Today in history
1799 – Napoleon Bonaparte, newly returned from his disastrous expedition to Egypt, seizes power in France, making himself one of three consuls.
1918 – German Emperorwilliam II abdicates and Germany is declared a republic. Two days later, Germany signs an armistice ending Worldwar I.
1920 – New Zealand introduces the Immigration Restriction Amendment Act to allow officials to prevent Indians and other non-white British subjects entering New Zealand.
1923 – Fourteen Nazis are killed as federal troops break up march of Adolf Hitler’s stormtroopers in Munich, Germany.
1952 – Police and British troops arrest more than 400 Kikuyu tribesmen and women in an effort to apprehend Mau Mau cult members in Kenya. The Mau Maus reportedly murdered 37 persons in the last 5 months.
1963 – Twin disasters strike Japan: 450minersdie in a coal-dust explosion and 160 people die in a train crash.
1987 – Bomb explodes during rush hour in crowded neighbourhood of Colombo, Sri Lanka, with at least 32 people killed and 105 wounded.
1989 – Stunned East German border guards watch helplessly as jubilant Germans dance on the Berlinwall. Thousands cross the border to experience long-forbidden freedoms and riches on one memorable night.
1999 – France’s National Assembly votes 315-249 to approve a law granting extensive legal rights to unmarried couples, including gays. After a year of heated debate, the law will take effect after President Jacques Chirac signs it as a symbolic gesture.
2007 – Detained pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest for 12 of the past 18 years, meets with members of her opposition party – their first direct contact inmore than three years.
2009 – Chancellor Angela Merkel and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev cross a former fortified border to cheers of ‘‘Gorby! Gorby!’’ as a throng of grateful Germans recall the night 20 years ago that the Berlin Wall gave way to freedom and unity.
2011 – Italy’s president promises emphatically that Silvio Berlusconi will step down soon as premier and lavishes honours on a leading economist, who instantly became Berlusconi’s presumed successor. Across the Ionian Sea, the debt crisis in Greece deepened.
Today’s birthdays
Jean Monnet, French president of European Coal and Steel Community, the precursor of the EU (1888-1979); Colin Gray, NZWWII fighter pilot (1914-1995).