ON THIS DAY

1855 Origins of the American Civil War: “Border Ruffians” from Missouri invade Kansas and force election of a pro-slavery legislature.

1863 Danish prince Wilhelm Georg is chosen as King George of Greece.

1867 Alaska is bought from Russia for

$7.2 million, about 2c/acre ($4.19/km²), by US Secretary of State William Seward. 1944 Out of 795 Lancasters, Halifaxes and Mosquitos sent to attack Nuremberg, 95 bombers do not return, making it the largest RAF Bomber Command loss of World War II.

1949 A riot breaks out in Austurvöllur square in Reykjavík, when Iceland joins Nato.

1959 The Dalai Lama flees China and is granted political asylum in India.

1976 Israeli-palestinian conflict: In the first organised response against Israeli policies by a Palestinian collective since 1948, Palestinians create the first Land Day.

1979 Airey Neave, a British MP, is killed by a car bomb as he leaves the Palace of Westminster. The IRA claims responsibility. 1981 US President Ronald Reagan is shot in the chest outside a Washington, hotel by John Hinckley; three others are wounded.

1995 Pope John Paul II issues the 11th encyclical of his papacy in which he condemns abortion and euthanasia as crimes that no human laws can legitimise. 2002 Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s Queen Mother, widow of King George VI and mother of his successor, dies at 101.

2012 Mastercard and Visa announce a massive breach in security with over 10 million compromised credit card numbers.

2017 Spacex conducts the world’s first re-flight of an orbital class rocket. | The Historian