TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, JANUARY 12, 2018

On this day in history:

1519 - Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I died.

1866 - The Royal Aeronautical Society was founded in London.

1875 - Kwang-su was made emperor of China.

1879 - The British-Zulu War began when the British invaded Zululand.

1882 - Thomas Edison’s central station on Holborn Viaduct in London began operation.

1895 - The first performance of King Arthur took place at the Lyceum Theatre.

1908 - A wireless message was sent long-distance for the first time from the Eiffel Tower in Paris.

1938 - Austria recognised the Franco government in Spain.

1940 - Soviet bombers raided cities in Finland.

1945 - During World War II, Soviet forces began a huge offensive against the Germans in Eastern Europe.

1964 - Leftist rebels in Zanzibar began their successful revolt against the government and a republic was proclaimed.

1970 - The breakaway state of Biafra capitulated and the Nigerian civil war came to an end.

1970 - Nigeria’s civil war ended. 1973 - Yassar Arafat was re-elected as head of the Palestinian Liberation Organization.

1995 - Northern Ireland Secretary Patrick Mayhew announced that as of January 16 British troops would no longer carry out daylight street patrols in Belfast.

1998 - 19 European nations agreed to prohibit human cloning.

2005 - Nine die in a devastating bushfire on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

2011 - Tugboat skippers Doug Hislop and Peter Fenton heroically prevent Brisbane’s twin Gateway Bridges from being damaged by floating debris.

2012 - Violent protests occur in Bucharest, Romania, as two-day-old demonstrations continue against President Traian Basescu's economic austerity measures.

2015 - Government raids kill 143 Boko Haram fighters in Kolofata, Cameroon.

2016 - Ten people are killed and 15 wounded in a bombing near the Blue Mosque in Istanbul.