Today in History

Yemeni President Ali Abullah Saleh signs a deal to to transfer power to the vice president, in exchange for legal immunity; the agreement came after 11 months of protests.

In the second-deadliest day of sectarian violence in Iraq since the beginning of the 2003 war, 215 people are killed and nearly 260 injured by bombs in Sadr City.

Ellen Johnson Sirleaf elected president of Liberia; she is the first woman to lead an African nation.

The first Smartphone, IBM Simon, introduced at COMDEX in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The first all-woman expedition to South Pole sets off from Antarctica on the part of a 70-day trip; the group includes 12 Russians, 3 Americans and 1 Japanese.

US Pres. Ronald Reagan signs top secret directive giving the CIA authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

Ishmael Beah, authored A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier, a memoir of his time as a Sierra Leonean child solider in that country’s civil war.

Four men hijack an American plane, with 87 passengers, from Miami to Cuba.

John Schnatter, businessman; founded Papa John’s Pizza.

North Korea signs 10-year aid pact with Peking.

Wartime meat and butter rationing ends in the United States.

Andrew Goodman, civil rights activist; murdered by Ku Klux Klan in 1964 near Philadelphia, Miss.

The film Casablanca premieres in New York City.