Today in history
1797 — American Nathaniel Briggs of New Hampshire patents a washing machine.
1800 — Act of Union with England passes Ireland’s Parliament.
1868 — Death of the Earl of Cardigan, British general who led the ill-conceived Charge of the Light Brigade against the Russians during the Crimean War.
1910 — The first seaplane takes off from Martigues near Marseilles, France, designed by Frenchman Henri Fabre.
1920 — Two of Hollywood’s greatest stars, Douglas Fairbanks and Mary Pickford, marry.
1930 — The names of the Turkish cities Constantinople and Angora are changed to Istanbul and Ankara.
1939 — Madrid surrenders to General Francisco Franco, ending Spanish Civil War.
1941 — British novelist and critic Virginia Woolf commits suicide in England.
1959 — Eleven days after an uprising begins in Tibet, China dissolves the country’s government and installs an autonomous authority under the Panchen Lama.
1973 — Actor Marlon Brando refuses his Oscar for The Godfather in protest at Hollywood’s portrayal of Native Americans.
1984 — The first baby to result from a frozen embryo is born in Australia. Known as Zoe, she is delivered in a Melbourne hospital.
1987 — Maria von Trapp, whose life inspired the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music, dies in the United States, aged 82.
1991 — Tens of thousands of Moscow residents defy a ban on demonstrations to rally in support of Boris Yeltsin, Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev’s chief rival.
1999 — Nato aircraft widen their strikes against Yugoslavia, targeting ground forces in Kosovo. About 130 Kosovo Albanian men are massacred by Serb troops near the village of Izbica.
2000 — Israeli police recommend that criminal charges be brought against former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a bribery and theft investigation.
2003 — Japan places its first spy satellites in orbit, launching two of them from Tanegashima island.
2004 — Death of British actor and playwright Peter Ustinov, aged 82.
2008 — Cuban President Raul Castro issues a decree allowing ordinary Cubans to have mobilephone service, a luxury previously reserved for the select few. Today’s Birthdays: Raphael, Italian artist (1483-1520); Michael Parkinson, British TV personality (1935-); Dianne Wiest, US actress (1948-); Vince Vaughn, US actor (1970-); Nick Frost, British actor and comedian (1972-); Lady Gaga, American singer (1986-).