Highlights in history on this date:

1542 - Scots under King James V are routed by Britain at Battle of Solway Moss.

1758 - British forces capture Senegal; in the French and Indian War, the British capture Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh.

1783 - The British evacuate New York, their last military position in the United States during the Revolutionary War.

1917 - A plebiscite approves separation of state and church in Uruguay; Russia holds its last free election for more than half a century.

1942 - A special Moscow communique reports 15,000 more Germans are captured and 6,000 are killed, raising the total in the seven-day Stalingrad offensive to 51,000 captured and 47,000 killed.

1952 - The world's longest-running play, Agatha Christie's "The Mousetrap," opens in London.

1965 - General Joseph Mobutu, later known as Mobutu Sese Seko, deposes President Joseph Kasavubu in the Congo.

1967 - More than 65 people die in Colombian town after eating bread contaminated by insecticide.

1973 - Greece's President George Papadopoulos is ousted in a bloodless military coup.

1975 - Netherlands grants Suriname its independence.

1977 - U.N. General Assembly condemns Israel for occupation of Arab lands.

1981 - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak frees 31 journalists and political figures, including five former Cabinet officials, who were arrested in Anwar el-Sadat's crackdown on political opposition in September.

1986 - The Iran-Contra affair erupts as U.S. President Ronald Reagan and Attorney General Edwin Meese reveal that profits from secret arms sales to Iran had been diverted to Nicaraguan rebels.

1988 - Radical students and Buddhist monks battle riot police in Seoul, South Korea, demanding arrest of former president Chun Doo Hwan for corruption.

1990 - Gunman dressed as Egyptian border guard opens fire on passing traffic in southern Israel, killing four.

1991 - President Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to hold the Soviet Union together suffer a setback when seven republics fail to initial the proposed Union Treaty as scheduled.

1992 - Representatives of 93 nations agree to speed efforts to phase out the production and use of chemicals that damage the Earth's ozone layer. Under the agreement, industrialized nations will move up their deadlines for eliminating some harmful chemicals.

1993 - Thousands of Sarajevans trudge to soup kitchens opened by the Red Cross to help the old and destitute in the Bosnian capital made hungry by war.

1994 - Guerrillas loyal to Yasser Arafat fight Palestine Liberation Organization dissidents in Lebanon's largest refugee camp.

1995 - In Warsaw, Poland's President-elect Aleksander Kwasniewski resigns from the former communist party in a bid to be seen as a leader above politics.

1996 - More than 100,000 people march through Belgrade, Yugoslavia, accusing Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic of stealing municipal elections.

1997 - A former member of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela's entourage testifies before the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission that he saw her stab a young activist to death.

1998 - President Jiang Zemin arrives in Tokyo for the first visit to Japan by a Chinese head of state since World War II.

1999 - Five-year-old Elian Gonzalez is rescued at sea after a boat capsizes during a voyage from Cuba, killing his mother and 10 others. Elian is turned over to his Miami relatives, but his Cuban father demands the boy's return and a highly politicized custody battle rages for seven months.

2000 - Russia introduces a plan for a state monopoly on caviar production and exports, a move that would cut off illegal sales to the luxury market abroad and increase revenues coming into the government's coffers.

2001 - U.S. Marines land in southern Afghanistan as the Taliban surrender in Kunduz, their last stronghold in the north. This leaves the Northern Alliance in control of the region and only Kandahar, remains in Taliban hands.

2002 - Attackers dynamite Colombia's largest oil pipeline, near the town of Aguazul, 160 kilometers (100 miles) northeast of Bogota, causing a spill and forcing the brief evacuation of 280 people.

2004 - Ethiopia accepts "in principle" a disputed ruling on its border with Eritrea made under the terms of a 4-year-old peace deal, but insists the country will not cede any territory _ potentially dealing a blow to the faltering peace plan.

2005 - An Austrian court rules that British historian David Irving must remain in custody on Holocaust denial charges despite his assertion that he now acknowledges the existence of Nazi-era gas chambers.

2006 - Lebanon's U.S.-backed government approves the creation of an international tribunal to try suspects in the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

2007 - Pakistan's exiled former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif returns home to a hero's welcome and calls on President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to end emergency rule before elections.

2008 - Flights in and out of Bangkok, Thailand, are grounded when anti-government demonstrators occupy Suvarnabhumi international airport.

Today's Birthdays:

Lope Felix de Vega, Spanish dramatist (1562-1635); Joe DiMaggio, former U.S. baseball player (1914-1999); Ricardo Montalban, Mexican-born actor (1920--); Mauno Koivisto, Finland's president from 1982 to 1994 (1923--); Amy Grant, U.S. singer (1960--); Christina Applegate, U.S. actress (1971--).

Thought For Today:

To be free is to have achieved your life _ Tennessee Williams, American playwright (1911-83).