Today in history
1170 - Archbishop Thomas Becket is slain at the altar in Cathedral of Canterbury, England.
1721 - French occupy Mauritius and rename it Ile de France.
1890 - United States troops massacre 200 Sioux men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, South Dakota.
1933 - Romanian Premier Ion Duca is slain by Iron Guard, and George Tartarescu succeeds him.
1940 - German bombers inflict greatest damage on London since Great Fire of 1666.
1965 - Independence is announced for Bechuanaland, which becomes Botswana.
1989 - Czechoslovak parliament elects dissident playwright Vaclav Havel as its president without opposition.
1996 - Guatemalan government and guerrilla leaders sign an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict, bringing Central America’s last and longest civil war to an official close.
1998 - In Yemen, troops surround and fire on a band of Islamic extremists holding 16 tourists hostage, ending a kidnapping that leaves six of the hostages dead.
1999 - The charismatic leader of the Aum Shinrikyo cult is freed from prison and vows to resume his place in the doomsday-preaching group that five years ago released nerve gas on Tokyo’s subways.
2001 - A series of fireworks explosions spark a massive fire in downtown Lima, the capital of Peru, killing 291 people.
2004 - Paramedics spray Indian beaches with bleach and vaccinate tsunami survivors, as Indonesian authorities bulldoze mass graves for thousands of corpses lining the streets and lawns of Banda Aceh.
2007 - Thousands of Kenyans enraged over delays in announcing the country’s next president after December 27 elections burn down homes and attack political rivals with sticks and machetes.
2011 - Turkish warplanes mistakenly kill 35 smugglers and other villagers in an operation targeting Kurdish rebels in Iraq, one of the largest one-day civilian death tolls during Turkey’s 27-year drive against the guerillas.
2014 - A ferry carrying 478 people catches fire off the Greek Island of Corfu, killing 12.
2015 - A suicide bomber on a motorbike kills at least 23 people at a government office in Pakistan and wounds more than 70.
Today’s Birthdays:
Jeanne d’etoiles, Marquise de Pompadour, mistress of France’s King Louis XV (1721-1764); Mary Tyler Moore, US actress (1936-2017); Jon Voight, American actor (1938- ); Marianne Faithfull, British singer (1946-); Ted Danson, US actor (1947-); David Boon, Australian cricketer (1960-); Jude Law, British actor (1972-).