TODAY IN HISTORY

Today is Tuesday, December 17, 2019

On this day in history:

1777 – France recognised American independence. 1830 – South American patriot Simon Bolivar died in Colombia. 1845 – After a gruelling journey of 4827km, Leichhardt reaches Port Essington in Australia’s north.

1918 – Protestors march on Government House in the Northern Territory in an event later described as the Darwin Rebellion.

1939 – The German pocket battleship Graf Spee was scuttled by its crew, bringing the World War II Battle of the Rio de la Plata off Uruguay to an end.

1967 – Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt goes missing whilst swimming at Portsea, Victoria. 1973 – Thirty-one people were killed at Rome airport when Arab guerillas hijacked a German airliner.

1986 – Davina Thompson became the world’s first recipient of a heart, lungs, and liver transplant.

1992 – Israel deported over 400 Palestinians to Lebanese territory in an unprecedented mass expulsion of suspected militants.

1996 – Peruvian guerrillas took hundreds of people hostage at the Japanese embassy in Lima. The siege ended on April 22, 1997, with a commando raid that resulted in the deaths of all the rebels, two commandos and one hostage.

1996 – The Red Cross pulled all but a few of its western staff out of Chechnya after six foreign aid workers were killed by masked gunmen.

2002 – Congo’s government, opposition parties and rebels signed a peace agreement that ended four years of civil war. Birthdays

George Lindsey 1935 – Actor Paul Rodgers 1949 – Musician (Free, Bad Company)

Bill Pullman 1953 – Actor Sharon White 1953 – Singer Barry Livingston 1953 – Actor Mike Mills 1958 – Musician (R.E.M.)

Sarah Dallin 1961 – Singer (Bananarama)

Sarah Paulson 1974 – Actress Marissa Ribisi 1974 – Actress Giovanni Ribisi 1974 – Actor Sam Loeffler 1974 – Musician (Chevelle)

Milla Jovovich 1975 – Actress Vanessa Zima 1986 – Actress