Today in history
1498 - Christopher Columbus lands on mainland America, but thinking it is an island, calls it Isla Santa.
1560 - Scotland’s Parliament abolishes Papal jurisdiction and approves a Calvinistic confession of faith, thus founding the Church of Scotland.
1625 - The British Parliament moves to Oxford as the plague rages through London, killing thousands each week.
1714 - George Louis is named King George I of Great Britain after the death of Queen Anne.
1774 - Joseph Priestley, British chemist, identifies a gas which he calls ‘‘dephlogisticated air’’ – later known as oxygen.
1798 - British navy under Admiral Horatio Nelson destroys French fleet in Battle of the Nile, stranding Napoleon Bonaparte and his forces in Egypt.
1834 - Slavery is abolished throughout the British Empire; an estimated 770,280 slaves become free.
1914 - Germany declares war on Russia at the start of World War I.
1932 - The first Mars bar, made in Slough, England, goes on sale.
1936 - The Olympic Games open in Berlin with a ceremony presided over by Adolf Hitler.
1944 - The people of Warsaw rise against the Nazis, in the hope of liberating the city before the arrival of the Red Army. The city is largely destroyed in two months of fighting.
1946 - The Atomic Energy Commission is established.
1981 - Rock music video channel MTV makes its first broadcast. Video Killed The Radio Star, by The Buggles, was the first song played.
1984 - South Africa closes its consulate in Wellington after New Zealand prime minister severs diplomatic ties in disapproval of South Africa’s racial segregation.
1998 - Milan Kovacevic, a Serb doctor allegedly responsible for the deaths of at least 2000 people in three concentration camps during the Bosnia-herzegovina war, dies of a heart attack just weeks after his trial on war crimes charges is due to begin.
2004 - In Paraguay, a fire sweeps through the crowded Ycua Bolanos supermarket in the capital Asuncion’s outskirts and kills up to 400 people.
2013 - Russia defies the US and grants Edward Snowden temporary asylum, allowing the National Security Agency leaker to slip out of Moscow airport where he has been hold up for weeks in hopes of evading espionage charges back home. Today’s Birthdays: Pierre Bourdieu, French philosopher and sociologist (1930-2002); Yves St Laurent, French fashion designer (1936-2008); Jerry Garcia, US rock musician (1942-1995); Chuck D, US rapper (1960-).