Today in History

July 12

1856 - American adventurer William Walker declares himself president of Nicaragua.

1869 - Parliamentary system is adopted by Napoleon III of France.

1920 - The Soviet-Lithuanian Peace Treaty is signed.

1941 - British-Soviet mutual aid pact of the Second World War is signed.

1944 - Britain’s Royal Air Force becomes the first air force to use jet aircraft.

1957 - Prince Karim, 20-year-old student at Harvard University, becomes Aga Khan and leader of Ismaili Muslims.

1960 - France agrees to independence of Dahomey, Niger, Upper Volta, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central Africa and the Congo.

1962 - The Rolling Stones give their first public performance at Marquee Club in London.

1967 - Chinese Communist mobs in Hong Kong wreck government building and attack police in most violent of four days of anti-British rioting.

1971 - The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time.

1977 - The US space shuttle Enterprise completes its first free flight test.

1979 - Kiribati becomes independent from Britain.

1983 - Britain and China begin negotiations on the return of Hong Kong to China.

1990 - Boris Yeltsin resigns from the Soviet Union’s Communist Party.

1991 - At least 35 people are burnt to death at a firecracker factory in Tamil Nadu, India.

1993 - Hokkaido earthquake and tsunami strike Japan, killing at least 230 people.

1998 - France wins the football World Cup for the first time.

2005 - Prince Albert II of Monaco accedes to the throne of a 700-year-old dynasty.

2006 - Hezbollah captures two Israeli soldiers and kills eight others in a cross-border raid.

2007 - Dubai unveils Emirates NBD, a merger of Emirates Bank and National Bank of Dubai with an approximate market capitalisation of Dh41.3 billion.

2008 - Syria and Lebanon agree to set up diplomatic ties.

2009 - After 28 years of waiting, Mark Webber wins the Formula One German Grand Prix.