Today in history
1333 — The Scots are routed in battle of Halidon Hill, a significant setback in their fight for independence from England.
1588 — The Spanish Armada is sighted off the Cornish coast of England.
1848 — The first women’s rights convention is held in Seneca Falls, New York.
1870 — France declares war on Prussia, opening Franco-prussian War.
1907 — The Emperor of Korea abdicates in favour of his son under Japanese pressure.
1918 — German armies begin retreat across the Marne River after being defeated in their last great offensive in France.
1943 — Allied air force stages its first raid on Rome in World War II.
1969 — Apollo 11 and its astronauts travel into orbit around the Moon.
1979 — Nicaragua’s Leftist Sandinistas claim revolutionary victory, two days after President Anastasio Somoza flees the country.
1980 — Summer Olympics in Moscow begin, minus dozens of nations boycotting the Games because of the Soviet military intervention in Afghanistan.
1990 — Kuwait appeals to Arab neighbours for help against threats from neighbouring Iraq.
1998 — Hundreds of Serb police battle secessionist guerillas in houseto-house fighting for control of the central Kosovo town of Orahovac.
2000 — An international measure is adopted to block rebel groups from trading ’’conflict diamonds’’ to fund Africa’s most vicious civil wars.
2002 — An inquiry into the murders committed by British doctor Harold Shipman concludes that he killed 215 of his patients, mainly elderly women, between 1975 and 1998. He was convicted in 2000 for murdering 15 patients.
2011 — A scientific autopsy confirms Chilean President Salvador Allende committed suicide during the 1973 coup that toppled his socialist government.
2014 — The United States says a Malaysia Airlines Boeing 777 with 298 people aboard was brought down by a missile fired from an area of eastern Ukraine controlled by pro-russian separatists.
2015 — Australian surfer Mick Fanning punches a shark that surfaces by his board during the finals of the J-bay Open at Jeffreys Bay, South Africa.
2016 — Donald Trump is confirmed as the official Republican candidate for the White House in the US. Today’s Birthdays: Samuel Colt, US inventor (1814-1862); Brian May, British guitarist, rock group Queen (1947-); Nicola Sturgeon, Scottish National Party leader (1970-); Benedict Cumberbatch, British actor (1976-).