TODAY IN HISTORY

On this day in history:

0421 - The city of Venice was founded.

1306 - Robert the Bruce was crowned king of Scotland. 1669 - Mount Etna in Sicily erupted destroying Nicolosi. 20,000 people were killed. 1802 - France, Netherlands, Spain and England signed the Peace of Amiens.

1807 - The first railway passenger service began in England.

1807 - British Parliament abolished the slave trade. 1821 - Greece gained independence from Turkey. 1879 - Japan invaded the kingdom of Liuqiu (Ryukyu) Islands, formerly a vassal of China.

1895 - Italian troops invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1905 - Russia received Japan’s terms for peace.

1907 - Nicaraguan troops took Tegucigalpa, the capital of Honduras.

1908 - Wilhelm II paid an official visit to Italy’s king in Venice.

1909 - In Russia, revolutionary Popova was arrested on 300 murder charges.

1931 - Fifty people were killed in riots that broke out in India. Gandhi was one of many people assaulted.

1936 - Prime Minister Joseph Lyons opens the world’s longest submarine telephone and telegraph cable link, extending from mainland Australia to Tasmania. 1940 - The US agreed to give Britain and France access to all American warplanes. 1941 - Yugoslavia joined the Axis powers.

1957 - The European Economic Community was established with the signing of the Treaty of Rome.

1970 - The Concorde made its first supersonic flight.

1990 - Estonia voted for independence from the Soviet Union.

1991 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launched a major counter-offensive to recapture key towns from Kurds in northern Iraq.

1992 - Soviet cosmonaut Sergei Krikalev returned to Earth after spending 10 months aboard the orbiting space station. 1993 - President de Klerk admitted that South Africa had built six nuclear bombs, but said that they had since been dismantled.