Today in history

1805 - England’s Lord Nelson defeats Franco-spanish fleet at Trafalgar but is mortally wounded.

1879 - Thomas Edison invents the electric lamp.

1915 - First direct transatlantic speech relay by radio telephone made by the American Telephone and Telegraph Company from Arlington, Virginia to Paris.

1934 - Chinese Communist forces led by Mao Zedong begin an attempt to break out of encirclement in Jiangxi province by Chiang Kai-shek’s nationalist army.

1945 - Women vote for first time in France.

1950 - Chinese forces begin occupation of Tibet.

1963 - Cuba’s Premier Fidel Castro asks for immediate end of United States’ economic blockade of Cuba.

1967 - Tens of thousands of demonstrators opposed to the Vietnam war march in Washington, DC.

1988 - A federal grand jury in New York indicts former Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos and his wife, Imelda, on charges of fraud and racketeering.

1992 - Cape Town’s parliament rejects a bill pardoning people accused of political crimes, but President FW de Klerk says he’ll try to force the bill into law.

1993 - NATO ministers endorses a plan to form limited partnerships with Russia and other former East bloc foes, but stops short of offering full membership.

1995 - Presidents and premiers from around the world gather in New York City for the 50th anniversary of the United Nations.

2001 - In a joint statement, Russia and United States pledge to cooperate to prevent nuclear, biological or chemical weapons being used in terrorism.

2005 - The body of a defence lawyer in Saddam Hussein’s mass murder trial is found dumped in the street with two bullet wounds in the head.

2013 - France joins a growing list of angry allies who are demanding answers from the United States over aggressive surveillance tactics by the National Security Agency.

2014 - Gough Whitlam, Australian prime minister from 1972 to 1975, dies at the age of 98; Australian runaway Abdullah Elmir, 17, appears in an IS video warning Prime Minister Tony Abbott of the terror group’s resolve.

Today’s Birthdays:

Alfred Nobel, Swedish inventor (1833-1896); Manfred Mann, British pop star (1940-); Geoff Boycott, English cricketer (1940-); Judith Sheindlin, American lawyer and judge, better known from TV show Judge Judy (1942-); Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli prime minister (1949-); David Campese, Australian rugby union player (1962-).