TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 2018

On this day in history:

1065 - Westminster Abbey was consecrated under Edward the Confessor.

1694 - Queen Mary II of England died after five years of joint rule with her husband, King William III.

1836 - The Proclamation announcing the creation of the colony of South Australia is read by its first Governor.

1836 - Mexico’s independence was recognised by Spain.

1850 - Henry Parkes establishes the Empire newspaper, later giving rise to his prominent political career.

1879 - In Dundee, Scotland the central portion of the Tay Bridge collapsed as a train was passing over it. 75 people were killed.

1895 - In Paris, the first commercial public screening of cinematographic films took place.

1897 - Cyrano de Bergerac, the play by Edmond Rostand, premiered in Paris, France.

1926 - The highest recorded cricket innings score of 1107 runs was hit by Victoria, against New South Wales, in Melbourne.

1937 - The Irish Free State became the Republic of Ireland when a new constitution established the country as a sovereign state under the name of Eire.

1950 - The Peak District became Britain’s first designated National Park.

1964 - Initial filming of the movie Dr. Zhivago began on location near Madrid, Spain. The movies total running time is 197 minutes.

1973 - Alexander Solzhenitsyn published Gulag Archipelago, an expose of the Soviet prison system.

1989 - Thirteen are killed as Newcastle, New South Wales, is hit by an earthquake.

1989 - Alexander Dubcek, who had been expelled from the Communist Party in 1970, was elected speaker of the Czech parliament.

1995 - Pressure from German prosecutors investigating pornography forced CompuServe to set a precedent by blocking access to sex-oriented newsgroups on the Internet for its customers.