Today in history
1204 - In the Fourth Crusade, Constantinople is captured by the Crusaders.
1606 - England adopts as its flag the original version of the Union Jack, which combines the crosses of St George of England and St Andrew of Scotland.
1654 - Ireland and Scotland are united with England.
1782 - Britain opens peace talks with the Americans to end the American Revolution.
1796 - Napoleon’s forces defeat the Austrian and Sardinian armies at the end of the Battle of Montenotte. It is Napoleon’s first significant victory.
1861 - United States Civil War starts as Confederates fire on Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina.
1914 - George Bernard Shaw’s play
Pygmalion opens in London with Mrs Patrick Campbell as Eliza Doolittle and Sir Herbert Tree as Professor Higgins.
1934 - The highest velocity natural wind ever recorded occurs at Mt Washington, New Hampshire, with gusts reaching 371.6kmh.
1945 - Death of US President Franklin D Roosevelt of cerebral haemorrhage, aged 63. Harry Truman is sworn in as his successor.
1954 - Bill Haley and his Comets record breakthrough rock’n’roll song
Rock Around the Clock.
1955 - Salk vaccine against polio is declared safe and effective.
1961 - Soviet Union puts first man in space; cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin makes safe landing after one orbit of Earth.
1966 - US bombers carry out their first strikes against North Vietnam.
1979 - Mad Max, a low-budget Australian film directed by George Miller and starring Mel Gibson, is released.
1992 - Euro Disneyland opens in France amid controversy as French intellectuals bemoan the invasion of US pop culture – labelling it a ‘‘cultural Chernobyl’’.
2000 - An overloaded wooden Philippine ferry headed for Malaysia capsizes off the southern Philippines, killing at least 133 people.
2009 - US Navy sniper open fire and kill three pirates holding an American captain at gunpoint, delivering the skipper unharmed and ending a five-day, high seas hostage drama.
2011 - Japan ranks its nuclear crisis at the highest possible severity on an international scale, after a tsunami crippled the plant.
Today’s birthdays
Johnny Raper, Australian rugby league footballer (1939-); David Letterman, US television personality (1947-); David Cassidy, US actor-singer (1950-2017); Andy Garcia, Cuban-born actor (1956-); Shannen Doherty, US actress (1971-); Claire Danes, US actress (1979-); Jelena Dokic, Serbian/ Australian tennis player (1983-).