Highlights in history on this date:
1400 - Geoffrey Chaucer, English poet best known for his unfinished Canterbury Tales, dies.
1415 - Henry V of England defeats the French army at the Battle of Agincourt in northern France.
1555 - Roman Emperor Charles V hands over Italy & the Netherlands to his son Philip II of Spain.
1586 - Death sentence is pronounced against Mary Queen of Scots.
1616 - Dutch mariner Dirk Hartog discovers Australia.
1666 - Quadruple Alliance is signed between Holland, Brandenberg, Brunswick and Denmark.
1794 - Russia withdraws from war against France.
1815 - Serb rebellion against Turkish rule begins, resulting in considerable autonomy for Serbs.
1854 - Heroic charge of the British Light Brigade near Sevastopol, Russia, during Crimean War.
1874 - Britain annexes Fiji islands.
1909 - Murder of Japan's Prince Ito by Korean activists leads to Japanese dictatorship in Korea.
1915 - Private James Martin, of the 21st Battalion, dies of enteritis on a hospital ship after being evacuated off Gallipoli. At 14 years and nine months, he is believed to be the youngest Australian soldier to die in World War I.
1916 - Dutch explorer Dirk Hartog makes the first recorded European landing on Australian soil - at Shark Bay, Western Australia. Leaving behind an inscribed pewter plate.
1922 - Fascists march on Rome. Italian king nominates Benito Mussolini Prime Minister.
1936 - Germany and Italy form Rome-Berlin Axis.
1938 - Japanese troops take Hankow, and Chinese government establishes itself at Chungking.
1941 - Germany's first offensive against Moscow in World War II fails.
1951 - Peace talks aimed at ending the Korean Conflict resume in Panmunjom after 63 days.
1955 - Austria resumes its sovereignty, on the departure of the last Allied occupation forces, for the first time since the German occupation of 1938.
1956 - Egypt, Jordan and Syria form unified military command.
1961 - Private Eye, the British satirical magazine, is published for the first time.
1962 - Uganda is admitted to the United Nations.
1962 - US Ambassador Adlai E Stevenson presents photographic evidence of Soviet missile bases in Cuba to the UN Security Council; One-millionth Holden car rolls off production line in Australia.
1966 - Indonesia's former Foreign Minister Subandrio is sentenced to death.
1971 - United Nations seats China and expels Nationalist Chinese.
1974 - Foreign ministers of 19 Arab countries meet in Rabat, Morocco, & vote strong support for PLO.
1987 - Indian peacekeeping forces wrest control of most of Jaffna town in northern Sri Lanka but still face Tamil rebel snipers.
1988 - Israeli troops shoot and wound nine Palestinians in scattered clashes throughout occupied territories.
1989 - Soviet State Bank announces rouble will be devalued by nearly 90 per cent for tourists and businessmen.
1990 - Evander Holyfield knocks out Buster Douglas in the third round in Las Vegas to become the undisputed heavyweight boxing world champion.
1993 - Israel begins freeing Palestinian prisoners under deal with PLO.
1994 - Twelve killed in Queensland's worst bus crash, on Brisbane's Gateway Arterial Road.
1995 - Israeli troops start Israel's pullout from Jenin, West Bank, the first Palestinian city under the Israel-PLO autonomy agreement.
1997 - Ten days after a truck bomb devastated Colombo's business district, Sri Lankan police arrest hundreds of Tamils in a sweep that shuts down the city.
1998 - Two days after a peace accord with the Israelis, street battles rage in the West Bank between members of Yasser Arafat's political faction and Palestinian security forces.
1999 - Israel opens a land link between the West Bank and Gaza Strip, taking Palestinians a step closer to statehood. The so-called safe passage will allow Palestinians to travel between the autonomous areas in which they hope to establish an independent state; US golfer Payne Stewart and five others are killed when their Learjet flies uncontrolled for four hours before crashing in South Dakota; Stewart was 42.
2000 - Labouring in the frigid murk of the Barents Sea, divers find and remove the first bodies from the wreckage of the nuclear submarine Kursk, which sank on August 12 with the loss of all 118 sailors aboard.
2001 - The US House of Representatives approves legislation that will give law enforcement and intelligence agencies broader powers to investigate suspected terrorists.
2002 - Oscar-nominated Irish actor Richard Harris dies. Harris made his name with such films as Camelot, This Sporting Life and A Man Called Horse.
2003 - Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Russia's wealthiest man and head of oil giant YUKOS, is arrested in Siberia facing massive fraud and tax evasion charges.
2005 - Voters approve Iraq's US-backed constitution in a referendum. Results show that Sunni Arabs, who had sharply opposed the draft document, failed to produce enough "no" votes to defeat it.
2006 - The Australian government pledges funding for two projects as part of its new strategy to combat global warming, including the construction of the world's largest solar power plant in Victoria and a project to reduce carbon emissions from coal.
2008 - Egypt's first female marriage registrar starts work despite complaints by some conservative clerics that the move is against Islam.
2009 - A pair of suicide car bombings devastate the heart of Iraq's capital, killing at least 147 people in the country's deadliest attack in more than two years. The bombs call into question Iraq's ability to protect its people as US forces withdraw.
2010 - Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledges that he receives millions of dollars in cash from Iran, adding that Washington gives him "bags of money" too because his office lacks funds.
2011 - An intensive round of talks between the United States and North Korea over Pyongyang's nuclear program ends in Geneva without a deal to resume formal negotiations, but top diplomats from both sides report progress on the steps that will be needed to finally get there.
2012 - The scale of the child sex abuse scandal engulfing the BBC expands as authorities announce that 300 potential victims had come forward with accusations against the late Jimmy Savile, who had been one of the British broadcaster's most popular children's entertainers, and that others might have acted with him.
2013 - The Australian Commonwealth launches a High Court challenge to the ACT's historic same-sex marriage law. It will be heard on December 3 and 4, before any marriages are able take place.
2014 - Australian Labour Opposition leader Bill Shorten tells the Christian lobby he supports same-sex marriage.
Today's Birthdays:
Thomas B Macauley, British historian (1800-1859); Johann Strauss Jr, Austrian composer (1825-1899); Georges Bizet, French composer (1838-1875); Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist (1881-1973); Marion Ross, US actress (1928-); Tony Franciosa, US actor (1928-2006); Helen Reddy, Australian singer (1941-); Jon Anderson, British singer of rock group Yes (1944-); Christina Amphlett, lead vocalist of the Divinyls (1960-2013); Chad Smith, US rock musician of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1961-); Brett Kirk, AFL player (1976-); Bat for Lashes, British singer (1979-); Katy Perry, American singer (1984-).
Thomas B Macauley, British historian (1800-1859); Johann Strauss Jr, Austrian composer (1825-1899); Georges Bizet, French composer (1838-1875); Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist (1881-1973); Marion Ross, US actress (1928-); Tony Franciosa, US actor (1928-2006); Helen Reddy, Australian singer (1941-); Jon Anderson, British singer of rock group Yes (1944-); Christina Amphlett, lead vocalist of the Divinyls (1960-2013); Chad Smith, US rock musician of Red Hot Chili Peppers (1961-); Brett Kirk, AFL player (1976-); Bat for Lashes, British singer (1979-); Katy Perry, American singer (1984-).
Thought for Today:
It is an undoubted truth that the less one has to do, the less time one finds to do it in - Lord Chesterfield, English author and statesman (1694-1773).
Source: AAP
