Today in history

1525 — Spanish army, using muskets for first time in war, route French and Swiss forces at Pavia, Italy, as 14,000 men are slain in battle.

1530 — Charles V is crowned Holy Roman Emperor and King of Italy by Pope Clement VII at Bologna — the last imperial coronation by a pope.

1656 — Spain declares war on England.

1771 — Encyclopaedia Britannica first published.

1824 — Governor-general of India declares war on Burmese after British East India Company territory is violated.

1887 — Paris and Brussels become the first two capital cities to be linked by telephone.

1905 — Death of French novelist Jules Verne.

1920 — Nazi Party is organised in Germany.

1946 — Juan Peron is elected for first of three presidential terms in Argentina.

1968 — Australian Prime Minister John Gorton, formerly a senator, wins the House of Representatives seat of Higgins, vacated after predecessor Harold Holt vanished in the surf two months earlier.

1981 — Buckingham Palace announces the engagement of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.

1989 — Cargo door of a United Airlines jumbo jet blows out on a flight from Los Angeles to Sydney. Nine passengers are killed.

1991 — Hours after last-minute Soviet diplomatic efforts fail, allied forces launch a ground offensive against Iraqi forces in Kuwait and Iraq.

1996 — Cuban government fighter planes shoot down two small aircraft belonging to an exile group flying off the coast of Havana.

2002 — The Winter Olympic Games concludes in Salt Lake City, Utah with Germany winning the most medals in the games.

2003 — Vojislav Seselj, leader of the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, surrenders to the UN International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. He is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes committed during the 1991-95 ethnic conflicts.

2007 — The Virginia General Assembly votes unanimously to express ‘‘profound regret’’ for the state’s role in slavery, becoming the first in the US to pass such a measure.

2014 — Harold Ramis, a comedy actor, director and performer best known for his role in Ghostbusters, dies aged 69.

2016 — An independent report into the downing of Malaysian airlines flight MH17 points the finger directly at the Russian government.

Today’s Birthdays:

Joe Lieberman, US politician (1942-); Steve Jobs, American computer pioneer (1955-2011); Floyd Mayweather, US boxer (1977-).