Today in History

April 17

1888 - The English Football League is founded at the Royal Hotel, Manchester.

1895 - China opens seven new ports and cedes Formosa (Taiwan), Port Arthur and the Liao Tung Peninsula to Japan.

1941 - Yugoslavia surrenders to Germany during the Second World War.

1942 - French General Henri Giraud escapes from Konigstein Castle near Dresden, Germany.

1946 - Last French troops leave Syria, which becomes independent.

1961 - Cuba is invaded at the Bay of Pigs by a US-supported invasion force.

1964 - American aviator Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to complete a solo airplane flight around the world.

1969 - Czechoslovak Communist Party chairman Alexander Dubcek is deposed.

1971 - Egypt, Syria and Libya sign agreement to confederate.

1975 - Phnom Penh falls to communist insurgents, ending Cambodia’s five-year war.

1983 - India enters space age by launching SLV-3 rocket.

1989 - A Warsaw court lift a sevenyear ban on Solidarity.

1992 - Russian lawmakers refuse to approve arms control pact, setting up another confrontation with President Boris Yeltsin.

1999 - Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee resigns after a vote of no-confidence in parliament. 2002 - Independence hero and former guerrilla leader Xanana Gusmao wins a thumping victory in East Timor’s first presidential election.

2004 - Abdul Aziz Rantisi, Palestinian political leader, cofounder of Hamas is assassinated by Israel military.

2009 - The International Cricket Council board announces that Pakistan is stripped of its hosting rights because of the “uncertainty surrounding Pakistan”.

2012 - Space shuttle Discovery makes final flight to Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Virginia.

2014 - Qatar signs a deal to end a political crisis with other Gulf states.

2015 - Iraqi government forces kill Saddam Hussain’s former deputy Ezzat Ebrahim Al Douri.