TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS FRIDAY, JULY 7, 2017 On this day in history:

1754 - Kings College opened in New York City. It was renamed Columbia College 30 years later.

1817 - Explorer John Oxley declares the rich pasture land around the Lachlan River as “forever uninhabitable”.

1835 - Escaped convict William Buckley, after whom the phrase “Buckley’s Chance” was named, gives himself up.

1841 - Explorer Edward Eyre completes the first crossing of Australia from east to west, travelling across the Nullarbor Plain from Adelaide to Albany.

1846 - US annexation of California was proclaimed at Monterey after the surrender of a Mexican garrison. 1917 - Aleksandr Kerensky formed a provisional government in Russia. 1937 - Japanese forces invaded China.

1946 - Mother Frances Xavier Cabrini was canonised as the first American saint.

1950 - The UN Security Council authorised military aid for South Korea.

1969 - Canada’s House of Commons gave final approval to a measure that made the French language equal to English throughout the national government. 1987 - Public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing began. 1994 - Amazon.com, Inc was founded in Seattle, Washington under the name Cadabra.

1996 - In Australia, the average cost of a Big Mac is $1.97.

1998 - A jury in Santa Monica, CA, convicted Mikail Markhasev of murdering Ennis Cosby, Bill Cosby’s only son, during a roadside robbery.

1999 - In Sierra Leone, President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah and rebel leader Foday Sankoh signed a pact to end the nation’s civil war. 2000 - Amazon.com announced that they had sold almost 400,000 copies of Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire, making it the biggest selling book in e-tailing history.