TODAY IN HISTORY
1809 Death of Franz Josef Haydn, Austrian composer. During his 77 years, he composed over 100 symphonies, several masses, a series of string quartets and many stage works.
1859 Big Ben, the clock tower of the Houses of Parliament in London, begins tim-ekeeping.
1884 The French invade Tuyên Quang Province, in their conquest of northern Việt Nam.
1902 The Treaty of Vereeniging is signed in Pretoria, bringing an end to the Boer War which began in 1899. More than 5,770 British troops and at least 4,000 Boers were killed in action.
1911 One of the world largest floating vessels, the White Star liner Titanic, is launched in Belfast. It sank on its maiden voyage in April 1912.
1931 Oil is discovered in Bahrain, the first petroleum located in the Arab world.
1962 Adolph Eichmann, who helped organise Nazi Germany’s murder of millions of Jews, is hanged in Jerusalem.
1970 In Peru, an earthquake measuring 7.9 on the Richter scale strikes the towns of Yungay, Huaraz and Chimbote, resulting in over 70,000 people killed and 600,000 left homeless.
2006 The United States and Việt Nam sign a trade pact that removes one of the last major hurdles in Hà Nội’s bid to join the World Trade Organisation.
2008 Space shuttle Discovery and a crew of seven blast into orbit, carrying a giant Japanese lab addition to the international space station along with a toilet pump.
2009 The world’s most powerful laser, created to help keep tabs on the US nuclear weapons stockpile while also studying the heavens, is unveiled.
2013 The asteroid 1998 QE2 and its moon make their closest approach to Earth for the next two centuries.
2015 Thousands of schools open in Nepal after the devastating earthquake of April 2015 which destroyed more than 25,000 classrooms and killed more than 8,000 people.
2017 A car bomb exploded in a crowded intersection in Kabul near the German embassy during rush hour, killing over 90 and injuring 463.
2018 Truck owners' strikes continue for the tenth consecutive day in 177 cities in Iran. Fuel shortages and long lines at petrol stations are reported in all major Iranian cities.
2019 In northern Alberta, Canada, an estimated 10,000 people have been evacuated due to fast spreading wildfires.
2020 Spacex's Crew Dragon spacecraft successfully docks with the International Space Station (ISS) with NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Douglas Hurley joining the existing crew aboard the space station.
2021 China announces that it will replace the existing two-child policy with a new three-child policy, allowing couples to have three children, in order to increase the country's declining birth rates. China's fertility rate is currently 1.3, which is below the level needed to maintain a stable population.
2022 Six African countries, on Zimbabwe's initiative, agree to restart trade in ivory as the population of elephants soars beyond sustainable levels (OCCRP). AP/REUTERS/VNS