Today in history

1651 – Limerick, Ireland, surrenders to British after lengthy siege. 1787 – The first of the Federalist Papers, a series of essays calling for ratification of the United States Constitution, is published in a New York newspaper. 1871 – Britain annexes the diamond fields of Kimberly, South Africa. 1904 – The first rapid transit subway opens in New York City. 1922 – Southern Rhodesia referendum rejects joining Union of South Africa. 1938 – US company Dupont announces the invention of nylon. 1943 – New Zealand troops land on Mono Island in the Solomons and face heavy fire from Japanese forces, in the Kiwis’ first opposed landing since Gallipoli. 1961 – US and Soviet tanks are brought to the border between East and West Berlin because of a decree ordering all foreigners to submit to identity controls on entering East Berlin. 1977 – US President Jimmy Carter rules out any US embargo on trade with South Africa or any ban on US investments to protest its racial policies. 1987 – South Korean voters approve a new constitution, clearing the way for the first direct presidential elections in 16 years. 1995 – After eluding a massive manhunt for three days, a North Korean spy is fatally shot when he tries to break through a cordon of South Korean commandos on a mountain near the border between the two countries. 1997 – The Dow Jones industrial average tumbles 554.26 points, forcing the stock market to shut down for the first time since the 1981 assassination attempt on US President Ronald Reagan. 2002 – Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva wins Brazil’s presidential runoff election, becoming the nation’s first leftist and working-class president. 2004 – Pleading they cannot properly defend an unwilling client, Slobodan Milosevic’s court-appointed lawyers ask to quit, leaving the UN tribunal in a dilemma over how to conclude the most important war crimes trial in half a century in a way history will judge as fair. 2007 – Astronauts add a new room to the international space station, attaching a bus-sized living compartment named Harmony. 2010 – Hollywood studio Warner Bros agrees to film The Hobbit in New Zealand after weeks of uncertainty capped by two days of negotiations with Prime Minister John Key. Today’s birthdays: Theodore Roosevelt, US president (1858-1919); Dylan Thomas, British poet (1914-1953); John Cleese, British actor (1939-); Peter Martins, Danish dancer (1946-); Simon Lebon, English pop singer (1958-)