Today in history

1533 – Spanish conquistadors take the city of Cuzco, the capital of the Inca empire.

1647 – England’s King Charles I is recaptured and imprisoned by rebels.

1775 – American troops under Benedict Arnold invade Quebec Province in Canada.

1832 – The first streetcar in the United States – a horse-drawn vehicle called the John Mason – goes into operation in New York City.

1935 – US President Franklin D Roosevelt proclaims Philippine Islands a commonwealth and pledges independence by 1946.

1947 – United Nations recognises Korea’s claim to independence.

1960 – Two passenger trains collide in Czechoslovakia, killing 110 people and injuring 105.

1969 – Apollo 12 blasts off for the moon.

1973 – The Social Security Amendment Act is passed, providing for the introduction of the domestic purposes benefit for New Zealand’s solo mothers.

1990 – More than 300 people are arrested and about 70 injured as police clear anarchist squatters from Berlin neighbourhood.

1991 – El Salvador’s leftist rebels say they will halt all offensives until peace accord with government is reached; Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Cambodia after 20 years.

1992 – A Unionist gunman kills two people and wounds 13 in a Belfast bookmaker’s shop in Northern Ireland.

1997 – The United States dispatches a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf to force Iraq to allow weapons inspections to resume.

1998 – Iraq sends a letter to the UN Security Council stating that weapons inspections can continue. An hour before the launch of an airstrike, US President Bill Clinton calls it off.

2007 – Charged with crimes against humanity, former Khmer Rouge Foreign Minister Ieng Sary and his wife are formally put in detention by Cambodia’s Un-backed genocide tribunal.

2008 – A lunar probe from India lands successfully on the moon.

2011 – Jordan’s king says that Syrian President Bashar Assad should step down for the good of his country, the first Arab leader to publicly make such a call as Syria’s neighbours close ranks against an increasingly isolated regime.

Today’s Birthdays: Claude Monet, French painter (1840-1926); Jawaharlal Nehru, Indian statesman (1889-1964); Astrid Lindgren, Swedish author (1907-2002); Joseph Mccarthy, US senator (1909-1957); Jordan’s King Hussein (1935-1999); Prince Charles (1948– ); Buckwheat Zydeco, US singer/accordionist (1947– ); Sir Jerry Mateparae (1954- ), NZ governor-general/former army chief; Reverend Run, US rapper (1964– ).