HISTORY AT A GLANCE

TODAY is Saturday, August 12, the 224th day of 2017. There are 141 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1964 – South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games due

to the country’s racist policies. 1964 – Charlie Wilson, one of the Great Train Robbers, escapes from Winson Green Prison in Birmingham, England, United Kingdom. 1969 – Violence erupts after the Apprentice Boys of Derry march in Derry, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom resulting in a three-day communal riot known as the Battle of the Bogside. 1976 – Between 1,000 and 3,500 Palestinians are killed in the Tel al-Zaatar massacre, one of the bloodiest events of the Lebanese Civil War 1977 – The first free flight of the Space Shuttle Enterprise. 1977 – The 1977 riots in Sri Lanka, targeting the minority Sri Lankan Tamil people, begin, less than a month after the United National Party came to power. Over 300 Tamils are killed. 1978 – The Treaty of Peace and Friendship between Japan

and the People’s Republic of China is signed. 1980 – The Montevideo Treaty, establishing the Latin

American Integration Association, is signed. 1981 – The IBM Personal Computer is released. 1982 – Mexico announces that it is unable to pay its enormous external debt, marking the beginning of a debt crisis that spreads to all of Latin America and the Third World. 1985 – Japan Airlines Flight 123 crashes into Osutaka ridge in Gunma Prefecture, Japan, killing 520, to become the worst single-plane air disaster. 1990 – Sue, the largest and most complete Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton found to date, is discovered by Sue Hendrickson in South Dakota. 1992 – Canada, Mexico and the United States announce completion of negotiations for the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). 2000 – The Oscar class submarine K-141 Kursk of the Russian Navy explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea during a military exercise. 2005 – Sri Lanka’s foreign minister, Lakshman Kadirgamar, is

fatally shot by an LTTE sniper at his home. 2007 – The bulk carrier MV New Flame collides with the oil tanker Torm Gertrud at the southernmost tip of Gibraltar, ending up partially submerged. 2015 – At least two massive explosions kill 145 people and

injure nearly 800 in Tianjin, China.