Today in History

1812 – Britain’s Tory Premier Spencer Perceval is assassinated in House of Commons.

1860 – The Expedition of the Thousand under Giuseppe Garibaldi lands in Sicily to overthrow the Bourbon kingdom and ultimately create modern Italy.

1943 – US forces land at Attu in Aleutian Islands in World War II. It is first American territory regained from Japan. 1944 – Allied forces launch a major offensive in central Italy.

1945 – New Zealander Charles Upham, left, is presented with the VC at Buckingham Palace.

1947 – The B F Goodrich Co of Akron, Ohio, announces the development of a tubeless tyre. 1949 – Israel is admitted to United Nations; Siam changes its name to Thailand.

1985 – More than 50 people die in fire at a packed football ground in Bradford, England.

1987 – Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s government imposes direct federal control of Punjab, due to violence by Sikh separatists.

1997 – The Deep Blue IBM computer becomes the first to defeat the world chess champion, winning a six-game match against Garry Kasparov in New York.

1998 – India conducts three underground nuclear tests, the country’s first since 1974 and the world’s first since 1996; a French mint produces the first coins of Europe’s single currency, the euro.

2000 – With the birth of a baby girl named Astha – ‘‘Faith’’ in Hindi – India’s population officially hits 1 billion.

Birthdays

Baron Munchhausen, German storyteller (1720-1797); Irving Berlin, US songwriter (1888-1989); Paul Nash, British artist (1889-1946); Salvador Dali, Spanish artist (1904-1989); Richard P Feynman, US physicist (1918-1988); Natasha Richardson, actress (1963-2009); Mark Herndon, drummer with country group Alabama (1955–).