TODAY IN HISTORY

1703 Death of Charles Perrault, French author and writer of children's fairy tales including Sleeping Beauty and Little Red Riding Hood.

1929 In Hollywood, the first Academy Awards, present

ed by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, go to actress Janet Gaynor and actor Emil Jannings. The best film was Wings. The awards

were named Oscars from 1931.

1941 The Icelandic parliament ends a treaty with Den

mark, and proclaims its independence.

1955 The last French soldiers leave North Việt Nam fol

lowing Việt Nam's victory at Điện Biên Phủ.

1975 Japanese mountaineer Junko Tabei becomes the

first woman to climb Mount Everest.

2003 Twenty-nine people are killed and about 100 others injured in five nearly simultaneous suicide bombing attacks in Casablanca, Morocco's largest city

and commercial centre.

2008 In China, a strong aftershock sparks landslides near the epicentre of a powerful earthquake, while some survivors are pulled from rubble after being buried for four days. The official death toll rises to about 22,069, and another 14,000 still are buried in Sichuan.

2010 Iraq's electoral commission affirms the narrow victory of a Sunni-backed bloc in the March vote after a partial recount undercut the Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-maliki's claims of fraud in the tally.

2011 Space shuttle Endeavour launches on its final com

mission in space.

2012 Pakistan says it has ordered officials to finalise an agreement as quickly as possible on lifting a sixmonth blockade on overland NATO supplies into war-torn Afghanistan.

2013 Bill Gates regains his position as the world's richest man with US$72.7 billion after losing the position

in 2008.

2016 The UN says more than nine million people in the

Lake Chad region are in desperate need of food aid as the violent insurgency continues being waged there by Boko Haram. Nigeria, Chad, Cameroon and Niger have significantly weakened Boko Haram but have been unable to vanquish the Islamists

entirely.

2020 Greeks flock to the seaside when more than 500 beaches reopened, as the country seeks to walk the fine line between protecting people from COVID-19 while reviving the tourism sector that many depend on for their LIVELIHOODS.AP/REUTERS/VNS