Today in History

1879 – British-Zulu War begins in eastern South Africa.

1932 – Hattie Caraway becomes the first elected female United States senator.

1954 – Queen Elizabeth II opens New Zealand’s parliament, the first reigning monarch to do so.

1959 – Berry Gordy Jr founds Motown Records (originally Tamla Records) in Detroit.

1966 – The live-action TV series Batman premieres in the US. 1976 – Mystery writer Dame Agatha Christie, left, dies aged 85. 1991 – US Congress grants President George HW Bush authority to use force to drive Iraq from Kuwait.

1998 – Nineteen European nations sign an agreement to prohibit cloning of human beings.

2006 – At least 360 people are killed and 1000 injured in a stampede at the haj pilgrimage to Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

2008 – Taiwan’s opposition Nationalist Party wins a landslide victory in legislative elections, boosting its policy of closer engagement with China.

2009 – A World War II-era mass grave containing what are believed to be the bodies of 2000 German men, women and children who disappeared during the Soviet Army’s march to Berlin, is unearthed in Poland.

2010 – A strong earthquake devastates Haiti, killing 230,000 people and leaving more than 1 million homeless.