TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS MONDAY, AUGUST 14, 2017

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

1248 - The rebuilding of the Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany, began after being destroyed by fire.

1880 - The Cologne Cathedral in Cologne, Germany was completed after 632 years of rebuilding.

1861 - William Landsborough organises a relief expedition to find missing explorers Burke and Wills.

1875 - ‘The Queenslander’ newspaper reports on the first ever game of Association Football, later Soccer, played in Australia.

1896 - Gold was discovered in Canada’s Yukon Territory. Within the next year more than 30,000 people rushed to the area to look for gold.

1900 - An international force, consisting of eight nations, lifted the siege of Peking. It was the end to the Boxer Rebellion, which was aimed at purging China of foreigners. 1917 - China declared war on Germany and Austria during the First World War.

1919 - About 1 million tons of ice and rock broke off of a glacier near Mont Blanc, France. Nine people were killed in the incident.

1924 - The final Cobb & Co coach makes its run from Yuleba to Surat on the Darling Downs.

1936 - The first basketball competition was held at the Olympic Games in Berlin, Germany. The U.S. defeated Canada, 19-8.

1947 - Pakistan became independent from British rule. 1963 - The Yirrkala Bark Petitions are presented to the Australian Parliament, becoming a catalyst to the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Commonwealth law.

1969 - British troops arrived in Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.

1980 - People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) was incorporated.

2000 - Valujet was ordered to pay $11 million in fines and restitution for hazardous waste violations in the crash that killed 110 people in 1996. 2015 - In Havana, Cuba, the US Embassy was reopened after being closed 54 years earlier.