Today in history
1787 – Turkey declares war on Russia, fearing designs on Georgia.
1792 – King Louis XVI of France is arrested after a mob storms the Tuileries in Paris and massacres the Swiss Guard.
1842 – Lord Ashley’s Mine Act prevents women and children under 10 from working underground in Britain.
1885 – First commercially operated electrical tram begins service in Baltimore.
1904 – Japan’s Navy cripples Russian fleet off Port Arthur.
1913 – Treaty ending Balkan War is signed in Bucharest.
1914 – France declares war on Austriahungary at start of World War I.
1919 – Anglo-white Russian forces defeat Soviet forces in North Dvina.
1945 – Japan offers to surrender in World War II if Emperor Hirohito is permitted to keep his throne.
1964 – Pope Paul VI issues his first encyclical, Ecclesiam Suam, stating his willingness to mediate in international disputes.
1995 – Two of Saddam Hussein’s daughters, their husbands and a group of army officers flee to Jordan. King Hussein grants them political asylum.
1997 – Photos of Princess Diana embracing Harrods heir Dodi Fayed are published in the London Sunday Mirror, raising speculation about her future.
1998 – More than 2000 people die in flooding in China.
1999 – Islamist guerillas declare Russia’s Dagestan province an independent state and call for a holy war of liberation.
2000 – Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez holds talks with Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, defying the United States by being the first head of state to go to Iraq since the 1991 Gulf War; Sri Lankan cricket legend Arjuna Ranatunga bows out of the international game, scoring 28 not out in a draw against South Africa.
2004 – Libya agrees to pay US$35 million compensation to more than 160 non-us victims of the 1986 bombing of a West Berlin nightclub.
2005 – Police in Brazil examine fingerprints and other evidence left behind by thieves who stole US$67.8M from the Central Bank in one of the world’s biggest heists.
2016 – At least 12 premature babies are killed in Iraq, when a fire sparked by an electrical fault tears through the maternity ward of one of Baghdad’s largest hospitals.