TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS SATURDAY, MAY 21, 2016 On this day:

293: Roman Emperors Diocletian and Maximian appoint Galerius as Caesar to Diocletian, beginning the period of four rulers known as the Tetrarchy. 1840: Governor William Hobson declares British sovereignty over the islands of New Zealand. 1848: Explorer Edmund Kennedy lands at Rockingham Bay in Far North Queensland to begin his fateful expedition. 1864: Russia declares an end to the Russo-Circassian War and many Circassians are forced into exile. The day is designated the Circassian Day of Mourning. 1871: Opening of the first rack railway in Europe, the Rigi-Bahnen on Mount Rigi. 1917: The Great Atlanta fire of 1917 causes $5.5 million in damages, destroying some 120ha including 2000 homes, businesses and churches, displacing about 10,000 people but only one death (a heart attack). 1927: Charles Lindbergh lands the Spirit of St Louis in Paris, completing the world’s first solo nonstop flight across the Atlantic Ocean. 1937: A Soviet station, North Pole-1, becomes the first scientific research settlement to operate on the drift ice of the Arctic Ocean. 1968: Nuclear-powered sub USS Scorpion with 99 men aboard is reported missing & is later found at the bottom of the ocean off Azores. 1982: British troops land on Falkland Islands 1987: Military coup in Fiji under Lt Col Sitivani Rabuka 1996: The overcrowded ferry MV Bukoba sinks in Tanzanian waters on Lake Victoria, killing nearly 1000. 2004: Sherpa Pemba Dorjie climbs Everest in 8 hours 10 minutes, breaking Sherpa Lakpa Gelu’s record from the previous year. 2008: The Tasmanian Devil is declared an endangered species. 2012: A suicide bombing kills more than 120 people in Sana’a, Yemen. 2014: The US National September 11 Museum opens to the public. 2014: Thai army declares martial law and closes down several news stations