TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, JANUARY 18, 2020 On this day in history:

1778 - English navigator Captain James Cook arrived in the Hawaiian Islands, which he called the Sandwich Islands.

1788 - The first English settlers arrived in Australia’s Botany Bay to establish a penal colony. The group moved north eight days later and settled at Port Jackson. 1825 - Hume and Hovell return from their successful exploration overland to Port Phillip.

1871 - Wilhelm, King of Prussia from 1861, was proclaimed the first German Emperor. 1886 - The Hockey Association was formed in England. This date is the birthday of modern field hockey.

1896 - The X-ray machine was exhibited for the first time. 1919 - The World War I Peace Congress opened in Versailles, France.

1943 - During World War II, the Soviets announced that they had broken the Nazi siege of Leningrad, which had began in September of 1941. 1972 - Former Rhodesian prime minister Garfield Todd and his daughter were placed under house arrest for campaigning against Rhodesian independence. 1977 - 83 are killed in the Granville railway disaster, Australia’s worst train disaster to date.

1978 - The European Court of Human Rights cleared the British government of torture but found it guilty of inhuman and degrading treatment of prisoners in Northern Ireland. 1995 - The “yahoo.com” domain was created. 1995 - A network of caves were discovered near the town of Vallon-Pont-d’Arc in southern France. The caves contained paintings and engravings that were 17,000 to 20,000 years old. 1997 - Hutu militiamen killed three Spanish aid workers and three soldiers and seriously wound an American in a night attack in NW Rwanda. 2003 - Firestorms begin their onslaught on Canberra, capital of Australia.