Today in history
1513 - English and German forces under Henry VIII defeat the French at Guinegate, in what was called The Battle of the Spurs.
1868 - Tidal wave swamps Port Jackson, Sydney.
1896 - British protectorate in Ashanti, West Africa, is proclaimed.
1949 - Death of Margaret Mitchell, US journalist and author of Gone with the Wind.
1964 - Major General Nguyen Khan takes over presidency of South Vietnam, ousting Major General Duong van Minh.
1972 - Morocco’s King Hassan II escapes assassination attempt by Moroccan Air Force jets in a military coup attempt.
1974 - A ceasefire is signed between Turkish and Greek Cypriot forces, leaving about one-third of Cyprus in Turkish hands; Greek leftwing leader Andreas Papandreou returns home after six years of selfimposed exile.
1991 - United Nations and South African government agree on terms of amnesty for political exiles, clearing the way for estimated 40,000 refugees to return to South Africa.
1999 - Russia’s State Duma approves Vladimir Putin as the country’s new prime minister.
1999 - The United States opens a new consulate in the former Saigon, nearly 25 years after a dramatic airlift from its old embassy marked the end of the Vietnam War.
2001 - Paul Burrell, butler of Princess Diana for many years, is charged with the theft of hundreds of royal family items.
2005 - A chartered jet filled with tourists returning home to the French Caribbean island of Martinique crashes in western Venezuela, killing all 160 people on board.
2006 - Death of Australian playwright Alex Buzo, aged 62.
2010 - A Boeing 737 jetliner filled with holiday-makers crashed in a thunderstorm and broke apart as it slid onto the runway on a Caribbean island near Colombia. Only one of the 131 people on board dies.
.2014 - Islamic extremists shoot scores of Yazidi men to death in Iraq before abducting their wives and children.
2015 - Chris Lane, an Australian baseball player studying at Oklahoma’s East Central University, is shot dead while out jogging; Australian golfer Jason Day wins the PGA Championship, defeating America’s Jordan Spieth. Today’s Birthdays: Jean de la Bruyere, French essayist-novelist (1645-1696); Ann Blyth, US actor (1928-); Suzanne Farrell, US ballerina (1945-); Lesley Ann Warren, British actor (1946-); Madonna, US actor- singer (1958-); Steve Carell, American actor and comedian (1962-)