Today in History

• 2012 The world’s tallest tower is completed

  The Tokyo Skytree measures 634 m (2080 ft). It is also the world’s second tallest man-made structure, after Burj Khalifa in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.

• 2004 Jean-Bertrand Aristide is removed as President of Haiti

  The country’s first democratically elected president was toppled in a coup d’etat following the assassination of a gang leader. Aristide went into exile in South Africa and returned to Haiti in 2011.

• 1996 The siege of Sarajevo is lifted after nearly 4 years

  The siege of Bosnia and Herzegovina’s capital during the Bosnian War was the longest lasting siege of a capital city in the history of modern warfare.

• 1996 A Boeing 737 crashes in the Andes, killing all 123 on board

  A wrong barometric altimeter setting caused the pilots to fly too low during an approach to Rodríguez Ballón International Airport in Arequipa, Peru.

• 1940 Hattie McDaniel becomes the first black actor to win an Academy Award

  She won Best Supporting Actress for her role as Mammy in the 1939 historical romance “Gone with the Wind”.