TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2018

On this day in history:

1469 - Ferdinand of Aragon married Isabella of Castile. The marriage united all the dominions of Spain.

1685 - King Louis XIV of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, which had established the legal toleration of the Protestant population.

1818 - Oxley loses a valuable horse crossing Camden Haven, New South Wales.

1860 - British troops burned the Yuanmingyuan at the end of the Second Opium War.

1909 - New South Wales agrees to surrender 2400 square kilometres of land for the creation of the Australian Capital Territory.

1928 - Constable William Murray returns to Alice Springs after massacring Aborigines at Coniston Station.

1929 - The Judicial Committee of England’s Privy Council ruled that women were to be considered as persons in Canada.

1944 - Czechoslovakia was invaded by the Soviets during World War II.

1968 - Two black athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos, were suspended by the US Olympic Committee for giving a “black power” salute during a ceremony in Mexico City.

1970 - Quebec’s minister of labour was found strangled to death after eight days of being held captive by the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ).

1985 - South African authorities hanged black activist Benjamin Moloise. Moloise had been convicted of murdering a police officer.

1989 - Egon Krenz became the leader of East Germany after Erich Honecker was ousted. Honeker had been in power for 18 years.

1990 - Iraq made an offer to the world that it would sell oil for $21 a barrel. The price level was the same as it had been before the invasion of Kuwait.

2013 - Saudi Arabia became the first nation to reject a seat on the United Nations Security Council. Jordan took the seat on December 6.