Today in history
1498 – During his third voyage to the Western Hemisphere, Christopher Columbus arrives at the island of Trinidad.
1658 - Aurangzeb is proclaimed Mogul Emperor in India.
1789 - Austrian and Russian troops under Francis Duke of Coburg and Count Alexander Suvorov defeat Turks at Focshani in Romania.
1812 - Venezuelan Republic falls to Spanish forces and Francisco de Miranda is arrested.
1919 - Germany adopts Weimar Constitution.
1926 - Afghanistan signs nonaggression pact with Soviet Union.
1944 - US troops break through the German lines around the Normandy beachhead, opening the way to liberating the rest of France.
1951 - French Brigadier General Charles Marie Chanson and Governor Thai Lap Thanh, of French-backed South Vietnam, are killed 60 miles south of Saigon by a Communist suicide bomber.
1956 - Britain and West Germany sign 10-year agreement on nuclear co-operation.
1964 - US Ranger 7 spacecraft transmits to Earth first close up pictures of the moon.
1971 - Two US Apollo 15 astronauts begin three days of moon exploration in an electric car.
1974 - Cease-fire takes effect between Turkey and Greece in fighting on Cyprus.
1976 - New Zealand runner John Walker wins gold in the 1500m at the Montreal Olympics, the Games affected by an African boycott in protest against New Zealand sporting contacts with South Africa’s apartheid regime.
1986 - Britain’s cabinet unanimously supports Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s resistance to stiff sanctions against South Africa.
1988 - Pier jammed with thousands of festival travellers collapses at ferry terminal in northwest Malaysia, killing at least 30 people and injuring about 370.
1991 - US President George Bush and Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev sign a long-range nuclear weapons reduction pact at Moscow summit.
1992 - A Thai Airways jetliner crashes into a Himalayan mountain minutes after the pilot reports a technical problem, killing all 113 people on board.
2007 - Deployment of British troops to support Northern Ireland police, codenamed Operation Banner, officially ends after 38 years. Today’s Birthdays: John Ericsson, Swedish-born inventor (1803-1889); Milton Friedman, US economist (1912-2006); Whitney Young, US civil rights leader (1921-1971); Wesley Snipes, US actor (1962-); J.K. Rowling, British author of Harry Potter books (1965-).