TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2017

On this day in history:

1307 - King Philip IV of France arrests all the Knights Templars, spawning the superstition which surrounds Friday the 13th.

1792 - The cornerstone of the Executive Mansion was laid in Washington, DC. The building became known as the White House in 1818.

1836 - One of Mitchell’s men drowns as his expedition returns from the successful ‘Australia Felix’ discovery. 1933 - Australia’s first traffic lights begin operating in Sydney.

1943 - During the Second World War, Italy signed an armistice with the Allies and declared war on Germany. 1944 - American troops entered Aachen, Germany, during the Second World War. 1944 - During the Second World War, British and Greek advance units landed at Piraeus.

1972 - An Aeroflot Ilyushin Il-62 crashes outside Moscow killing 174.

1972 - Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 crashes in the Andes mountains, near the border between Argentina and Chile. (By December 23, 1972, only 16 of those who had been onboard were still alive to be rescued.)

1976 - A Bolivian Boeing 707 cargo jet crashes in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, killing 100 (97, mostly children, killed on the ground).

1981 - Egyptian voters elected Vice President Hosni Mubarak as the new president one week after Anwar Sadat was assassinated.

1992 - A commercial flight record was set by an Air France supersonic jetliner for circling the Earth in 33 hours and one minute.

1992 - An Antonov An-124 operated by Antonov Airlines registered CCCP-82002, crashes near Kiev, Ukraine killing eight.

2010 - Near Copiapó, Chile, 33 miners were trapped underground in San José Mine. The miners were rescued after 69 days underground.

2013 - A stampede breaks out on a bridge near the Ratangarh Mata Temple in Datia district, Madhya Pradesh, India during the Hindu festival Navratri, killing 115 people and injuring more than 110.