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Today is the 285th day of 2021. There are 80 days left in the year.TODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1822: Brazil becomes independent of Portugal. OTHER EVENTS1492: Christopher Columbus makes his first landfall in the New World, in present-day Bahamas (according to the old style calendar).1792: The first recorded US celebration of Columbus Day is held to mark the tricentennial of Christopher Columbus's landing.1810: The German festival 'Oktoberfest' is first held in Munich to celebrate the wedding of Bavarian Crown Prince Ludwig and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen.1901: US President Theodore Roosevelt officially changes the name of the president's residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, DC, from Executive Mansion to the White House.1908: South Africa Constitutional Convention meets in Durban.1915: English nurse Edith Cavell is executed by a German firing squad for helping Allied soldiers escape from occupied Belgium during World War I. Former President Theodore Roosevelt, speaking to the Knights of Columbus in New York, criticises native-born Americans who identify themselves by dual nationalities, saying that "a hyphenated American is not an American at all".1933: Bank robber John Dillinger escapes from a jail in Ohio with the help of his gang.1934: Peter II becomes king of Yugoslavia following the assassination of his father, King Alexander.1938: Japanese troops seize Canton, severing the railway to the temporary Chinese capital in Wuhan.1942: During World War II, American naval forces defeat the Japanese in the Battle of Cape Esperance. Attorney General Francis Biddle announces during a Columbus Day celebration at Carnegie Hall in New York that Italian nationals in the United States will no longer be considered enemy aliens.1945: Allied Control Council in Germany orders dissolution of Nazi Party after World War II.1951: Under attack by French planes, the Viet Minh rebels suffer one of their worst defeats of Vietnam's civil war, with 1,200 dead and 5,000 captured, in an attempt to take Nghialo.1956: UK tells Israel the British will assist Jordan if Israel attacks that country.1957: The Dr Seuss Yuletide tale How the Grinch Stole Christmas! is first published by Random House.1960: Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev upsets the decorum of UN General Assembly by pounding the desk with his shoe during a dispute.1964: US forces take control in South Vietnam, ousting Government of Major General Nguyen Khanh. The Soviet Union launches a Voskhod space capsule with a three-man crew on the first mission involving more than one crew member (the flight lasted just over 24 hours).1968: Equatorial Guinea gains its independence from Spain.1973: US President Richard Nixon nominates House of Representatives Minority Leader Gerald R Ford to succeed Spiro T Agnew as vice-president. Agnew resigned after the Justice Department revealed he had taken kickbacks.1975: Pope Paul VI canonises an Irish archbishop, Oliver Plunkett, who was executed by the British in 1681.1984: British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher escapes an attempt on her life when an Irish Republican Army bomb explodes at a hotel in Brighton, England, killing five people.1991: Pope John Paul II makes his second visit to Brazil in an effort to renew interest in the Roman Catholic Church, as it is losing many Brazilian adherents to Protestant groups and African mystical cults.1992: A strong earthquake near Cairo kills 450 people and injures 4,000.1993: German Chancellor Helmut Kohl pledges to move most of nation's Government to Berlin from Bonn, the current capital, by the end of the year 2000.1997: Cuban President Fidel Castro appoints his brother Raul as successor. Singer John Denver is killed in the crash of his privately built aircraft in Monterey Bay, California; he was 53.1998: American college student Matthew Shepard dies in Fort Collins, Colorado, several days after being beaten by two men and left in the cold in Laramie, Wyoming. Shepard's homosexuality was believed to have motivated the attack, and his death contributed to the expansion of federal hate-crime legislation. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic agrees to withdraw his forces from Kosovo, initiate peace negotiations with ethnic Albanians, and allow international observers to ensure UN demands are met.1999: American basketball player Wilt Chamberlain, who was considered one of the greatest offensive players in the history of the game, dies at age 63. A military coup throws Pakistan into political disarray as conflict with India continues over the disputed Kashmir territory. Army Chief General Pervez Musharraf becomes the new leader and promises to hold elections.2000: Seventeen sailors are killed in a suicide bomb attack on the US destroyer Cole in Yemen.2001: The United Nations and its secretary general, Kofi Annan, win the Nobel Peace Prize.2002: A bomb explodes in a resort area on the Indonesian island of Bali, destroying two nightclubs, killing more than 180 people and wounding nearly 300 others.2007: Former US Vice-President Al Gore and the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change win the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for sounding the alarm over global warming.2009: Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vows never to allow Israeli leaders or soldiers to stand trial on war crimes charges over their actions during a military offensive in the Gaza Strip, denouncing a UN report in a keynote address to Parliament.2012: Thousands of supporters and opponents of Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi clash in Cairo's Tahrir Square in the first such act of violence since Morsi took office more than three months earlier. The European Union wins the Nobel Peace Prize for fostering peace on a continent long ravaged by war.2016: Wells Fargo announces that its embattled CEO, John Stumpf, is stepping down as the nation's second-largest bank finds itself roiled by a scandal over its sales practices. TODAY'S BIRTHDAYSEngland's King Edward VI (1537-1553); Pedro I, first emperor of Brazil (1798-1834); James Ramsey MacDonald, British prime minister (1865-1937); Edith Stein, German Roman Catholic saint (Saint Teresa Benedicta Of The Cross) (1891-1942); Ralph Vaughan Williams, English composer (1872-1958); Luciano Pavarotti, Italian tenor (1935-2007); Kirk Cameron, US actor (1970- ); Chris Wallace, broadcast journalist (1947- ); Hugh Jackman, actor (1968- ); Brian J Smith, actor (1981- ); Tyler Blackburn, actor (1986- ); Marcus T Paulk, actor (1986- ); Josh Hutcherson, actor (1992- ); Marion Jones, American athlete, Olympian (1975- ) - AP/Jamaica Observer