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Highlights in history on this date:

323 B.C. - Alexander the Great dies of a fever at age 33 in Babylon. He leaves no heir, and his empire dissolves.

1900 - The dowager empress of China orders the army to block foreign troops trying to save Europeans under attack in the Boxer Rebellion.

1944 - Germany launches first V-1 missiles against London.

1969 - Withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from South Vietnam begins with pullout of unit fighting in Mekong Delta.

1971 - New York Times begins publishing the Pentagon Papers, a top secret study on the U.S. involvement in Vietnam that strengthens domestic opposition to the war.

1973 - United States, North Vietnam, South Vietnam and Viet Cong sign new pact in Paris designed to reinforce Vietnam cease-fire.

1992 - The U.N. begins to demobilize the armies of the Cambodian factions, but the Khmer Rouge refuses to comply.

1993 - Kim Campbell becomes Canada's first female prime minister.

1997 - Timothy J. McVeigh is sentenced to death for bombing a U.S. government building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people.

1999 - The day after moving into Kosovo, NATO peacekeepers kill two Serbs who attack them, and two German journalists and their Macedonian translator are killed by unknown gunmen.

2000 - Italy pardons Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turkish gunman who tried to kill Pope John Paul II in 1981.

2003 - The 105-delegate European Convention completes 16 months of work by endorsing a new draft constitution for the European Union.

2004 - Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's Social Democratic party slumps to its worst nationwide showing in post-World War II Germany.

2005 - A U.S. Congress-mandated report on the United Nations calls the world body's management "ossified" and questions whether U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan can overcome inertia, low morale and micromanagement as he pushes sweeping reform.

2007 - Hamas launches a battle for control of the entire Gaza Strip, pounding Gaza City's three main security compounds with mortars, grenades and assault rifles and calling on beleaguered Fatah forces to surrender.

2008 - Three armed robbers steal two Pablo Picasso prints from a Sao Paulo art museum in a rapid strike in which the thieves bypassed more valuable works to grab the stolen pieces.

2009 - Opponents of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad clash with police in the heart of Iran's capital, pelting them with rocks and setting fire in the worst unrest in a decade. They accuse the harddline president of using fraud to steal an election victory from a reformist candidate.

Today's Birthdays:

Richard Barnfield, English poet (1574-1627); James Clerk Maxwell, British physicist (1831-1879); William B. Yeats, Irish poet (1865-1939); Fernando Pessoa, Portuguese writer (1888-1935); Ralph Edwards, host ("This Is Your Life") (1913-2005); Siegfried, magician with Siegfried & Roy (1939--); Malcolm McDowell, British actor (1943--); Tim Allen, actor/comedian (1953--); Ally Sheedy, U.S. actress (1962--); Ashley and Mary-Kate Olsen, U.S. actresses (1986--); David Gray, British folk/rock singer/songwriter (1968--).