Today in history
1534 - Elizabeth Barton, the Maid of Kent, is executed in England for criticising the matrimonial practices of Henry VIII.
1657 - Jews in New Amsterdam, now New York City in the US, are granted the rights and privileges of citizens.
1657 - In the English-spanish Wars, the English navy under Admiral Robert Blake destroys all 16 ships of the Spanish fleet in Santa Cruz harbour, Tenerife, and then razes the city.
1792 - France declares war on Austria, marking the start of the French Revolutionary wars.
1887 - The first motor race is scheduled in Paris. It results in a walkover for Georges Bouton, the only competitor.
1902 - Scientists Marie and Pierre Curie, pioneers in their field, isolate the radioactive element radium.
1908 - Forty-four die when trains collide at Sunshine, Victoria, Australia.
1919 - King Nicholas is dethroned in Montenegro, which votes for union with Serbo-slovene-croat State (Yugoslavia).
1943 - The massacre of Jews in the Warsaw ghetto begins.
1945 - Soviet forces penetrate Berlin defences and allies take control of the German cities of Nuremberg and Stuttgart.
1949 - Scientists at the Mayo Clinic announce they have synthesised a hormone, forming a substance called cortisone.
1972 - US Apollo 16 astronauts land safely on Moon.
1984 - Britain announces its administration of Hong Kong will cease in 1997, after 156 years.
1999 - Two teenage pupils go on a rampage at Columbine High School in a suburb of Denver, Colorado, shooting 13 dead before taking their own lives.
2005 - Ecuador’s congress removes President Lucio Gutierrez from office after a week of escalating street protests, and swears in Vice President Alfredo Palacio as the new president.
2009 - Dozens of Western diplomats walk out of a UN conference in Geneva when Iran’s hardline president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls Israel a cruel and racist state and the US denounces his remarks as hateful.
2011 - About 100 detainees riot and protest on the roof at Sydney’s Villawood immigration detention centre. Today’s Birthdays Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (Napoleon III), French statesman (1808-1873); Adolf Hitler, German Nazi leader (1889-1945); Ryan O’neal, US actor (1941-); Jessica Lange, US actor (1949-); Sebastian Faulks, British novelist (1953-); Andy Serkis, British actor (1964-); Carmen Electra, US actor (1972-); Miranda Kerr, Australian model (1983-).