Today is the 252nd day of 2010. There are 113 days left in the year.

Today's Highlight

1776: Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia changes the name "United Colonies" to "United States".

Other Events

1888: Chile annexes Easter Island in South Pacific.

1921: Constitution of Central American Union is signed by republics of Guatemala, Honduras and San Salvador.

1948: Korean People's Democratic Republic is formed in North Korea, claiming authority over entire country.

1951: Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru becomes president of the governing Congress Party, succeeding Purchottamdas Tandon who resigned in a policy dispute.

1988: Burma's former Prime Minister U Nu, toppled in a 1962 military coup, announces formation of a rival government. Burma is now known as Myanmar.

1991: Saudi Arabia releases 400 Iraqi citizens held in the kingdom in exchange for a Saudi prisoner of war and a Saudi woman held in Iraq.

1992: In a bid to defuse tensions with UN forces, the Khmer Rouge, Cambodia's radical communist movement that ruled the country from 1975 to 1979, invites the peacekeeping chief to its secluded base.

1994: The US agrees to accept at least 20,000 Cuban immigrants a year in return for Cuba's promise to halt people from boarding rafts and trying to sail to America.

1999: Israel begins releasing Palestinian prisoners as part of new peace deal.

2003: The Roman Catholic archdiocese of Boston, Massachusetts, and lawyers representing 552 alleged victims of sexual abuse by priests announce a legal settlement worth up to $85 million.

2005: President Hosni Mubarak is officially declared the victor of Egypt's first contested presidential elections -- but the vote is marred by a lower than expected turnout of 23 per cent.

2007: Liberia ships its first consignment of diamonds since the lifting of UN sanctions imposed in 2001 that blocked the export of so-called "blood diamonds" used to fuel years of war.

2008: Asif Ali Zardari, the widower of assassinated former Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto, takes office as Pakistan's president.

Today's Birthdays

Cardinal Richelieu, French churchman-statesman (1585-1642); Cornelius van Tromp, Dutch admiral (1629-1691); Luigi Galvani, Italian physiologist (1737-1798); Max Reinhardt, Austrian stage/screen director (1873-1943); Otis Redding, US soul singer/songwriter (1941-1967); Hugh Grant, British actor (1960-); Adam Sandler, US actor (1966-); Michelle Williams, US actress (1980-).