Today is Friday, May 13, the 133rd day of 2011. There are 232 days left in the year.
Today's Highlight
Singer-songwriter, multiinstrumentalist and record producer Stevie Wonder is 61 today. Wonder, born Stevland Hardaway Judkins (which later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris) has sold 72 million albums and has received 22 Grammy Awards in a career that has spanned half a century. (Photo: AP)
1994: Israeli troops leave Jericho after 27 years, giving the Palestinian Authority control over its first West Bank town.
Other Events
1779: France abandons Goree, West Africa, to Britain.
1871: Law of Guarantees in Italy declares pope's person inviolable and allows him possession of the Vatican.
1888: Serfdom is abolished in Brazil.
1962: A gunman tries to assassinate Indonesia's President Sukarno, who escapes unhurt.
1969: More than 100 people are reported killed in race riots in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
1970: Israel attacks Lebanon to try to wipe out guerrilla bases.
1973: Nineteen nations begin talks in Vienna aimed at cutting number of troops in Europe.
1981: Pope John Paul II is shot and seriously wounded in Rome by Mehmet Ali Agca, a Turk. Eastern European intelligence agencies are suspected to be behind the attack on the Polish-born pontiff.
1991: South African judge convicts Winnie Mandela of kidnapping four young men and being an accessory in their beating.
1995: Angry crowds burn schools, government buildings and Hindu temples in the Himalayan state of Kashmir in apparent retaliation for the destruction of a 15th-century Muslim shrine.
2000: The Vatican ends an enduring mystery, saying the third secret of Fatima, the Virgin Mary is said to have told three children in 1917, was a foretelling of the shooting of Pope John Paul II in 1981.
2001: Cuban leader Fidel Castro leaves Malaysia after his first state visit to that country. The visit is part of Castro's efforts to bolster support for Cuba, which languishes under a four-decade US embargo.
2002: The US and Russia announce they have reached agreement on a pact committing both countries to cut their arsenal of nuclear weapons by two-thirds over the next 10 years.
2003: The Chinese government issues new rules that require local officials throughout China to accurately and promptly report threats to public health, such as disease outbreaks or epidemics.
2006: Rival Somali militias pound each other with heavy artillery and mortar fire as the death toll rises to 142 in seven days of fighting for control of a northern neighbourhood in the capital Mogadishu.
2009: European Union fines Intel, world's largest chip maker, a record $1.45 billion for using strong arm sales tactics.
Singer-songwriter, multiinstrumentalist and record producer Stevie Wonder is 61 today. Wonder, born Stevland Hardaway Judkins (which later changed to Stevland Hardaway Morris) has sold 72 million albums and has received 22 Grammy Awards in a career that has spanned half a century. (Photo: AP)
