Today in history
1833 — British Parliament bans slavery throughout the British Empire.
1910 — Montenegro is proclaimed an independent kingdom under Nicholas I.
1914 — In World War I, the Royal and German navies fight the battle of Heligoland Bight in the North Sea, the Germans losing four ships and 1000 sailors and the British 33 sailors.
1917 — Ten suffragists are arrested as they picket the United States White House.
1922 — The first radio advertisement, a 10-minute property commercial by Queensboro Realty Corp, is broadcast by station WEAF in New York.
1947 — Legendary bullfighter Manolete is fatally wounded by a bull during a fight in Linares, Spain.
1968 — Police and anti-vietnam war demonstrators clash in the streets of Chicago as the Democratic National Convention nominates Hubert H Humphrey for US president.
1971 — Twenty-five people die and 1150 are rescued when the Greek liner Haleanna catches fire.
1986 — Bolivian government imposes a nationwide state of siege in response to march to La Paz by about 7000 workers opposed to mine closures.
1990 — Iraq declares Kuwait its 19th province.
1995 — A shell crashes into a crowd near the central marketplace in Sarajevo, killing 38 people.
1996 — The 1981 marriage of Prince Charles and Princess Diana, launched amid pomp and pageantry, ends with a rubber-stamp divorce.
1997 — Rival factions clash inside Venezuela’s notorious El Dorado prison, leaving 29 prisoners dead and 13 inmates seriously injured.
1999 — A space capsule bearing the last fulltime crew to inhabit Russia’s ageing Mir space station lands safely on the Kazakh Steppe.
2001 — Women’s rights groups protest the approval of a new law in Chihuahua, Mexico, which provides for reduced sentences for rapes that were ‘‘provoked’’ by the victim.
2009 — Michael Jackson’s former doctor faces greater scrutiny after a coroner rules the late pop star’s death was a homicide caused primarily by the powerful anaesthetic propofol and another sedative.
2016 — About 28 inmates escape from a poorly-secured prison in the southern Philippines after 50 heavily armed Muslim extremists break them free. Today’s Birthdays: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, German poet and philosopher (1749-1832); Leo Tolstoy, Russian writer (1828-1910); Wayne Osmond, US singer (1951-); Shania Twain, US singer (1965-); Jack Black, US actorsinger (1969-); Janet Evans, US swimmer (1971-); Leann Rimes, US country singer (1982-).