Today in History

1513 - In searching for the Fountain of Youth, Spaniard Ponce de Leon discovers Florida, but does not realise it is part of mainland North America.

1792 - United States Congress passes the Coinage Act, which authorises establishment of the US Mint and allows the government to make its own money.

1915 - An estimated 2500 New Zealand and Australian troops rioted in a red light district of Cairo, Egypt, in what was called the Battle of Wazzir. It reportedly began in retaliation for the spread of venereal disease, amid rumours pimps had stabbed soldiers. 1982 - Argentina seizes the disputed Falkland Islands from Britain. Britain takes the islands back the following June.

1991 - The Iraqi army defeats rebellions by Kurds in northern Iraq and by Shiite Arabs in the south.

2005 - Pope John Paul II, who helped topple communism in Europe and left a deeply conservative stamp on the church that he led for 26 years, dies at age 84 in his Vatican apartment, ending a long public struggle against debilitating illness.

2009 - Anxiously assembled at the most perilous moment for the global economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s, the world’s financial powers pledge more than US$1 trillion for emergency loans to combat spreading chaos.

2015 - France’s parliament moves to make it a crime to advertise clothes using anorexic models to crack down on the glorification of dangerously thin women.

Birthdays

Charlemagne, Emperor of the West (742814); Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (1805-1875); Buddy Ebsen, US actor (1908-2003); Sir Alec Guinness, British actor (1914-2000); Emmylou Harris, US country singer (1947-).