Today in history
330 - Constantinople is dedicated as the new capital of the Roman Empire; it was named after the Emperor Constantine and built over the ancient city of Byzantium.
1310 - Fifty-four members of the Knights Templar are burned at the stake in France for being heretics.
1507 - France annexes Genoa in Italy.
1618 - Haeuik Claezoon Van Hillegom, captain of the Dutch ship Zeewolf, records that he has sighted the coast of what is later to be named Australia.
1812 - British Prime Minister Spencer Perceval is assassinated by a bankrupt broker, John Bellingham, as he enters the House of Commons.
1878 - Radicals attempt to assassinate German Emperor William I.
1931 - Failure of Credit-anstalt, Austria’s largest bank, marks the beginning of the financial collapse of Central Europe.
1987 - Indian government imposes direct federal control on Punjab State due to violence by Sikh separatists.
1993 - Fire in a Thailand doll factory kills at least 188.
1998 - The first euro coin is minted in France; India conducts three underground nuclear tests, the world’s first since 1996.
2001 - Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, dies in Santa Barbara, California, aged 49.
2007 - North and South Korea adopt a military agreement enabling the first train crossing of their heavily armed border in more than half a century; Samoa’s King Malietoa Tanumafili II dies aged 94.
2009 - Pope Benedict XVI confronts the dark history of his native Germany on the first day of his trip to Israel, shaking the hands of six Holocaust survivors.
2010 - Conservative leader David Cameron becomes Britain’s youngest prime minister in almost 200 years after Gordon Brown steps down and ends 13 years of Labour government.
2012 - Former hotshot editor Rebekah Brooks draws Prime Minister David Cameron closer into Britain’s tabloid phone hacking scandal, saying he offered her support after the uproar over illegal journalistic practices forced her to quit.
2013 - Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declares victory after an election marred by violence.
2014 - Death of rugby league great Reg Gasnier, aged 74. Today’s Birthdays: Baron Munchhausen, German storyteller (1720-1797); Salvador Dali, Spanish artist (1904-1989); Denver Pyle, US actor (1920-1997); Frank Thring, Australian actor (1926-1994); Eric Burdon, British rock musician (1941-); Renaud, French composer (1952-).