Today in history
1324 - Death of Italian explorer Marco Polo.
1719 - France declares war on Spain.
1792 - Russia ends war with Turkey by Treaty of Jassy.
1878 - Turks capitulate at Shipka Pass and appeal to Russia for armistice.
1945 - US forces invade Luzon in Philippines in World War II.
1951 - United Nations headquarters opens in New York.
1953 - A South Korean passenger ferry sinks off Pusan with the loss of 349 lives.
1960 - Construction work starts on the Aswan High Dam in Egypt.
1962 - Soviet Union and Cuba sign historic trade pact at the height of the Cold War.
1970 - France agrees to sell Mirage military jets to revolutionary regime in Libya.
1972 - Fire destroys the liner Queen Elizabeth in waters off Hong Kong.
1984 - Death of Us-born Australian quizmaster Bob Dyer; The Jordanian parliament is reconvened for the first time in 10 years.
1992 - Serbs in Bosniaherzegovina proclaim their own state.
1998 - Northern Ireland Secretary Mo Mowlam visits the Maze Prison to make a face-to-face appeal for peace to Protestant militants.
2002 - Hamid Karzai, head of the interim Afghan government, announces a plan to disarm Afghan citizens and create a national army.
2006 - Australian motorcyclist Andy Caldecott, 41, becomes the 23rd competitor in 28 years to die in the Dakar rally in Africa.
2007 - Italian film producer Carlo Ponti, husband of actress Sophia Loren, dies aged 94.
2008 - Actor Tony Collette and her musician husband Dave Galafassi welcome their first child, Sage Florence.
2010 - An Indian man is attacked and set alight in Melbourne, a week after an Indian student there was killed.
2016 - At least 14 people, most of them Syrian asylum seekers, are killed and dozens injured in two deadly bus crashes in Turkey.
Today’s Birthdays:
Pope Gregory XV (Allesandro Ludovisi) (1554-1623); Thomas Warton, English poet laureate (1728-1790); Dame Gracie Fields, English entertainer (1898-1979); Simone de Beauvoir, French novelist and critic (1908-1986); Richard Nixon, US president (1913-1994); Joan Baez, US folk singer (1941-); Robert Drewe, Australian author (1943-); Jimmy Page, British rock musician (1944-); Crystal Gayle, US singer (1951-); Morris Gleitzman, Australian children’s author (1953-); Joely Richardson, British actress (1965-); Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (1982-).