Today in history
1284 — One hundred and thirty children in the German city of Hamelin mysteriously disappear. The reasons behind the event are obscured by legend, including that of the Pied Piper, who lured them away in revenge for not being paid for clearing the town of rats.
1810 — Death of Joseph Michel Montgolfier, Frenchman jointly credited with the invention of the hot air balloon.
1830 — Death of George IV of Great Britain, king since 1820 and regent since 1811, when his father George III was declared insane.
1906 — First Grand Prix motorrace is held over two days at Le Mans, France.
1925 — Charlie Chaplin’s classic comedy, The Gold Rush, premieres at Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre in Hollywood.
1959 — St Lawrence Seaway, connecting North America’s Great Lakes with the Atlantic, is opened by Queen Elizabeth II and US President Dwight Eisenhower.
1977 — Elvis Presley performs his final concert at Indianapolis — he died two months later.
1978 — South Yemeni President Salim Rubai Ali is overthrown and executed.
1993 — President Bill Clinton announces the US has launched missiles against Iraq because of ‘‘compelling evidence’’ Baghdad had plotted to assassinate former president George Bush.
1998 — US Supreme Court issues a landmark sexual harassment ruling, putting employers on notice that they can be held responsible for supervisors’ misconduct even if they know nothing about it.
1999 — Nobel Peace Prize winner Jose Ramos Horta returns to his native East Timor for the first time in 24 years.
2003 — The US Supreme Court rules 6-3 that a Texas law banning sodomy between consenting samesex adults is unconstitutional.
2007 — Pope Benedict XVI changes the rules for electing popes, requiring that two-thirds of the cardinals in a conclave agree on the new pontiff. The move was a return to Vatican tradition and reversed a 1996 decision by Pope John Paul II.
2014 — The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and other European nations commemorate the 100th anniversary of World War I and vow to preserve peace on the continent; Bills to scrap the carbon price pass federal parliament’s lower house.
2016 — A massive wildfire burning out of control in the foothills of California leaves at least 150 homes in ruins and damages another 75. Today’s Birthdays: Charles Messier, French astrologer (1730-1817); Baron William Homson Kelvin, English physicist (1824-1907); Ariana Grande, US singer and actor (1993-).