Today in History

1515 – Henry VIII appoints Thomas Wolsey as chancellor of England.

1800 – Plot is uncovered in Paris to assassinate Napoleon Bonaparte.

1814 – Peace treaty ends war of

1812 between Britain and the United States.

1865 – Founding of the Ku Klux Klan in Pulaski, Tennessee, by Confederate veterans.

1871 – Aida ,by Giuseppe Verdi, right, has its world premiere in Cairo, to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal.

1943 – General Dwight D Eisenhower appointed supreme commander of Allied forces as part of Operation Overlord.

1951 – Libya becomes an independent federation under King Idris I.

1953 – Worst railway disaster in New Zealand, as Wellington-Auckland night train crashes into river at Tangiwai. Of the 285 people on board, 151 are killed.

1979 – Soviet Union invades Afghanistan. The occupation lasts almost 10 years, during which 15,000 Soviet troops are killed.

1989 – General Manuel Antonio Noriega takes refuge in the Vatican diplomatic mission in Panama City as resistance to US troops from remaining loyalist troops collapses.

2009 – A woman jumps the barriers in St Peter’s Basilica and knocks down Pope Benedict XVI.

2014 – The Sierra Leone government declares a five-day lockdown in the north to contain Ebola epidemic.

Birthdays

King John of England (1166-1216); Ignatius Loyala, Spanish founder of Jesuits (1491-1556); Howard Hughes, US billionaire (1905-76); Ava Gardner, US actress (1922-90); Hamid Karzai, Afghan president (1957-); Kate Spade, US fashion designer (1962-2018); Nick Smith, NZ politician (1964-); Geoff Allott, NZ cricketer (1971-); Ricky Martin, Puerto Rican singer (1971-); Stephenie Meyer, US author (1973-); Ryan Seacrest, US TV host (1974-); Louis Tomlinson, UK singer (1991-).