TODAY IN HISTORY
1498 Christopher Columbus, on his third voyage to the New World, discovers an island which he named Trinidad.
1932 Nguyễn Đức Cảnh (born 1908) is arrested and executed by the French. He was one of the founders of the Communist Party of Indochina.
1954 Mount Godwin-austen (K2) in the Himalayas is first climbed by an Italian expedition led by Ardito Desio.
1962 An agreement is reached in principle to expand the Malaya Federation into a wider state called Malaysia within a year.
1964 US Ranger 7 spacecraft transmits to Earth the first
close-up pictures of the moon.
1971 On the second day of their moon landing, Apollo 15 astronauts David Scott and James Irwin go for
the first ever drive on the moon in their Lunar Roving Vehicle or "moon buggy".
1974 A ceasefire takes effect between Turkey and Greece
in fighting on Cyprus.
1990 A US government panel approves use of gene ther
apy for first time in the treatment of human disease.
1992 Thai Airbus crashes into mountain at Kathmandu,
113 die.
1997 Death of Bảo Đại (born 1913), born Nguyễn Phúc
Vĩnh Thụy, the last emperor of Việt Nam (192545).
2003 The Vatican issues a 12-page document strongly urging Roman Catholic lawmakers worldwide to reject legislation sanctioning same-sex civil unions and adoption rights.
2008 Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva launches the Amazon Fund to provide grants to projects intended to stop the Amazon rainforest from shrinking.
2010 Pakistani officials said flooding has killed more than 800 people in a week as rescuers struggled to reach marooned victims and some evacuees showed signs of fever, diarrhea and other waterborne diseases.
2016 Israel's cabinet approves legislation aimed at loosening the grip of the country's three largest banks on the credit supply market, despite opposition by the IMF and a risk that the reform could flood the
economy with excess credit.
2018 Japan pledges to reduce its controversial stocks of plutonium, the world's biggest inventory of the highly toxic material held by a state without nuclear weapons, following pressure from the United States, China and other countries.