TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, JANUARY 19, 2018

On this day in history:

1419 - Rouen surrendered to Henry V, completing his conquest of Normandy. 1764 - John Wilkes was expelled from the British House of Commons for seditious libel.

1790 - The second fleet of convicts sets sail from England to New South Wales. 1793 - King Louis XVI was tried by the French Convention, found guilty of treason and sentenced to the guillotine. 1887 - The first express train runs between Melbourne and Adelaide as the two cities are linked by rail.

1915 - George Claude, of Paris, France, patented the neon discharge tube for use in advertising signs.

1915 - More than 20 people were killed when German zeppelins bombed England for the first time. The bombs were dropped on Great Yarmouth and King’s Lynn.

1942 - The Japanese invaded Burma (later Myanmar). 1955 - The board game ‘Scrabble’ makes its debut in Australia and the UK.

1966 - A farmer in Tully, far north Queensland, reports finding a ‘flying saucer nest’. 1966 - Australia’s longest-serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, resigns.

1966 - Indira Gandhi was elected prime minister of India.

1969 - In protest against the Russian invasion of 1968, Czech student Jan Palach set himself on fire in Prague’s Wenceslas Square.

1971 - At the Charles Manson murder trial, the Beatles’

Helter Skelter was played. At the scene of one of his gruesome murders, the words “helter skelter” were written on a mirror.

1995 - Russian forces overwhelmed the resistance forces in Chechnya.

1997 - Yasser Arafat returned to Hebron for the first time in more than 30 years. He joined 60,000 Palestinians in celebration over the handover of the last West Bank city in Israeli control.

2013 - In Scottsdale, AZ, the original Batmobile for the TV series “Batman” sold at auction for $4.6 million. It was the first of six Batmobiles produced for the show.