TODAY in HISTORY

Today is Friday, June 15, the 166th day of 2018. There are 199 days left in the year.

1215 King John of England puts his seal to Magna Carta.

1300 The city of Bilbao is founded. 1502 Christopher Columbus lands on the island of Martinique on his fourth voyage.

1752 Benjamin Franklin proves that lightning is electricity 1808 Joseph Bonaparte becomes King of Spain.

1859 Pig War: Ambiguity in the Oregon Treaty leads to the “Northwestern Boundary Dispute” between United States and British/ Canadian settlers. 1864 American Civil War: The Second Battle of Petersburg begins. 1896 The deadliest tsunami in Japan’s history kills more than 22,000 people.

1916 United States President Woodrow Wilson signs a bill incorporating the Boy Scouts of America, making them the only American youth organisation with a federal charter 1940 World War II: Operation Ariel begins: Allied troops start to evacuate France, following Germany’s takeover of Paris and most of the nation.

1947 The All- India Congress accepted the British plan for the partition of India in New Delhi. The plan for the Partition, also known as the Mountbatten Plan was declared by the last Viceroy of India, Lord Mountbatten. 1975 After the death of dictator ( in 1975) Francisco Franco, the first democratic elections took place in Spain on this day.

1991 In the Philippines, Mount Pinatubo erupts in the second largest volcanic eruption of the 20th Century. In the end, over 800 people die.

1992 The United States Supreme Court rules in United States v. Álvarez- Machaín that it is permissible for the United States to forcibly extradite suspects in foreign countries and bring them to the United States for trial, without approval from those other countries. 1994 Israel and Vatican City establish full diplomatic relations.

1996 The Troubles: The Provisional Irish Republican Army ( IRA) detonates a powerful truck bomb in the middle of Manchester, England, devastating the city centre and injuring 200 people.

2001 Leaders of the People’s Republic of China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan formed the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. 2012 Nik Wallenda becomes the first person to successfully tightrope walk directly over Niagara Falls.

2013 A bomb explodes on a bus in the Pakistani city of Quetta, killing at least 25 people and wounding 22 others