Today in History

1792 – Trial of France’s King Louis XVI, right, begins.

1812 – Napoleon Bonaparte leaves his troops retreating from Russia and sets out for Paris.

1890 – New Zealand has its first "one man, one vote" election, leading to the Liberal Party coming to power and embarking on a long era of significant reform.

1933 – 21st Amendment to the US Constitution is ratified, repealing the prohibition of alcohol.

1945 – Disappearance of five US Navy planes in what became known as the Bermuda Triangle.

1956 – British and French forces begin withdrawal from Egypt in the Suez War.

1962 – United States and Soviet Union agree to co-operate in peaceful uses of outer space.

1993 – A letter bomb injures Vienna’s mayor. It is the fifth explosive sent in three days to priests, journalists and others linked to immigrant community.

1995 – Tel Aviv district court indicts Yigal Amir, the confessed assassin of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, along with two of his suspected accomplices.

1996 – US President Bill Clinton names United Nations ambassador Madeleine Albright as the country’s first female secretary of state.

2001 – New Zealand yachtsman Peter Blake is slain by Brazilian pirates on the Amazon River.

2008 – Eleven Australians are among the 122 people rescued from a stricken Argentinian cruise ship that runs aground in Antarctica.

Birthdays

Martin Van Buren, first native-born US president (1782-1862); George Armstrong Custer, US cavalry commander (1839-76); Walt Disney, US cartoonist-film producer

(1901-66); Little Richard, US singer

(1932-); Sir Roger Douglas, New Zealand politician (1937-); Jose Carreras, Spanish operatic tenor

(1946-); Cooper Cronk, Australian rugby league player (1983-).