Today in history
1533 — Pope Clement VII excommunicates England’s King Henry VIII.
1892 — US Patent Office decides J W Swan, not Thomas Edison, is the inventor of the electric light carbon for the incandescent lamp.
1921 — Mongolia declares its independence from China.
1929 — Firemen in Gillingham, England plan to show off their abilities by ‘‘rescuing’’ nine boys and six firemen from a house. Instead of using smoke bombs, they set fire to the structure, and the 15 die.
1950 — Puppets Andy Pandy, Teddy and Looby Loo first appear on BBC Television.
1957 — The Aga Khan III, spiritual leader of the Ismaili sect of Muslims since 1885, dies.
1960 — Premier Moise Tshombe of Katanga proclaims independence of the Zairean province.
1975 — China’s great Terracotta Army is uncovered near the ancient capital Xian.
1977 — The US Medal of Freedom is awarded posthumously to Reverend Martin Luther King Jr in a White House ceremony.
1991 — The moon moves between the earth and sun in the century’s final total eclipse.
1994 — Seven East European technicians are shot dead in two attacks in Algeria, the victims of a campaign by Islamist extremists to cripple the economy and topple the government.
2000 — A damaged petrol pipeline explodes in southern Nigeria, killing 200 people and injuring dozens of others.
2002 — South Korean President Kim Dae-jung appoints the country’s first female prime minister, Chang Sang.
2005 — Two gun attacks in Belfast leave one man dead and another critically wounded on the eve of Northern Ireland’s tensest day of the year — the divisive ‘‘Twelfth’’ holiday of mass Protestant marches.
2007 — Pakistani troops complete an eight-day siege and storming of Islamabad’s radical Red Mosque.
2010 — Spain defeats Netherlands 1-0 in extra time to win World Cup.
2015 — Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘‘El Chapo’’ Guzman escapes from the Altiplano maximum-security prison, via a 1.5km tunnel from his shower. He remains on the run for six months.
2016 — Pauline Hanson’s One Nation Party is accused of copying large slabs of its policies from online sources, including Wikipedia and right-wing US websites. Today’s Birthdays: Robert I the Bruce, Scottish king (1274-1329); Thomas Bowdler, English editor of Shakespearean works (1754-1825); Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer (1934-); Leon Spinks, former world heavyweight boxing champion (1953-); Richie Sambora, rock guitarist of Bon Jovi (1959-).