Today in history

1547 – Great Britain passes vagabond law.

1793 – A young Napoleon Bonaparte takes Toulon from the British and Spanish in his first major military victory.

1842 – The United States recognises independence of Hawaii.

1843 – Charles Dickens’ classic Yuletide tale, A Christmas Carol, is first published in England.

1879 – All New Zealand men are awarded the right to vote, regardless of whether they own or rent land.

1907 – A coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pennsylvania, kills 239 workers.

1915 – British and Anzac troops begin their withdrawal from the Gallipoli peninsula during the Turkish campaign in Worldwar I.

1941 – German dictator Adolf Hitler dismisses his chief of staff and takes personal command of the German army after military setbacks.

1966 – United Nations General Assembly endorses a draft treaty banning the use of weapons of mass destruction in space.

1972 – Apollo 17 spacecraft splashes down on target in Pacific Ocean, ending US Apollo programme of landing men on Moon.

1984 – Prime ministers Margaret Thatcher of Britain and Zhao Ziyang of China sign a joint declaration spelling out the terms for Hong Kong’s return to Chinese sovereignty on July 1, 1997.

1985 – Muslim gunmen kidnap 10 Christians in Beirut, Lebanon, stepping up the campaign of terror.

1998 – As US forces bomb Iraq, the House of Representatives impeaches President Bill Clinton for obstructing justice and lying under oath about his affair with White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

1999 – Survivors wander through streets covered with rocks and mud as the death toll from mudslides and flooding in Venezuela surpasses 5000.

2004 – Car bombs rock Iraq’s two holiest Shi’ite cities, killing at least 62 people and wounding more than 120, while in downtown Baghdad dozens of gunmen ambush three election officials, executing them on the pavement in morning traffic.

2006 – A Libyan court convicts five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor and condemns them to death for infecting 400 children with HIV. Nearly seven months later, they are allowed to return to Bulgaria.

Today’s birthdays:

Su Tung-p’o, Chinese poet (1036-1101); Jean Genet, French writer (1910-1986);

Edith Piaf, French singer (1915-1963);

Robert Urich, US actor (1946-2002);

Alyssa Milano, US actor (1972-); Ricky Ponting, Australian cricket captain (1974-); Jake Gyllenhaal, US actor (1980-).