Today in history
1572 - Start of Dutch War for Independence from Spain.
1666 - French forces capture St Kitts, Leeward Islands, West Indies, from England.
1789 - The United States House of Representatives holds its first full meeting in New York City. Frederick Muhlenberg of Pennsylvania is elected the first House Speaker.
1852 - Second Burmese War breaks out after British ultimatum to King of Burma. It ends within the year with the British annexation of Rangoon.
1853 - Cincinnati, Ohio, becomes the first US city to pay its firefighters a regular salary.
1918 - Britain’s Royal Air Force is founded.
1933 - Nazi Germany begins persecuting Jews with a boycott of Jewish-owned businesses.
1937 - India’s Constitution goes into effect but All-india Party abstains from forming government, demanding complete independence.
1939 - Spanish Civil War ends with Nationalist victory, 1 million dead and a dictatorship as the US recognises the Franco government in Spain.
1944 - Allies bomb Belgrade, targeting Nazi German occupiers; 1160 local people and 200 German troops are killed.
1945 - US Marines land on Japanese-held island of Okinawa in World War II.
1946 - Tidal waves strike the Hawaiian Islands, killing more than 170 people.
1960 - South African government bans African National Congress and Pan- African Congress.
1964 - A military coup in Brazil overthrows the leftist government of President Joao Goulart.
1965 - New Zealand international airline, Tasman Empire Airways Limited (TEAL), was renamed Air New Zealand Limited. TEAL was established in 1939. Government carrier the National Airways Corporation (NAC) merges with Air NZ in 1978.
1970 - US President Richard Nixon signs a measure banning cigarette advertising on radio and television.
1986 - In his first major speech on the epidemic, US President Ronald Reagan tells doctors in Philadelphia: ‘‘We’ve declared Aids public health enemy No 1.’’
2001 - Former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic surrenders after a 26-hour standoff with police looking to arrest him for charges linked to a decade of repressive rule.
2007 - Nepal’s communist rebels join an interim government as part of a landmark peace deal that ended their decade-long insurgency.
Today’s Birthdays: Prince Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (1815-1898); Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian composer (1873-1943); Debbie Reynolds, US actress (1932-); Ali Macgraw, US actress (1939-).