Today in History

1138 – Earthquake in Aleppo, Syria, kills an estimated 230,000 people.

1737 – Quake in India kills 300,000 people and destroys half of Kolkata.

1861 – The Cobb & Co coach service makes its first trip to the Otago goldfields. Starting in Dunedin with a luxury coach, five wagons, a buggy and more than 50 horses, Cobb & Co quickly became the country’s largest coach service.

1899 – The Boer War – between the British Empire and the Boers of Transvaal – begins in South Africa.

1962 – Pope John XXIII, left, opens Vatican II, the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years. The pope hoped to bring spiritual rebirth to Catholicism and cultivate greater unity with the other branches of Christianity.

1968 – The first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7, is launched under the command of Walter Schirra, starting an 11-day orbit of Earth.

1975 – Bruce Springsteen has his first pop music hit, Born to Run .In the US, comedy sketch TV show

Saturday Night Live makes its debut. And in Arkansas, Bill Clinton marries Hillary Rodham.

2000 – South African Cricket Board imposes a life ban on former captain Hansie Cronje for matchfixing. 2002 – Former US President Jimmy Carter wins the Nobel Peace Prize for ‘‘decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts’’ and promoting democracy and human rights.

Birthdays

George Williams, English founder of YMCA (1821-1905); Henry Heinz, US food entrepreneur (1844-1919); Eleanor Roosevelt, US activist and wife of President Franklin D Roosevelt (1884-1962); Bobby Charlton, English footballer (1937-); Maria Bueno, Brazilian tennis player (1939-2018); Dawn French, Welsh actress (1957-); Joan Cusack, US actress (1962-); Peter Thiel, German-us entrepreneur (1967-); Michelle Wie, US golfer (1989-).