Today in History

1324 – Death of Italian explorer Marco Polo.

1493 – Christopher Columbus reports seeing three mermaids near the Dominican Republic, saying they are “not half as beautiful as they are painted’’. The creatures were in fact manatees. 1923 – Katherine Mansfield, right, dies of tuberculosis, aged 34. 1945 – US forces invade Luzon in Philippines in World War II. 1951 – United Nations headquarters opens in New York.

1953 – A South Korean passenger ferry sinks off Pusan with the loss of 349 lives. 1960 – Construction work starts on the Aswan High Dam in Egypt. 1962 – Soviet Union and Cuba sign historic trade pact.

1972 – Fire destroys liner Queen Elizabeth in waters off Hong Kong. 1992 – Serbs in BosniaHerzegovina proclaim their own state. 2002 – Hamid Karzai, head of the interim Afghan government, announces a plan to disarm Afghan citizens and create a national army.

2006 – Australian motorcyclist Andy Caldecott, 41, becomes the 23rd competitor in 28 years to die in the Dakar rally in Africa.

2007 – Apple boss Steve Jobs unveils the iPhone in San Francisco.

2010 – An Indian man is set alight in Melbourne, a week after an Indian student there was killed.

2016 – At least 14 people, mostly Syrian asylum seekers, are killed in bus crashes in Turkey.

Birthdays

Pope Gregory XV (Allesandro Ludovisi, 1554-1623); Dame Gracie Fields, UK entertainer (1898-1979); Simone de Beauvoir, French writer (1908-86); Richard Nixon, US president (1913-94); Wilbur Smith, Zambian-born writer (1933-); Joan Baez, US folk singer (1941-); Jimmy Page, UK rock musician (1944-); Philippa Gregory, UK novelist (1954-); Joely Richardson, UK actress (1965-); Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge (1982-); Paul Carnegie-Jones, NZ pianist (1985-).