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Today is the 340th day of 2021. There are 25 days left in the yearTODAY'S HIGHLIGHT1998: Six years after staging a bloody coup attempt, former Lieutenant Colonel Hugo Chavez is elected president of Venezuela, dealing a blow to the establishment that ruled the country for 40 years.OTHER EVENTS1534: Spanish conquistadors establish presence in Quito, an Inca city in the Andes.1732: The first play in American colonies is acted by professional players in New York, USA.1735: First recorded appendectomy is performed by Claudius Amyand at St George's Hospital in London.1768: First edition of Encyclopedia Brittanicais published in Scotland.1787: Laurens Pieter van de Speigel is appointed Dutch pension advisor.1790: The US Congress moves from New York City to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.1849: Harriet Tubman escapes from slavery in Maryland for the second and final time.1857: British forces recapture Cawnpore in India.1864: Battle of Deveaux's Neck, South Carolina.1865: 13th Amendment of the United States Constitution is ratified, abolishing slavery.1866: Chicago water supply tunnel 3,227m into Lake Michigan completed.1884: Army engineers complete construction of the Washington Monument.1897: London becomes the world's first city to host licensed taxicabs.1906: Self-government is granted in Transvaal and Orange River colonies in what is now South Africa.1907: The frontier between Uganda and East Africa is defined.1916: Bucharest, the capital of Romania, falls to German troops.1917: The Republic of Finland is proclaimed; collision between Belgian and French ammunition ships at Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, takes 1,600 lives.1921: Britain signs peace treaty with Ireland establishing the Irish Free State, and Ireland accepts Dominion status.1929: Women's suffrage begins in Turkey.1941: US President Franklin D Roosevelt appeals to Japan's Emperor Hirohito for peace - one day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour. He also authorises the Manhattan Project, which results in the creation of the atomic bomb.1956: Nelson Mandela and 156 others arrested for political activities in South Africa.1957: America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit blows up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.1959: UN General Assembly says Togoland should receive independence.1966: Britain calls for UN sanctions against rebellious Rhodesia, including ban on oil shipments.1973: Gerald Ford, sworn-in as first unelected US vice-president, succeeds Spiro Agnew who resigned over corruption allegations.1978: A referendum approves the constitution returning Spain to a democracy.1984: Death toll rises to 1,600 from gas leak from US-built pesticide plant in Bhopal, India.1987: Bangladesh government dissolves Parliament amid opposition campaign to topple President Hussain Mohammad Ershad's Administration.1990: General Hussain Mohammad Ershad, who ruled Bangladesh for nine years after coming to power in a coup, steps down at the height of a pro-democracy movement. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announces release of all foreign hostages.2004: Islamic militants set off explosives and shoot their way into the heavily guarded US consulate in Jiddah - a bold assault that shows Saudi Arabia's crackdown on terrorists has not succeeded.2006: After decades of dictatorship and wars, Congo swears in its first freely elected president since 1960, installing Joseph Kabila, the son of a rebel leader, who promises a new era of order.2008: Amsterdam unveils plans to close brothels, sex shops, and marijuana cafés in its ancient city centre as part of a major effort to drive organised crime out of the tourist haven.2009: Delegates converge for the grand finale of two years of tough, sometimes bitter, negotiations on a climate change treaty, as UN officials calculated that pledges offered in the last few weeks to reduce greenhouse gases put the world within reach of keeping global warming under control.2010: A French court convicts Continental Airlines and one of its mechanics of manslaughter for setting off a chain of events that sent a supersonic Concorde crashing into a hotel outside Paris a decade ago, killing 113 people and marking the beginning of the sleek jet's demise.2011: In Afghanistan's first major sectarian assault since the fall of the Taliban regime a decade ago, a suicide bomber slaughters 56 Shiite worshippers and wounds more than 160 others outside a Shiite shrine in the capital.2017: US President Donald Trump officially recognises Jerusalem as Israel's capital, announcing plans to move US embassy there.2020: US President Donald Trump orders about 700 troops withdrawn from Somalia.TODAY'S BIRTHDAYSJoseph-Louis Gay-Lussac, French physicist and chemist (1778-1850); Joyce Kilmer, US poet (1886-1918); Ira Gershwin, US lyricist of Broadway musicals and films (1896-1983); Gunnar Myrdal, Swedish economist and sociologist, Nobel laureate (1898-1987); Alfred Eisenstaedt, US photojournalist (1898-1995); James Braddock, US boxer (1905-1974); Peter Handke, Austrian novelist and playwright (1942- ); Dave Brubeck, US jazz pianist (1920-2012)- AP