Today in History, 8/9

Highlights in history on this date:

1855 - Crimean War ends.

1882 - The first section of St Mary's Cathedral in Sydney opens.

1909 - Australian Government announces a competition for locally designed aircraft (No entries are acceptable and the prize was withdrawn in 1910).

1915 - Nicholas Nicolaievich is relieved of his army command in Russia and Tsar Nicholas II takes over personally.

1926 - Germany is admitted to League of Nations.

1934 - Fire aboard luxury liner Morro Castle off New Jersey coast takes 134 lives.

1941 - The Germans begin an 872-day siege of Leningrad, now St Petersburg, Russia.

1943 - Allied Commander Dwight D Eisenhower announces Italy's unconditional surrender in World War II. The Germans take over Rome and northern Italy.

1945 - Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of World War II, attempts suicide rather than face a war crimes tribunal. The attempt fails and he is later convicted and hanged.

1947 - Australian Arbitration Court reduces working hours to a 40-hour week.

1967 - A new constitution comes into effect in Uganda, making the country a republic.

1969 - Australian Rod Laver defeats Tony Roche in the US open final.

1972 - Israeli Air Force, in retaliation for slaying of Israeli athletes at Munich Olympics, attacks 10 Palestinian guerrilla bases and naval installations in Syria and Lebanon.

1974 - President Gerald Ford grants an unconditional pardon to former President Richard Nixon for all federal crimes he may have committed while he was in office.

1987 - Rescue workers dig into mudslide that buries cars and buses, killing at least 150 people on a lengthy stretch of highway at Maracay, Venezuela.

1988 - About one million demonstrators demanding democracy paralyse Rangoon, Burma.

1991 - Macedonians vote to become the third of six Yugoslav republics to choose independence.

1993 - Gunmen in Johannesburg kill at least 21 black commuters and wound 25.

1997 - A ferry sinks north of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, drowning an estimated 200 people.

1998 - Serb forces launch a new offensive against separatists in western Kosovo a day after US envoys failed to persuade Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to halt the attacks.

1999 - The United Nations delays its withdrawal from East Timor out of concern for the safety of some 2000 East Timorese who have taken refuge in the UN compound.

2003 - Leni Riefenstahl, Adolf Hitler's filmmaker and one the last of Germany's famous Nazi-era figures, dies aged 101. Her films of a Nazi party rally and the 1936 Berlin Olympics brought her pre-war fame and post-war notoriety.

2005 - Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko fires his seven-month-old government amid allegations of corruption.

2006 - Racing car driver and nine-time winner of the Bathurst 1000, Peter Brock, is killed during the Targa rally in Western Australia aged 61.

2008 - A landslide at an illegal mining operation in northern China kills at least 260 people.

2012 - Former Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard learns about the death of her father while in Russia for the APEC summit.

2013 - Syrian rebels led by al-Qaeda-linked fighters seize control of a predominantly Christian village northeast of Damascus, sweeping into the mountainside sanctuary in heavy fighting overnight and forcing hundreds of residents to flee.

2014 - Iraq's parliament officially names Haider al-Abadi the country's new prime minister and approves most of his proposed Cabinet.

2015 - The Matildas, the Australian national women's football team, begin an unprecedented strike after talks for a new pay deal break down. They miss a US tour, but win a pay rise.

2016 - On the final day of the ASEAN summit in Laos, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says a "cautious optimism" remains amid the rising tensions in the South China Sea.

2017 - Terminally ill cancer charity campaigner Connie Johnson dies one day after she was presented with the Medal of the Order of Australia for services to people with breast cancer.

Today's Birthdays:

Richard I, the Lion Heart, king of England (1157-1199); Antonin Dvorak, Bohemian composer (1841-1904); Sir Harry Secombe, Welsh singer-comedian (1921-2001); Sid Caesar, US comedian (1922-2001); Peter Sellers, British comedian-actor (1925-1980); Patsy Cline, US country singer (1932-1963); Ron "Pigpen" McKernan, US musician of Grateful Dead (1945-1973); Stefano Casiraghi, Italian businessman and husband of Princess Caroline of Monaco (1960-1990); James Packer, Australian businessman (1967-); Lachlan Murdoch, Australian businessman (1971-); Brooke Burke, American model (1971-); Pink, US singer (1979-); Chris Judd, Australian football player (1983-).

Thought for Today:

That pestilent cosmetic, rhetoric - T H Huxley, English biologist and author (1825-1895).

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