TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 5, 2018

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY:

1766 - James Christie, founder of the famous auctioneers, held his first sale in London.

1797 - Napoleon Bonaparte arrived in Paris to command forces for the invasion of England.

1812 - Napoleon Bonaparte left his army as they were retreating from Russia.

1904 - The Russian fleet was destroyed by the Japanese at Port Arthur, during the Russo-Japanese War.

1913 - Britain outlawed the sending of arms to Ireland.

1932 - German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa making it possible for him to travel to the US.

1934 - Fighting broke out between Italian and Ethiopian troops on the Somalian border.

1934 - The Soviet Union executed 66 people charged with plotting against Joseph Stalin’s government.

1936 - The Soviet Union adopted a new Constitution under a Supreme Council.

1944 - During World War II, Allied troops took Ravenna, Italy.

1956 - British and French forces began a withdrawal from Egypt during the Suez War.

1958 - Britain’s first motorway, the Preston by-pass, was opened by Prime Minister Macmillan.

1971 - The Soviet Union, at United Nations Security Council, vetoed a resolution calling for a cease-fire in hostilities between India and Pakistan over Kashmir.

1977 - Egypt broke diplomatic relations with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen due to peaceful relations with Israel.

1984 - Iran’s official news agency quoted the hijackers of a Kuwaiti jetliner parked at Tehran airport as saying they would blow up the plane unless Kuwait released 14 imprisoned extremists.

1989 - East Germany’s former leaders were placed under house arrest.

1992 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin kept the power to appoint Cabinet ministers, defeating a constitutional amendment that would have put his team of reformers under the control of Russia’s Congress.