Today in history

1536 – William Tyndale, who translated the first English Bible, is executed for heresy in Vilvoorde, the Netherlands. 1683 – Thirteen families from Krefeld, Germany, arrive in Philadelphia to begin Germantown, one of America’s oldest settlements. 1769 – Nicholas Young, the ship’s boy on Captain James Cook’s Endeavour, sights land – what is now known as Young Nick’s Head, near Gisborne – as Cook begins his exploration of New Zealand. 1789 – An irate crowd enters the Versailles palace outside Paris. Troops of the Marquis de Lafayette protect the royal family, who are taken to Paris as hostages of the revolution. 1889 – Inventor Thomas Edison shows his first motion pictures in West Orange, New Jersey. 1918 – French occupy Beirut in the Ottoman Empire. 1927 – In the United States, the era of talking pictures arrives with the opening of The Jazz Singer, starring Al Jolson, a movie that features both silent and sound-synchronised scenes. 1939 – In an address to the Reichstag, Adolf Hitler denies having any intention of waging war against France and Britain. 1958 – US nuclear submarine Seawolf surfaces off New England’s coast after establishing a world record by remaining submerged for two months. 1964 – As Cambodia is dragged into the Vietnam War, China pledges to Prince Norodom Sihanouk, Cambodian chief of state, that it will give his country economic and military aid. 1973 – Egypt and Syria launch a surprise attack on Israel as it observes Yom Kippur. 1976 – Coup in Thailand results in military takeover. 1979 – Pope John Paul II becomes the first pontiff to visit the White House, where he is received by US President Jimmy Carter. 1981 – Egyptian President Anwar Sadat is shot to death by extremists while reviewing a military parade. 2002 – The Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite television network broadcast an audiotape made by Osama bin Laden where the speaker on the tape warned the US of future attacks. 2008 – Wall Street joins in a worldwide cascade of despair over the financial crisis, driving the Dow Jones industrials to their biggest loss ever during a trading day as the Global Financial Crisis hits. 2009 – A top suspect wanted for orchestrating the killings of thousands of people in Rwanda’s 1994 genocide is captured.