Today in History

November 5 1992 - In its first free elections since 1981, Ghana's leader Jerry J. Rawlings becomes president.

Today is Tuesday, Nov. 5, the 309th day of 2002. There are 56 days left in the year.

Highlights in history on this date:

1914 - France and Britain declare war on Turkey; Britain annexes Cyprus.

1950 - U.S. Gen. Douglas MacArthur reports massing of Chinese in North Korea

1956 - Britain and France land troops in Egypt during fighting between Egyptian and Israeli forces around the Suez Canal. A cease-fire is declared two days later.

1962 - U.N. General Assembly demands all nuclear tests cease by Jan. 1, 1963.

1967 - An Anglican bishop announces his resignation in protest against South Africa's apartheid system.

1974 - Ella T. Grasso is elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win gubernatorial office in the United States without succeeding her husband.

1978 - Former Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi makes a major political comeback, winning a seat in the lower house of Parliament.

1982 - Itaipu Dam, the world's largest hydroelectric plant, is inaugurated on the Brazil-Paraguay border.

1985 - The U.N. General Assembly approves a resolution calling on Vietnam to withdraw its forces from Cambodia.

1987 - South Africa releases African National Congress - leader Govan Mbeki, prisoner for 23 years and colleague of Nelson Mandela.

1988 - Algeria's President Chadli Bendjedid appoints former head of military security to form new government in wake of widespread riots.

1990 - Rabbi Meir Kahane, 58, founder of the militant Jewish Defense League and Israel's extremist anti-Arab Kach party, is assassinated after giving a talk in a New York City hotel. His alleged killer, an Egyptian-born U.S. citizen, is wounded and captured as he tries to escape.

1991 - Billionaire publisher Robert Maxwell is found dead in waters off Canary Islands where his yacht had been cruising.

1992 - In its first free elections since 1981, Ghana's leader Jerry J. Rawlings becomes president.

1993 - Talks on restoring ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power collapse in Haiti.

1994 - Former U.S. President Ronald Reagan - , 83, discloses he has been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease - ; George Foreman, 45, becomes boxing's oldest heavyweight champion by knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their World Boxing Association fight in Las Vegas.

1995 - A draft peace accord presented to the parties in Bosnia excludes Serb leader Radovan Karadzic from power.

1998 - Helmer (Pacho) Herrera Buitrago, a leading member of the Cali drug cartel, is shot dead in a maximum security prison in Colombia.

2000 - Two thousand police officers struggle to control 1,200 neo-Nazi marchers and left-wing counter-protesters in Berlin. Some officers are hurt in scuffles.

2001 - Nicaragua's president Daniel Ortega Saavedra, who lead the country's Marxist-leaning government from 1979 to 1990, is defeated by Conservative businessman Enrique Bolanos Geyer.

Today's Birthdays:

Philippe de Plessis-Mornay, French author (1549-1623); Will Durant, U.S. historian-philosopher (1885-1981); Roy Rogers, former U.S. cowboy actor (1912-1998); Elke Sommer, German actress (1940--); Art Garfunkel, U.S. pop singer (1941--); Tatum O'Neal, U.S. actress (1963--); Sam Shepard, U.S. actor/playwright (1943--).

Thought for Today:

The most exhausting thing in life ... is being insincere — Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American writer (1906- ).