TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS THURSDAY, DECEMBER 7, 2017

On this day in history:

1431 - In Paris, Henry VI of England was crowned King of France.

1732 - The original Covent Garden Theatre Royal (now the Royal Opera House) was opened.

1800 - James Grant discovers and names Portland Bay and Cape Otway on the southern coast.

1846 - Leichhardt departs Jimbour Station on his second but unsuccessful expedition. 1907 - At London’s National Sporting Club, Eugene Corri became the first referee to officiate from inside a boxing ring.

1941 - Pearl Harbor, located on the Hawaiian island of Oahu was attacked by nearly 200 Japanese warplanes. The attack resulted in the US entering into World War II. 1971 - Libya announced the nationalisation of British Petroleum’s assets.

1974 - President Makarios returned to Cyprus after five months in exile.

1980 - General Antonio Ramlho Eanes was re-elected president of Portugal. His right-wing opposition was thrown into disarray by the death of Premier Francisco Sa Carneiro in a plane crash.

1983 - Madrid, Spain, an Aviaco DC-9 collided on a runway with an Iberia Air Lines Boeing 727 that was accelerating for takeoff. The collision resulted in the death of all 42 people aboard the DC-9 and 51 on the Iberia jet.

1988 - An estimated 25,000 people were killed when a major earthquake hit northern Armenia in the Soviet Union. The quake measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale.

1988 - Soviet President Mikhail S Gorbachev announced the reduction of the number of Soviet military troops by half a million.

1989 - East Germany’s Communist Party agreed to cooperate with the plan for free elections and a revised constitution.

1998 - The UN evacuated 14 peacekeepers that were trapped by fighting between army and rebel forces in central Angola.

2002 - In Mymensingh, Bangladesh, four movies theaters were bombed within 30 minutes of each other. At least 15 people were killed and over 200 were injured.