Today in history
1099 — Three years after the First Crusade set out, the Christian army storms Jerusalem and puts Muslim inhabitants to the sword.
1601 — Austria’s Archduke Albert begins a three-year siege of Ostend, the last Dutch stronghold in Belgium, with Spanish force.
1869 — Margarine is patented in France by Hippolyte Mege Mouries.
1904 — Death of Russian playwright Anton Chekhov, author of Three Sisters and The Cherry Orchard.
1912 — The Commonwealth Bank of Australia opens its doors for the first time as a savings bank.
1945 — Italy declares war on Japan, its former Axis partner in World War II.
1953 — Infamous UK murderer John Christie is hanged for his wife’s murder, although he’s believed to have killed at least eight people.
1977 — Anti-drug campaigner Donald Mckay disappears and is presumed murdered in the southern NSW town Griffith.
1994 — Former West Australian premier Brian Burke begins a twoyear jail term after being convicted of fraud.
1997 — Fashion designer Gianni Versace is shot dead outside his Miami Beach mansion by serial killer Andrew Cunanan.
2000 — Zimbabwe launches the resettlement of black peasants on farms seized from whites in all its eight provinces.
2006 — The UN Security Council votes unanimously to impose weapons-related sanctions on North Korea in response to its flurry of missile tests earlier in the month.
2010 — Argentina becomes the first Latin American country to legalise gay marriage, granting same sex couples all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexuals.
2011 — Rupert Murdoch accepts the resignations of The Wall Street Journal’s publisher and the chief of his British operations as the oncedefiant media mogul struggles to control an escalating phone hacking scandal.
2015 — Brisbane estate agent Gerard Baden-clay is jailed for life for the murder of his wife Allison — later downgraded to manslaughter on appeal.
2016 — The Liberal Party defends itself from claims it is broke after reports emerge Malcolm Turnbull donated at least $1 million to fund the election campaign. The PM takes until February to admit the donation of $1.75m just before the July 2 poll. Today’s Birthdays: Inigo Jones, English architect (1573-1652); Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmes van Rijn), Dutch artist (1606-1669); Forest Whitaker, US actor-director (1961-); Diane Kruger, German actress and former fashion model (1976-).