Today in History, 2/10

Highlights in history on this date:

1187 - Besieged Crusader forces in Jerusalem capitulate to Muslim commander Saladin.

1492 - England's King Henry VII invades France, concerned by the power of Charles VIII following union with Brittany.

1518 - Cardinal Wolsey devises Peace of London among England, France, Emperor Maximilian I, Spain and the Papacy.

1608 - First telescope is demonstrated by Hans Lippershey of Middelburg.

1788 - HMS Sirius sets out from Port Jackson, Australia, to Cape Town for provisions.

1804 - England's populace is mobilised to resist invasion attempt by France's Napoleon Bonaparte.

1836 - Charles Darwin returns to Falmouth, England, aboard HMS Beagle, after a five-year exploration of the southern oceans.

1839 - New Zealand comes under jurisdiction of the Governor of NSW.

1870 - Rome is made the capital of Italy.

1901 - First submarine commissioned by the British navy is launched from Barrow, north-west England.

1919 - US President Woodrow Wilson suffers a stroke that leaves him partially paralysed.

1924 - League of Nations adopts Geneva Protocol for peaceful settlement of international disputes.

1941 - German army launches all-out drive against Moscow in World War II.

1944 - Nazi troops crush the two-month-old Warsaw Uprising, during which 250,000 people were killed.

1950 - Comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M Schulz, is first published.

1964 - The Gladesville Bridge in Sydney opens, at the time the world's longest concrete bridge or masonry arch (302 metres).

1973 - Death of Paavo Nurmi, Finnish long-distance runner who dominated the sport in the 1920s.

1985 - Death from AIDS of Rock Hudson, US film star.

1988 - The Summer Olympic Games end in Seoul with the Soviet Union coming in first in the medals count, East Germany second, and the US third.

1990 - Australian opera diva Dame Joan Sutherland announces her retirement.

1994 - Nine people are killed when Seaview Air Aero Commander 760 crashes into the sea on a flight from Newcastle, NSW to Lord Howe Island.

1996 -Former Bulgarian prime minister Andrei Lukanov is shot dead outside his Sofia home in an apparent contract killing.

1998 - Gene Autry, Hollywood's original singing cowboy dies aged 91.

2002 - US President George W Bush reaches an agreement with the leaders of the US House of Representatives on a resolution authorising military action against Iraq.

2003 - An Indonesian court sentences the Islamic militant Mukhlas to death for leading the nightclub bombings on Bali.

2006 - A gunman storms an Amish schoolhouse in Pennsylvania, killing five girls before committing suicide. It is the third deadly US school shooting in less than a week.

2007 - North Korean leader Kim Jong Il welcomes South Korea's president to Pyongyang for the start of the second-ever summit between the divided Koreas since World War II.

2009 - The International Olympics Committee awards the 2016 Games Rio de Janeiro, the first for a South American country, after a shocking defeat for President Barack Obama's home town of Chicago.

2011 - Syrian dissidents establish a national council designed to overthrow President Bashar al-Assad. Syrians take to the streets in celebration, singing and dancing.

2012 - Australian tycoon Paul McDonald, 51, is fined $C10,000 ($A9905) by Canadian authorities after a booze-fuelled party cruise in the Arctic in September.

2014 - The Melbourne Demons confirm former team captain and AFL great Robbie Flower has died after a brief illness at age 59.

2015 - A radicalised 15-year-old Muslim shoots dead police accountant Curtis Cheng outside NSW Police headquarters in Parramatta, where he in turn is shot dead by police.

2016 - Flooding hits South Australia, with the Gawler river breaking its banks to flood Adelaide suburbs.

2017 - Spain is in crisis with violent clashes between police and supporters of the independence vote in Catalonia.

Today's Birthdays:

Richard III, king of England (1452-1485); Mohandas K (Mahatma) Gandhi, Indian statesman-reformer (1869-1948); Groucho Marx, US comedian (1890-1977); Graham Greene, British writer (1904-1991); Lorrae Desmond, Australian actress (1932-); Henri Szeps, Australian actor (1943-); Don McLean, American folk singer (1945-); Donna Karan, American fashion designer (1948-); Annie Leibovitz, American photographer, (1949-); Sting (Gordon Sumner), British singer (1951-); Dave Faulkner, Australian rock musician and journalist (1957-); Thomas Muster, Austrian tennis player (1967-); Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy, British musician (1970-); Marion Bartoli, French tennis player (1984-).

Quote From History:

"All you need in the world is love and laughter. That's all anybody needs. To have love in one hand and laughter in the other." - Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright African-American August Wilson.

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