TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 2018

On this day in history:

1590 - The Sultan of Morocco launched his successful attack to capture Timbuktu. 1644 - The Ming Chongzhen emperor committed suicide by hanging himself.

1707 - At the Battle of Almansa, Franco-Spanish forces defeated the Anglo-Portugese.

1809 - Australia’s first postmaster is appointed. 1859 - Work began on the Suez Canal in Egypt.

1882 - French commander Henri Riviere seized the citadel of Hanoi in Indochina. 1896 - South Australian women become the first in Australia to vote in an election. 1915 - During World War I, Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli in Turkey in hopes of attacking the Central Powers from below. The attack was unsuccessful.

1945 - Delegates from about 50 countries met in San Francisco to organise the United Nations.

1971 - The country of Bangladesh was established. 1974 - Portuguese dictator Antonio Salazar was overthrown in a military coup. 1984 - David Anthony Kennedy, the son of Robert F. Kennedy, was found dead of a drug overdose in a hotel room. 1988 - In Israel, John “Ivan the Terrible” Demjanuk was sentenced to death as a Nazi war criminal.

1990 - Sandinista rule ended in Nicaragua.

1992 - Islamic forces in Afghanistan took control of most of the capital of Kabul following the collapse of the Communist government. 2004 - The March for Women’s Lives brings between 500,000 and 800,000 protesters, mostly pro-choice, to Washington D.C. to protest the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 2003, and other restrictions on abortion. 2005 - The final piece of the Obelisk of Axum is returned to Ethiopia after being stolen by the invading Italian army in 1937.

2005 - Bulgaria and Romania sign accession treaties to join the European Union.

2015 - Nearly 9,100 are killed after a massive 7.8 magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal.