ON THIS DAY- The Palestine National Council, at the urging of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat, issued a declaration of independence for a state of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza Strip on this day in 1988. American painter Georgia O’Keeffe was born on this day in 1887. O’Keeffe was known for her “large-format paintings of natural forms, especially flowers and bones, and for her depictions of New York City skyscrapers and architectural and landscape forms unique to northern New Mexico.” In 1867, the first stock ticker is unveiled in New York City. On this day in 1891, German field marshal Erwin Rommel, who led the Afrika Korps to spectacular victories during World War II, was born. Johannes Kepler, the German astronomer who discovered three major laws of planetary motion, died in Regensburg on this day in 1630. Also on this day, in 2001, Microsoft released the Xbox video game console. This time last year we were covering Central Bank Governor Tarek Amer’s meeting with the bank chiefs, in which he told them “in practice, I’m not a market maker anymore, I’m a regulator — and the market is being made by the banks.” A year earlier, we were noting the S&P cut Egypt’s credit outlook to stable.