Today in history

1399 – King Richard II becomes the first English monarch to abdicate. 1567 – Second War of Religion begins in France between Huguenots and King Charles IX. 1789 – Congress votes to create the United States Army, made up of 1000 enlisted men and officers. 1911 – Italy declares war on Turkey, eventually conquering Libya. 1941 – Over two days, the Germans kill 33,771 Jewish men, women and children in the Babi Yar massacre at a ravine near Kiev in World War II. 1950 – General Douglas Macarthur hands over Seoul to President Syngman Rhee of South Korea. 1979 – Pope John Paul II arrives in Ireland for the first-ever Papal visit to the country. 1988 – The shuttle Discovery is launched in the first space mission since the explosion of the shuttle Challenger in January 1986. 1998 – The bodies of 15 ethnic Albanians, shot in the head and mutilated, are shown to diplomats and journalists in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo, raising the likelihood of military intervention. 2000 – At the Sydney Olympics, the Hockeyroos come up with their third Olympic title in succession, beating Argentina 3-1 for Australia’s final gold medal of the Games. 2006 – A Brazilian jetliner clips a smaller jet in midair and crashes into the Amazon jungle, killing all 155 on board in the nation’s worst air disaster. 2011 – Matthew Charles Johnson is found guilty of murdering underworld assassin Carl Williams in a high-security unit at Victoria’s Barwon Prison the previous year. 2013 – More than 40 people are killed by members of Islamic extremist group Boko Haram at the College of Agriculture in Nigeria. 2014 – Ashraf Ghani is sworn in as president of Afghanistan after three months of political crisis. 2015 – FIFA bans its former vicepresident Jack Warner from all football activity for life due to a long list of ‘‘misconduct’’.