ON THIS DAY
1492
Christopher Columbus discovers and names the island of Hispaniola, which is now divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
1534
Sebastian de Belalcazar, under the authority of Francisco Pizarro, occupies the city of Quito in what is now Ecuador.
1648
Colonel Thomas Pride, fighting for Oliver Cromwell in the English Civil War, expels Presbyterians and other opponents of the parliamentary army from the House of Commons.
1877
Thomas Edison demonstrates the first sound recording, reciting Mary Had A Little Lamb at West Orange, New Jersey.
1917
Finland’s parliament declares the country independent of Russia, following the Bolshevik Revolution. 1921
The British government and Irish leaders Arthur Griffith, Michael Collins, and others sign the Anglo-irish Treaty, establishing the Irish Free State as an independent member of the British Commonwealth.
1963
Christine Keeler, 21, (above) lover of a Russian spy and the British war minister, is sentenced in London to nine months’ jail after admitting perjury and conspiracy to obstruct the course of justice.
1981
Robert de Castella, 24, wins the marathon at Fukuoka, Japan, in 2hr 8min 18sec. It makes him the world’s fastest distance runner.
1988
US singersongwriter Roy Orbison, 52, dies of a heart attack in Tennessee. His hits included Pretty Woman, Only The Lonely and Crying.
2006
Australia’s federal parliament votes to overturn a ban on human embryo cloning in a rare conscience vote.
2006
NASA released images – taken by the Mars Global Surveyor – that indicated the relatively recent presence of water on Mars.