Today in history
Highlights in history on this date:
1834 – The city of York in Upper Canada is incorporated as Toronto.
1836 – Alamo mission in San Antonio, Texas, falls to Mexican army after 13-day siege in which Davy Crockett and 186 other defenders die.
1857 – In its Dred Scott decision, the US Supreme Court holds that Scott, a slave, could not sue for his freedom in a federal court.
1945 – German city of Cologne falls to US First Army in World War II.
1946 – France recognises Vietnam as free state within Indochina Federation.
1953 – G.M. Malenkov succeeds the late Joseph Stalin as Premier of Soviet Union.
1965 – US Defence Department announces that 3500 Marines are being sent to South Vietnam – the first US ground combat troops committed to fighting against Communist guerrillas.
1997 – Separatist Tamil Tiger rebels break a two-month lull in Sri Lanka’s civil war by raiding an army base and an air field in coordinated, pre-dawn attacks that leave 213 people dead.
1998 – Controversy descends on New Zealand’s recently-opened national museum, Te Papa, when it displays a statuette of the Virgin Mary enclosed in a condom.
1999 – Ta Mok, the last leader of the murderous Khmer Rouge, is captured by the Cambodian army and flown to the capital for trial.
2003 – A high-profile New Zealand euthanasia advocate, Lesley Martin, is charged with the attempted murder of her dying mother.
2006 – Fairfax Media pays $700 million for popular internet auction site Trade Me, vaulting its young founder, Sam Morgan, on to New Zealand’s rich list.
2006 – Several cats test positive for the deadly strain of bird flu in Austria and Poland reports its first outbreak of the disease, as the World Health Organisation calls bird flu a greater global challenge than any previous infectious disease.
2009 – The retrial of David Bain for the 1995 murders of his parents and three siblings begins at the High Court in Christchurch, after his original conviction was quashed by the Privy Council.
2011 – The two opposition parties that triumphed in Ireland’s election, conservative Fine Gael and left-wing Labour, agree to form the country’s next coalition government.
Today’s Birthdays: Michelangelo, Italian renaissance artist (1475-1564); Cyrano de Bergerac, French authorduellist (1620-1655); Ed Mcmahon, US host/announcer (1923– 2009); Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand opera singer (1944-); Rob Reiner, US director/actor (1947– ); Shaquille O’neal, US basketball player (1972– ); Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Colombian novelist (1927– ).