Today in history

1492 – Treaty of Etaples is signed between Charles VIII of France and Henry VII of England, under which the latter renounces claims to French territory in return for an indemnity. 1493 – Christopher Columbus discovers Caribbean island of Dominica. 1534 – England’s parliament confirms King Henry VIII in all judicial and political powers formerly exercised by the pope in England. 1871 – Henry Stanley finds African explorer Dr Livingstone, he presumes. 1886 – The railway line between Wellington and Palmerston North opens, and with it opportunities for European settlers to move into the Ka¯piti Coast, Horowhenua and Manawatu¯. 1886 – Waikato dairy farmer Henry Reynolds launches his Anchor butter, a brand that survives to this day. 1918 – In World War I, part of the German fleet mutinies at Kiel. 1946 – Power in Japan is transferred from the emperor to an elected assembly. 1957 – Soviet Union launches the first inhabited space capsule, Sputnik II, carrying a dog named Laika. 1964 – Lyndon Johnson wins the United States presidency by a landslide. 1974 – Daylight saving time is introduced to New Zealand under a successful and mostly popular trial. It becomes permanent the following year. 1983 – South Africans vote by a large majority to allow Indians and coloureds – but not blacks – some limited power-sharing in the government. 2005 – Allegations that the CIA set up secret jails in eastern Europe and elsewhere to interrogate al Qaeda prisoners trigger a flurry of denials from governments in the former Soviet sphere and prompt European Union officials and human rights organisations to demand answers. 2007 – General Pervez Musharraf declares a state of emergency in Pakistan, suspending the constitution, replacing the chief justice before a crucial Supreme Court ruling on his future as president, and cutting communications in the capital Islamabad. 2008 – A US military jury at Guantanamo sentences Osama bin Laden’s former media aide, Ali Hamza al-bahlul, to life for encouraging terrorist attacks. 2010 – A chastened US President Barack Obama signals willingness to yield to Republican demands on tax cuts and jettisons a key energy priority after Democrats absorbed election losses so severe he called them a ‘‘shellacking’’.