Today in history
1567 – Barely more than 1 year old, the son of Mary of Scotland is crowned James VI when his mother, defeated by rebel Scottish lords, abdicates the throne. He becomes King James I of England following the death of his cousin, Queen Elizabeth I.
1704 – British capture Gibraltar during War of Spanish Succession.
1847 – Brigham Young and the first Mormons arrive at Great Salt Lake in present-day Utah.
1911 – Yale University professor Hiram Bingham discovers Inca city Machu Picchu in Peru.
1923 – Greece gives up Smyrna, eastern Thrace and two islands to Turkey under the Treaty of Lausanne, which settles the borders of modernday Turkey.
1942 – British bombers devastate German cities of Frankfurt and Mannheim in World War II.
1946 – United States makes first underwater test of an atomic bomb off Bikini Atoll in the Pacific Ocean.
1969 – The US Apollo 11 astronauts, the first men to walk on the Moon, splash down in the Pacific Ocean.
1976 – US unmanned spacecraft Viking 1 lands on Mars and starts tests to determine if life exists there.
1992 – The Mexican government accuses the US of excessive interference in anti-drug efforts and declines aid earmarked to combat narcotics.
1996 – In Colombo, Sri Lanka, two bombs rip through separate cars of a commuter train, killing 63 people in an attack blamed on Tamil Tiger separatist rebels.
1997 – After 290 years of union, the British Government offers Scots the power to legislate, to tax and to speak for themselves in the European Union.
2000 – New Zealand soldier Private Leonard Manning is killed in East Timor, the first Kiwi soldier killed in combat since the Vietnam War.
2007 – Five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor return home after secretive talks lead to their release by Libya after eight years in prison — much of it under sentence of death — for widely rejected charges of infecting children with HIV.
2011 – Cadel Evans becomes the first Australian to win the Tour de France cycle race.
2016 – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan orders the closure of thousands of private schools, charities and other institutions in his first decree since imposing a state of emergency after the failed coup.
Today’s birthdays:
Simon Bolivar, leader of South American independence (1783-1830); Alexandre Dumas, French writer (1802-1870); Amelia Earhart, US aviation pioneer (1898-1937); Jennifer Lopez, US actress-singer (1968-); Bindi Irwin, Australian TV presenter and conservationist (1998-).