Today in history
1643 – Dutch mariner Abel Tasman discovers Fiji Islands.
1701 – War of Spanish Succession begins.
1778 – Britain declares war on France.
1840 – The Treaty of Waitangi is signed, guaranteeing Ma¯ori tribal chiefs their lands and certain other rights in return for British sovereignty over New Zealand.
1869 – Greece agrees to leave Crete following Turkish ultimatum.
1897 – Crete proclaims union with Greece.
1899 – Treaty of Paris is ratified, whereby Spain cedes Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the United States for $20 million.
1952 – Britain’s King George VI dies and is succeeded by his daughter, Elizabeth II.
1959 – The United States successfully test-fires a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile.
1964 – England and France agree on constructing English Channel rail tunnel.
1971 – US Apollo 14 astronauts prepare to head back to earth after spending 33 hours on the moon.
1999 – The first peace talks between Kosovo Albanians and Yugoslavia open in Rambouillet, France.
2001 – Ariel Sharon is elected Israeli prime minister in a landslide win over Ehud Barak.
2002 – Athanase Seromba, a Roman Catholic priest accused of participating in the 1994 slaughter of Tutsis by ethnic Hutus in Rwanda, surrenders to the UN tribunal in Arusha, Tanzania.
2006 – Anger over caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad spills violently onto the streets of Afghanistan, where protesters direct their anger against the US Police gun down at least four people, some as they try to break into a US military base.
2007 – African, Asian and South American nations where child fighters have been used in war are among 60 countries worldwide to endorse the Paris Commitments, an agreement that commits them to stopping the practice and punishing those who recruit youngsters as combatants.
2008 – Seven doctors and pharmacists go on trial in Paris for the deaths of more than 100 young people who contracted a braindestroying illness, Creutzfeldt-jakob disease, after being treated with tainted human growth hormones.
Today’s Birthdays: Christopher Marlowe, English poet-dramatist (1564-1593); Babe Ruth, US baseball star (1895-1948); Ronald Reagan, US president (1911-2004); Zsa Zsa Gabor, actress (1917–2016 ); Francois Truffaut, film director (1932-1984); Bob Marley, musician (1945-1981); Natalie Cole, singer (1950–2015 ); Rick Astley, singer (1966– ).