ON THIS day

1377

Pope Gregory XI defies France and restores the Papal See to Rome from Avignon.

1773

The Resolution and the Adventure, commanded by Captain James Cook on his second voyage of exploration, become the first ships recorded to have crossed the Antarctic Circle.

1893

Acting for Hawaiian sugar interests and their US allies, a committee led by Sanford Ballard Dole deposes Hawaiian Queen Liliuokalani and installs a provisional government with Dole as president.

1917

The US buys three of the Virgin Islands – St Thomas, St John and St Croix – from Denmark for $25 million. 1923

The Country Party refuses to support or co-operate with a ministry that included Billy Hughes. 1929

Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip syndicated in the US.

1941

The Jehovah’s Witnesses organisation is declared illegal under national security regulations.

1961

US president Dwight Eisenhower, in a farewell speech before leaving office, warns of risks of the growing power of the “military industrial complex’’.

1977

Convicted murderer Gary Gilmore, 36, is shot by a firing squad at Utah State Prison in the first US execution in a decade. 1995

At least 6400 people die when an earthquake, measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, hits the Japanese city of Kobe. 2008

American-born chess player Bobby Fischer, who became the youngest Grandmaster in history when he received the title in 1958, dies at age 64 in Reykjavík, Iceland.

2013

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey, US cycling champion Lance Armstrong (above) admits he had used banned substances since the mid-1990s.