Today in history
1789 — The United States Constitution goes into effect as the first Federal Congress meets in New York City.
1801 — Thomas Jefferson takes office as third US president, the first to be inaugurated in the new capital, Washington.
1832 — Jean-francois Champollion, the French scholar who deciphered Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, dies.
1861 — Abraham Lincoln is inaugurated president of the US.
1877 — Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake is first performed, at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow.
1917 — German army begins major withdrawal on Western Front in World War I.
1927 — Some 25,000 diggers participate in a rush to stake claims in new diamond fields at Grasfontein, South Africa.
1952 — US actors Ronald Reagan and Nancy Davis marry.
1968 — British tennis officials at Wimbledon agree to admit professional players.
1971 — Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau secretly marries Margaret Sinclair.
1976 — In Northern Ireland, the Ulster Convention is formally dissolved and Northern Ireland comes under direct rule from London.
1977 — Earthquake devastates Bucharest and other towns in Romania, killing more than 1000.
1980 — Rhodesian governor Lord Soames invites Robert Mugabe to form a government after his ZANU-PF party wins a decisive election victory.
1994 — Four Muslim extremists are convicted of the 1993 World Trade Centre bombing in New York.
1998 — Flash floods in Pakistan kill at least 300 people, including dozens of schoolchildren trapped by raging waters.
2001 — Singer Glenn Hughes, the biker character in the disco band the Village People, dies in New York at age 50.
2005 — Italian secret service agent Nicola Calipari is mistakenly shot dead by US soldiers in Baghdad while trying to shield a journalist whose release from kidnappers he had just secured.
2012 — Vladimir Putin claims victory in Russia’s presidential election before tens of thousands of cheering supporters, despite claims the vote was marred by fraud. Today’s Birthdays: Prince Henry the Navigator, patron of explorers (1394-1460); Antonio Vivaldi, Italian composer (1678-1741); Lindy Chamberlaincreighton (1948-), wrongly convicted of killing her baby Azaria in the Australian outback; Jason Newsted, US musician of Metallica fame (1963-); Stacy Edwards, US actress (1965-); Fergal Lawler, Irish rock musician of The Cranberries (1971-).