The talks result in a peace accord overseen by NATO troops.

1996 - Rwandan and Zairian forces bombard each another with artillery along the border, while rebels in Zaire supported by Rwanda close in on the town of Goma.

1997 - Indonesia closes 16 banks left insolvent by Asia's financial problems.

1998 - Rescue workers discover the remains of villagers killed when a crater lake overflowed and collapsed in Nicaragua, adding hundreds to the estimated thousands killed in the flooding following Hurricane Mitch.

1999 - China agrees to work with conservation groups to stop the use of endangered plants and animals like rhinoceros and tiger parts for medicines and traditional cures.

2000 - Northern Ireland's peace accord takes a battering as Cabinet members clash and militants on both sides mount bloody attacks. On the street, a booby trap planted by Irish Republican Army dissidents blows the leg off a police officer.

2001 - NATO member Turkey becomes the first Muslim nation to commit troops to the war against Afghanistan.

2004 - A 16-year-old Palestinian blows himself up in a crowded outdoor market, killing three Israelis and wounding 32. The attack tests Israel's promise to show restraint during the absence of the ailing Yasser Arafat _ and undercuts efforts by Palestinian leaders to convey a sense of normalcy.

2005 - Police surround opposition parties' headquarters and clash with their supporters on the islands of Zanzibar as the ruling party is declared winner of presidential and parliamentary elections. At least nine people are killed.

2006 - Fiji's prime minister insists that his government will not step down despite pressure from the country's military commander, whose relentless criticism of the administration has raised fears of a possible coup.

2007 - Tropical Storm Noel drenches the central Caribbean, killing at least 107, destroying at least 20,000 homes and causing crop damage in the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Cuba in the tens of millions of dollars.

2008 - Tutsi-led rebels tighten their hold on newly seized swaths of eastern Congo.

Today's Birthdays:

Benvenuto Cellini, Italian artist (1500-1571); Francis Hutcheson, Scottish philosopher (1694-1746); Nicholas Boileau, French poet (1636-1711); Victoria de los Angeles, Spanish soprano (1923-2005); Marcia Wallace, U.S. actress (1942--); Toni Collette, Australian actress (1972--).

Thought for Today:

People who bite the hand that feeds them usually lick the boot that kicks them _ Eric Hoffer, American author and philosopher (1902-1983).