Today in history
30 BC — Cleopatra of Egypt commits suicide by letting an asp bite her.
1835 — The first permanent settlement of Melbourne is organised on the north shore of the Yarra.
1928 — Jawaharlal Nehru founds the Independence of India League to work towards freedom from British rule.
1960 — East Germany imposes partial blockade of West Berlin.
1963 — ‘‘Hot line’’ between the Kremlin and the White House, designed to reduce the risk of accidental war, is installed.
1982 — PLO leader Yasser Arafat abandons his headquarters in Beirut following Israeli invasion of Lebanon.
1991 — Soviet republic of Azerbaijan declares independence and begins forming its own army.
1999 — A constitutional assembly in Venezuela strips Congress of its last remaining powers, effectively shutting down the legislature.
1999 — East Timor votes 99 per cent in favour of becoming independent after a nationwide referendum was put to the people.
2001 — Papua New Guinea and Bougainville island rebels sign a peace deal ending the South Pacific’s longest-running conflict.
2002 — North Korea and South Korea agree to reconnect a crossborder railway and road by the end of 2002.
2003 — Negotiators at a meeting of the World Trade Organisation in Geneva reach an agreement that would allow poor countries with severe epidemics of infectious diseases such as AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria to import generic drugs designed to fight them.
2004 — The European Union makes a solemn appeal for the release of two French journalists held hostage in Iraq by gunmen demanding France overturn a ban on Islamic headscarves in public schools.
2005 — The United Nations names four pro-syrian generals and a former legislator as suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.
2006 — Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz, the only writer in Arabic to win the Nobel Prize for literature, dies.
2007 — Taliban terrorists in Afghanistan release the final seven of 23 South Korean captives, bringing an end to a six-week hostage drama in which they killed two men.
2015 — Bart Cummings, veteran horse trainer who trained 12 Melbourne Cup winners, dies at the age of 87.
2016 — The 45th parliament of Australia opens with at least 47 new faces in both the lower and upper houses.
Today’s Birthdays: Ernest Rutherford, New Zealand scientist (1871-1937); Tex Morton, New Zealandborn Australian country singer (1916-1983); Teddy Tahu Rhodes, New Zealand singer (1966-).