TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS MONDAY, OCTOBER 9, 2017 On this day in history: 1803 - Lieutenant - Governor Collins arrives in Port Phillip Bay on Australia’s southern coast to establish a new settlement.

1812 - During the War of 1812 American forces captured two British brigs, the Detroit and the Caledonia.

1855 - Isaac Singer patented the sewing machine motor. 1876 - Alexander Graham Bell and Thomas Watson made their longest telephone call to date. It was a distance of two miles.

1908 - The Yass-Canberra area is named as the site for the new Federal Capital Territory of Australia.

1914 - During the First World War, German forces captured Antwerp, Belgium.

1940 - St. Paul’s Cathedral in London was bombed by the Nazis. The dome was unharmed in the bombing. 1957 - The final major British atomic bomb test is conducted at the remote South Australian site of Maralinga.

1975 - Andrei Sakharov was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The Soviet scientist is known as the father of the hydrogen bomb.

1986 - The musical Phantom of the Opera by Andrew Lloyd Webber opened in London. 1989 - The official Soviet news agency Tass reported an unidentified flying object. The report included a trio of tall aliens that had visited the city of Voronzh.

1994 - The US sent troops and warships to the Persian Gulf in response to Saddam Hussein sending thousands of troops and hundreds of tanks toward the Kuwaiti border. 2003 - Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II knighted Roger Moore and made Sting a CBE (Commander of the British Empire).

2009 - NASA launched the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS). On November 13, it was announced that water had been discovered in the planned impact plume on the moon.

2012 – Members of the Pakistani Taliban make a failed attempt to assassinate an outspoken schoolgirl, Malala Yousafzai.