Today in History, 17/12

Highlights in history on this date:

1531 - Pope Clement VII introduces the Inquisition to Portugal.

1538 - Pope Paul III excommunicates England's King Henry VIII.

1718 - England declares war on Spain.

1788 - Russian army under Gregory Potemkin takes Ochakov on Black Sea.

1829 - Governor Darling officially set aside an area in Sydney's Domain as a site for public baths.

1845 - Explorer Ludwig Leichhardt arrives in Australia's Northern Territory from Brisbane.

1903 - Orville and Wilbur Wright make first successful aeroplane flight in history, soaring over sand dunes near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

1908 - Ottoman Parliament holds first meeting.

1922 - Last British troops leave Irish Free State.

1939 - German battleship Graf Spee is scuttled off Uruguay to prevent it from falling into British hands in World War II.

1941 - Japanese troops begin invasion of North Borneo in World War II.

1948 - The Dutch attack Indonesia and arrest President Sukarno and other leaders.

1957 - The US successfully test-fires the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.

1967 - Australian prime minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming at Victoria's Cheviot Beach. His body is never found.

1973 - In Italy, 32 people are killed at Rome Airport when Arab gunmen throw bombs at a Pan Am jet and machine-gun the terminal building.

1975 - Lynette Fromme is sentenced in federal court in California to life in prison for her attempt on the life of President Ford.

1980 - The Turkish Consul-General and bodyguard are shot dead by two terrorists in Sydney.

1982 - Random breath-testing introduced on NSW roads.

1986 - Davina Thompson makes medical history by having the first heart, lung and liver transplant - at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England.

1991 - Boris Yeltsin and Mikhail Gorbachev agree to dissolve Soviet Union and proclaim a new commonwealth on New Year's Day.

1996 - Sun Yaoting, China's last imperial eunuch, dies in Beijing aged 93.

2000 - President George W Bush names Stanford professor Condoleezza Rice his national security adviser.

2003 - France bans overt religious symbols such as headscarves, Jewish skullcaps and large Christian crosses in state schools.

2005 - Anti-globalisation protesters in Hong Kong armed with bamboo sticks rush police, with at least 41 people injured and 900 detained in the city's worst street violence in decades.

2009 - Scientists witness the eruption of the deepest submarine volcano ever discovered, capturing video of molten lava 1220m beneath the surface of the Pacific Ocean.

2012 - Tony Charlton, who in 1957 became the first broadcaster to call a televised game of Australian football, dies in Melbourne aged 83.

2015 - Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by JJ Abrams, is released and within days shatters box office records in Australia and around the world.

2016 - Death of Dr Henry Heimlich, the surgeon who created the life-saving Heimlich manoeuvre for choking victims, aged 96.

Today's Birthdays

Sir Humphry Davy, British inventor of miners' safety lamp (1778-1829); Clifton Pugh, Australian artist (1924-1990); Robert Guccione, US publisher of Penthouse magazine (1930-2010); Tommy Steele, British singer-actor (1936-); Pope Francis (1936-); Kerry Packer, Australian media magnate (1937-2005); Michael Edgley, Australian entrepreneur (1943-); Bill Pullman, US actor (1953-); Sara Dallin, British pop singer of Bananarama fame (1961-); Giovanni Ribisi, American actor (1974-); Milla Jovovich, US actress (1975-); Stef Dawson, Australian actor, (1988-).

Thought For Today:

You have no idea how big the other fellow's troubles are. - Bertie Charles Forbes, Scottish journalist (1880-1954).

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