TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, APRIL 29, 2017

On this day in history:

1289 - Qala’un, the Sultan of Egypt, captured Tripoli. 1429 - Joan of Arc led Orleans, France, to victory over Britain. 1672 - King Louis XIV of France invaded the Netherlands. 1770 - Lieutenant James Cook arrives at, and names, Botany Bay.

1841 - Eyre’s overseer, Baxter, is killed by two of the Aborigines who accompanied the expedition.

1852 - The first edition of Peter Roget’s Thesaurus was published.

1856 - A peace treaty was signed between England and Russia.

1789 - Australia’s first bushranger, John ‘Black’ Caesar, is tried for theft, leading him to make escape plans.

1901 - The new Australian Commonwealth Government announces a Federal Flag design competition.

1916 - Irish nationalists surrendered to British authorities in Dublin.

1918 - Germany’s Western Front offensive ended in the First World War.

1941 - The town of Meeberrie, Western Australia, is hit by an earthquake.

1945 - The German Army in Italy surrendered unconditionally to the Allies.

1945 - In a bunker in Berlin, Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun were married. Hitler designated Admiral Karl Doenitz his successor.

1945 - The Nazi death camp, Dachau, was liberated.

1988 - Australian icon, the Stockman’s Hall of Fame, is opened in Longreach, Queensland.

1988 - Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised more religious freedom.

1990 - The destruction of the Berlin Wall began.

1994 - Israel and the PLO signed an agreement in Paris which granted Palestinians broad authority to set taxes, control trade and regulate banks under self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

1998 - Brazil announced a plan to protect a large area of Amazon forest. The area was about the size of Colorado. 2009 - NATO expelled two Russian diplomats from NATO headquarters in Brussels over a spy scandal in Estonia. Russia’s Foreign Ministry criticised the expulsions.