TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS MONDAY, APRIL 2, 2018

On this day in history:

1513 - Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon sighted Florida. The next day he went ashore. 1801 - During the Napoleonic Wars, the Danish fleet was destroyed by the British at the Battle of Copenhagen. 1844 - The first permanent synagogue is built in Australia. 1874 - A major strike is held at Moonta Mines in South Australia.

1932 - A $50,000 ransom was paid for the infant son of Charles and Anna Lindbergh. He child was not returned and was found dead the next month.

1935 - Sir Watson-Watt was granted a patent for RADAR. 1960 - France signed an agreement with Madagascar that proclaimed the country an independent state within the French community.

1967 - In Peking, hundreds of thousands demonstrated against Mao foe Liu Shao-chi. 1981 - In Lebanon, thirty-seven people were reported killed during fighting in the cities of Beirut and Zahle. It was the worst violence since the 1976 cease fire.

1982 - Argentina invaded the British-owned Falkland Islands. The following June Britain took the islands back.

1989 - General Prosper Avril, Haiti’s military leader, survived a coup attempt. The attempt was apparently provoked by Avril’s U.S.-backed efforts to fight drug trafficking. 1990 - Iraqi President Saddam Hussein threatened to incinerate half of Israel with chemical weapons if Israel joined a conspiracy against Iraq.

1996 - Lech Walesa resumed his old job as an electrician at the Gdansk shipyard. He was the former Solidarity union leader who became Poland’s first post-war democratic president.

2002 - Israeli troops surrounded the Church of the Nativity. More than 200 Palestinians had taken refuge at the church when Israel invaded Bethlehem.

2011 - Thousands of people in Sydney rally against the proposed “carbon tax”. 2013 - The United Nations General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty to regulate the international trade of conventional weapons.