Today in History, August 9

HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY ON THIS DATE:

1529 - Writs are issued for a parliament in England.

1615 - Second Civil War breaks out in France, in which Prince of Conde is in league with Huguenots led by Henry Duke of Rohan.

1792 - Revolutionary commune is established in Paris, France.

1805 - Austria joins Britain and Russia as signator of Treaty of St Petersburg against France.

1842 - Webster-Ashburton Treaty between the US and Britain establishes the boundary between the United States and Canada from Maine to the Great Lakes.

1870 - Melbourne Town Hall is opened.

1898 - Spain formally accepts peace terms ending Spanish-American War.

1942 - HMAS Canberra sinks during the Battle of Savo Island.

1945 - More than 70,000 people are killed in Nagasaki during World War II after the US drops a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city.

1969 - Actress Sharon Tate and four other people are found murdered in her LA home by cult leader Charles Manson and his disciples who are later convicted of the crime.

1971 - Security forces in Northern Ireland detain hundreds of guerilla suspects and put them in the Maze prison, the beginning of an internment without trial policy.

1974 - Gerald Ford is sworn in as 38th president of the United States after Richard Nixon becomes the first US president to resign from office.

1988 - Army troops in Rangoon, Burma, open fire on thousands of demonstrators who call for overthrow of President Sein Lwin.

1990 - UN Security Council declares Iraq's annexation of Kuwait null and void in 15-0 vote, and Iraq seals its borders declaring that only foreign diplomats will be allowed to leave.

1991 - Hundreds of police use guns and tear gas to battle pro-apartheid activists trying to stop President FW de Klerk from speaking in Ventersdorp, South Africa.

1993 - NATO allies, seeking an end to the siege of Sarajevo, say they are ready to bomb Bosnian Serb positions if UN Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali gives them the go-ahead.

1994 - Hijackers kill a Cuban navy lieutenant and force four sailors overboard before setting sail in the commandeered vessel for the United States.

1997 - Organisers in Budapest open what they claim is one of the world's biggest exhibits on UFOs and extraterrestrials.

1999 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin fires his Cabinet, naming Vladimir Putin as his new prime minister.

2000 - Lebanese security forces move into the former Israeli-governed zone in southern Lebanon.

2004 - A steam leak at Mihama nuclear power plant in Japan kills five workers, the country's worst nuclear-related accident.

2004 - Terry Nichols is sentenced to 161 life sentences for killing 168 people in the 1995 bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City in the United States.

2006 - Bruce Burrell is sentenced to life imprisonment for the 1997 murder of Sydney mother Kerry Whelan.

2007 - Mauritania passes a law promising jail time for slave-holders but the practice continues despite a 25-year-old ban.

2009 - A typhoon pummels China's eastern coast, toppling houses, flooding villages and forcing nearly a million people to flee to safety.

2012 - Former Hey Dad! actor Robert Hughes is arrested in London on an Australian extradition order alleging child sexual assault.

2013 - Infamous drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero walks free after 28 years in prison.

2014 - Canberra high school teacher Joanna Abernethy, 53, is found dead on the side of a highway in the US state of Indiana after being struck by a vehicle.

2015 - Singapore stages an exuberant celebration to mark 50 years since it gained independence.

2016 - Millions of Australians are prevented from filling in the Australian Bureau of Statistics' online form after the website crashes to a halt.

2017 - A car deliberately rams into a group of French soldiers in a Parisian suburb, injuring six, before speeding off.

Today's Birthdays:

Izaak Walton, English biographer (1593-1683); John Dryden, English poet-dramatist (1631-1700); Thomas Telford, Scottish engineer (1757-1834); Jean Piaget, Swiss psychologist (1896-1980); PL Travers, Australian author and actress (1899-1996); Rod Laver, Australian tennis star (1938-); Romano Prodi, former Italian prime minister, former president of the European Commission (1939-); Sam Elliott, US actor (1944-); Melanie Griffith, US actress (1957-); Whitney Houston, US singer (1963-2012); Gillian Anderson, US actress (1968-); Eric Bana, Australian actor (1968-); Audrey Tautou, French actress (1976-); Kim Brennan, Australian Olympic rower (1985-); Adelaide Kane, Australian actress (1990-).

Thought For Today:

The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are released from making - Lillian Smith, American writer-social critic.

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