Today in history
1066 — Harold is crowned king of England following the death of his brother-in- law Edward the Confessor.
1169 — England and France agree to peace when Louis VII and Henry II meet at Montmirail.
1838 — Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrates his telegraph, in Morristown, New Jersey.
1839 — British forces capture Aden, Yemen.
1912 — New Mexico becomes 47th US state.
1919 — Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US president (1901-1909), dies. An expansionist politician, he acquired the Panama Canal Zone (1903). He also made an unsuccessful run for president in 1912.
1925 — Top South Korean opposition leader Kim Dae-jung, a three-time presidential candidate, is born.
1942 — The Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper arrives in New York after making the first round-the-world trip by a commercial aeroplane.
1981 — Death of Scottish author AJ Cronin, author of The Keys Of The Kingdom and creator of the television series Dr Finlay’s Casebook.
1989 — Soviet Union calls the downing of two Libyan aircraft by United States ‘‘absolutely unfounded’’.
1996 — Rebels raiding a village in northern India shoot and kill 15 Hindu men after pulling them from their beds and separating them from Muslims.
2000 — Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin meets Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat in the Holy Land.
2004 — Ugandan church leaders tell American supporters of gay bishop Gene Robinson they are not welcome at the consecration of the new leader of Uganda’s Anglicans, Bishop Henry Orombi.
2005 — A baby boy is declared China’s 1.3 billionth citizen in a blaze of publicity to promote the government’s controversial ‘‘one child’’ birth limits.
2005 — South Africa’s Nelson Mandela announces that his son, Makgatho, has died of AIDS.
2013 — Syrian president Bashar asassad makes a rare public appearance, sketching out a peace plan for his country while continuing to call his opponents ‘‘terrorists’’ and refusing to step down.
2015 — Queensland’s Premier Campbell Newman calls a snap election for January 31. It will result in a hung parliament and Newman losing his seat of Ashgrove.
2016 — North Korea claims it has carried out a successful test of a hydrogen bomb.
Today’s Birthdays: Joan of Arc, French leader and saint (1412-1431); Jacques-etienne Montgolfier, French balloonist (1745-1799); Rowan Atkinson, British actor-comedian (1955-); Nigella Lawson, British celebrity cook (1960-); Eddie Redmayne, British actor (1982-).