This Day in HISTORY
Today is the 22nd day of 2019. There are 343 days left in the year.
TODAY’S HIGHLIGHT 1973: In its Roe vs Wade decision, the US Supreme Court legalises abortions.
OTHER EVENTS
1498: During his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrives at the present-day Caribbean island of St Vincent.
1655: Oliver Cromwell dissolves Britain’s Parliament.
1760: French are defeated by British under Eyre Coote, at Wandiwash, near Pondicherry, ending French presence in India.
1771: Spain agrees to cede Falkland Islands to Britain.
1808: King Joao VI and the Portuguese royal family flee from Napoleon’s troops and move the court from Lisbon to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
1811: France’s Napoleon Bonaparte annexes Oldenburg, now in northern Germany, and alienates Russia’s Czar Alexander.
1901: Britain’s Queen Victoria dies at age 81 after a reign of 63 years; she is succeeded by her eldest son, Edward VII.
1905: In what is called the “Bloody Sunday” incident, the Russian Czar’s troops massacre more than 100 peaceful protesters in front of the St Petersburg palace.
1917: US President Woodrow Wilson pleads for an end to war in Europe, calling for “peace without victory”.
1922: Pope Benedict XV dies; he is succeeded by Pius XI.
1944: Allied forces begin landings at Anzio in Italy but fail to exploit the surprise gained to take Rome, just 53 kilometres (33 miles) away.
1953: The Arthur Miller drama The Crucible about the Salem, Massachusetts, witch trials, opens on Broadway in New
York.
1957: Israeli forces complete withdrawal from Sinai Peninsula, but remain in Gaza Strip.
1970: The first regularly scheduled commercial flight of the Boeing 747 begins in New York City and ends in London some 6 1/2 hours later.
1992: The acting leader of the Islamic Salvation Front, Abdelkadar Hachani, is arrested in Algeria and detained without trial until 1997.
1995: A suicide mission by Islamic militants kills 19 Israelis and wounds about 60 at Beit Lid Junction, Israel.
1997: The US Senate confirms Madeleine Albright as America’s first female secretary of state.
1998: Theodore Kaczynski pleads guilty in Sacramento, California, to being the Unabomber responsible for three deaths and 29 injuries, in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole.
2002: China moves 17,000 mostly Chinese and Muslim settlers to a traditionally Tibetan region in its remote west, reviving a plan abandoned after protests by critics of China’s Tibetan policies.
2003: The French and German governments issue a joint statement expressing their opposition to immediate military action against Iraq.
2008: Actor Heath Ledger, 28, is found dead of an accidental prescription overdose in a New York City apartment.
2013: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party emerges as the largest faction in a hotly contested parliamentary election, positioning the hardliner to serve a new term as prime minister. An Indonesian court sentences Lindsay
June Sandiford, a British grandmother, to death for smuggling cocaine into Bali. Linda Pugach, who was blinded in 1959 when her lover, Burton Pugach, hired hit men to throw lye in her face — and became a media sensation after later marrying him — dies in Queens, New York at age 75.
2015: The Us-led coalition claims it has killed thousands of Islamic State fighters and half of its leadership, even as the Iraqi prime minister asks for more help.
2017: After a combative start to his presidency,
Donald Trump delivers a more unifying message and sought to reassure Americans he was ready to begin governing a divided nation. A robbery inside a San Antonio shopping mall ends with shots fired, leaving one person who tried to intervene dead (two suspects are charged with capital murder).
Francis Bacon, English statesman-essayist (15611626); Andre Ampere, French physicist (1775-1836); George Lord Byron, English poet (17881824); August Strindberg, Swedish author (1849-1912); Piper Laurie, US actress (1932-); John Hurt, English actor (19402017); Jazzy Jeff, US Dj/actor/ producer (1965- ); Diane Lane, US actress (1965- ); Gabriel Macht, US actor (1972- )
TODAY’S BIRTHDAYS