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Today is the 257th day of 2021. There are 108 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1985: The American sitcom The Golden Girls debuts on television; known for its focus on older women - played by Betty White, Rue McClanahan, Beatrice Arthur, and Estelle Getty - and for tackling timely topics, the series became hugely popular. OTHER EVENTS1613: Turkey invades Hungary.1752: Britain adopts Gregorian calendar.1770: Freedom of the press is allowed in Denmark.1812: Napoleon Bonaparte enters Moscow and Russians set fires throughout the city.1814: Francis Scott Key is inspired to write the poem Defence of Fort McHenry (later The Star-Spangled Banner) after witnessing the American flag flying over the Maryland fort following a night of British naval bombardment during the War of 1812.1854: Allied forces land unopposed on the Russian Crimea.1861: The first naval engagement of the Civil War takes place as the USS Colorado attacks and sinks the Confederate private schooner Judah off Pensacola, Florida.1901: US President William McKinley dies in Buffalo, New York, of gunshot wounds inflicted by an assassin. Vice-President Theodore Roosevelt succeeds him.1911: Peter Stolypin, Russian premier, is fatally shot by a revolutionary.1918: Austria-Hungary makes peace offer to Allies in World War I.1923: Miguel Primo de Rivera assumes dictatorship in Spain.1927: Modern dance pioneer Isadora Duncan dies in Nice, France, when her scarf became entangled in a wheel of the sports car she was riding in.1948: A groundbreaking ceremony takes place in New York at the site of the United Nations' world headquarters.1954: The Soviet Union detonates a 40-kiloton atomic test weapon.1959: The Soviet space probe Luna 2 becomes the first man-made object to reach the moon.1960: Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries is founded.1972: US Senate approves US-Soviet agreement to freeze a major part of their offensive nuclear arsenals for five years. The family drama series The Waltons premieres on CBS.1975: Pope Paul VI declares Mother Elizabeth Ann Bayley Seton the first US-born saint.1982: Lebanese Christians massacre hundreds of Palestinians after their leader, President-elect Bashir Gemayel, is killed by a bomb; Princess Grace of Monaco, formerly actress Grace Kelly, dies at age 52 of injuries from a car crash the day before.1985: Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon releases the Rev Benjamin Weir after holding him captive for 16 months.1991: United Nations weapons inspectors report Iraq would have been capable of building two or three atomic weapons a year by the mid-1990s, had its nuclear production facilities not been destroyed during the Persian Gulf war. The Government of South Africa, the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party sign a national peace pact.1993: Israel and Jordan sign an "agenda for peace" in Washington. One day after Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization sign their interim accord for Palestinian self-rule.1994: On the 34th day of a strike by players, Acting Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig announces the 1994 season was over.1996: Bosnia holds its first post-war election.2000: Cheng Kejie, a former deputy chairman of China's parliament, is executed for corruption. He was convicted of taking nearly US$5 million in bribes.2001: Americans pack churches and clog public squares on a day of remembrance for the victims of the September 11 attacks. President George W Bush prays with his Cabinet and attends services at Washington National Cathedral, then flies to New York, where he wades into the ruins of the World Trade Center and addresses rescue workers in a flag-waving, bullhorn-wielding show of resolve.2004: Senior Israeli Cabinet ministers approve cash advances of up to US$100,000 to Jewish settlers who willingly leave their homes in the Gaza Strip and four West Bank settlements.2005: A UN summit marking the 60th anniversary of the United Nations opens with calls for the world to restore confidence in the United Nations after scandals that have seen its reputation tarnished.2006: Germany ordains its first rabbis since World War II - an event hailed as a milestone in the rebirth of Jewish life in the nation.2007: Vladimir Putin rewrites the rules for Russia's closely watched presidential succession and names his new prime minister, Viktor Zubkov.2008: Losing its devastating punch as a major hurricane, Ike nevertheless drubs the Midwest with powerful winds and floodwaters. Carlos Zambrano pitches the first no-hitter for the Chicago Cubs in 36 years, striking out 10 in a 5-0 win over Houston in a game relocated to Milwaukee because of Hurricane Ike.2009: American dancer and actor Patrick Swayze, who was best known for his performances in the box-office hits Dirty Dancing (1987) and Ghost (1990), dies at age 57 after battling pancreatic cancer. In a case that alters airport security worldwide, three British Muslims are imprisoned for at least 30 years each for a plot to kill thousands by blowing up trans-Atlantic airliners with liquid explosives hidden in soda bottles.2012: Fury over an anti-Muslim film ridiculing the Prophet Muhammad spreads across the Muslim world, with deadly clashes near Western embassies in Tunisia and Sudan, an American fast-food restaurant set ablaze in Lebanon and international peacekeepers attacked in Sinai.2013: A diplomatic breakthrough on securing and destroying Syria's chemical weapons stockpile, negotiated by the US and Russia, averts the threat of US military action.2014: Diplomats from around the world press for a coherent global strategy to combat Islamic State group extremists after they behead yet another Western hostage.2016: Hillary Clinton's campaign releases a letter from her doctor saying the Democratic presidential nominee is "recovering well" from pneumonia and remained "fit to serve as President of the United States". President Barack Obama says the US is lifting economic sanctions and restoring trade benefits to former pariah state Myanmar as he meets with former political prisoner Aung San Suu Kyi, the nation's de facto leader. Tyre King, a 13-year-old boy, is fatally shot by Columbus, Ohio, police after authorities said he pulled a BB gun from his pants.2017: Cental Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director Mike Pompeo cancels a planned appearance at Harvard University over the school's decision to name Chelsea Manning a visiting fellow. Former CIA Deputy Director Mike Morell resigns from his post at Harvard's John F Kennedy School of Government, saying he couldn't be part of an organisation that "honours a convicted felon and leaker of classified information". More than 80 people are killed in an attack in southern Iraq targeting a restaurant frequented by Shiite Muslim pilgrims; the Islamic State group claims responsibility. TODAY'S BIRTHDAYSMaria Luigi Cherubini, Italian composer (1760-1842); Alexander von Humboldt, German astronomer-explorer (1769-1859); Ivan Pavlov, Russian physiologist (1849-1936); Alice Stone Blackwell, US women's suffragist (1857-1950); Margaret Sanger, US birth control pioneer (1879-1966); Zoe Caldwell, Australian actress (1933-2020); Sam Neill, Irish actor (1947- ); Amy Winehouse, singer/songwriter (1983-2011); Dmitry Medvedev, Russian prime minister (1965- ); Nas, rapper (1973- ) - AP