Today in History

1863 – US president Abraham Lincoln, right, delivers the Gettysburg address as he dedicates a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield.

1919 – The US Senate rejects the Treaty of Versailles.

1942 – Soviet troops counterattack at Stalingrad and surround German troops.

1957 – Thirty-one Cuban nationals about to sail for Cuba in a yacht loaded with arms, medical supplies and uniforms for Fidel Castro’s rebels are arrested by US agents.

1969 – Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean make second Moon landing.

1985 – US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time at a summit in Geneva.

1992 – New Zealand-born ophthalmologist Fred Hollows launches a foundation to treat preventable eye problems in poorer and developing nations.

1998 – The impeachment inquiry against US president Bill Clinton opens with testimony by independent counsel Kenneth Starr, who accuses Clinton of perjury and obstructing justice.

2007 – The UN-backed genocide tribunal in Cambodia arrests former Khmer Rouge head of state Khieu Samphan, 76, after his release from hospital.

2010 – An underground explosion at the Pike River coalmine on the West Coast kills 29 men.

2012 – US president Barack Obama pays the first visit by an America leader to Myanmar and Cambodia.

Birthdays

Ferdinand de Lesseps, French builder of Suez Canal (1805-1894); Elizabeth McCombs, NZ’s first female MP (1873-1935); Indira Gandhi, Indian prime minister (1917-84); Calvin Klein, US clothing designer (1942-); Jodie Foster, US actress (1962-); Larry King, US talk show host (1933-); Ted Turner, US media mogul (1938-); Mahe Drysdale, NZ rower (1978-).