Today in history
1437 — Scotland’s King James I is murdered by would-be usurpers in the Scottish city of Perth.
1570 — Lord Hunsdon defeats Leonard Dacre’s rebel army, ending Northern Rebellion in England.
1833 — Russian ships enter Bosphorus on way to Constantinople — today’s Istanbul - to aid Turkey against Egypt.
1928 — Britain recognises independence of Trans-jordan.
1986 — Russia launches the Mir space station.
1993 — A man demanding a flight to the United States uses hand grenades to hijack a Russian airliner to Estonia and then to Sweden, where he surrenders to the police.1994 — NATO says the Serb guns around Sarajevo have largely been pulled back, and threatened airstrikes will not be unleashed.
1998 — The last power cable supplying downtown Auckland, New Zealand, fails, leaving 100 blocks dark for weeks; 15-year-old American Tara Lipinski becomes the youngest gold medallist in winter Olympics history when she wins the ladies’ figure skating title at Nagano, Japan.
2000 — A crowd of angry Serbs pelt American and German peacekeepers with rocks and bricks during a massive house-to-house search for illegal weapons in an ethnically divided Kosovo town.
2004 — A police-commission audit says Atlanta underreported crimes for years to help land the 1996 Olympics and pump up tourism.
2008 — Space shuttle Atlantis and its crew return to earth, wrapping up an 8 million km journey highlighted by the successful delivery of a new European lab to the international space station.
2012 — The US and Mexico agree to work together when drilling for oil and gas below their maritime border in the Gulf of Mexico.
2013 — Japan records an unprecedented trade deficit of 1.63 trillion yen ($A19.47 billion) for January 2013.
2014 — Australian journalist Peter Greste, 48, and two Al Jazeera colleagues go on trial in Egypt on terror charges.
2016 — British Prime Minister David Cameron announces the date of a June referendum on Brexit, adding he believes those in favour of leaving the EU were offering ‘‘a risk at a time of uncertainty, a leap in the dark’’.
Today’s birthdays: Sir William Cornwallis, English admiral (1744-1819); Lucien Pissarro, French artist (1863-1944); Robert Altman, US director (1925-2006); Sidney Poitier, Bahamian-us actor (1927-); Peter Strauss, US actor (1947-); Cindy Crawford, US model (1966-); Kurt Cobain, lead singer and guitarist of Nirvana (1967-1994); Lili Taylor, US actress (1967-); Miles Teller, US actor (1987-); Rihanna, singer (1988-).