On this day - September 6
2010-09-06 07:52
Today is Monday, September 6, the 249th day of 2010. There are 116 days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1565 - Spanish troops arrive from Sicily, forcing Turks to abandon siege of Malta.
1620 - Pilgrims sail on the Mayflower from Plymouth, England, to settle in the New World.
1688 - Turks lose Belgrade to Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I, whose forces subsequently occupy Bosnia, Serbia and Wallachia.
1813 - French under Marshal Michel Ney are defeated by Prussians at Dennewitz in Germany.
1901 - US President William McKinley is shot by an anarchist and dies eight days later.
1909 - American explorer Robert Peary sends word that he has reached the North Pole five months early.
1926 - Chiang Kai-shek's forces reach Hankow in his northern campaign in Chinese civil war.
1930 - President Hipolito Yrigoyen of Argentina is toppled by a military coup.
1941 - Jews over the age of six in Germany are forced to wear yellow stars of David.
1944 - The German V-2 missile, the precursor of modern ballistic missiles, is used for the first time, against Paris.
1965 - India invades West Pakistan, the modern-day Pakistan, and bombs city of Lahore.
1966 - South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd is stabbed to death by a deranged page during a parliamentary session in Cape Town.
1968 - Kingdom of Swaziland gains independence from Britain.
1970 - Palestinian guerrillas seize control of three jetliners which are later blown up on the ground in Jordan after the passengers and crews are evacuated.
1975 - More than 2 300 people are killed by an earthquake in eastern Turkey.
1982 - Israeli Defence Minister Ariel Sharon presses Lebanese authorities to conclude a formal peace treaty with Israel. If they do not, he warns, Israel will create a buffer zone in southern Lebanon, using some of that country's land.
1986 - Two Arab terrorists kill 21 Jewish worshippers and themselves in an attack on a synagogue in Istanbul, Turkey.
1991 - Soviet Union recognises the independence of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia.
1992 - Troops in South Africa fire on African National Congress supporters near the Transkei homeland, killing 28 and wounding 200.
1993 - Six oil-producing Arab nations give crucial endorsement to the peace deal that would give Palestinians self-rule.
1994 - Irish premier Albert Reynolds and Gerry Adams, leader of the Irish Republican Army-allied Sinn Fein party, commit to peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland.
1998 - Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei says the country will not use its military against Afghanistan's Taliban militia, easing tensions after Iran massed troops on the border.
1999 - Indonesia imposes martial law in East Timor as thousands of people flee the province and pro-Indonesian militias continue a wave of terror.
2000 - The largest gathering of global leaders in history assembles at the UN Millennium Summit to chart an agenda for the 21st century.
2001 -The first Air France Concorde plane in more than a year is cleared for commercial flights. The carrier's fleet had been grounded after a Concorde crashed outside Paris in July 2000, killing 113 people.
2002 - Russian authorities discover a mass grave in the Russian republic of Chechnya, near the border of Ingushetia. Seven of the 15 dead were Chechen males who reportedly disappeared when Russian forces swept through their villages.
2003 - Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas resigns after a prolonged power struggle with Palestinian President Yasir Arafat. Abbas blamed Israel, Arafat and the administration of US President George W Bush for undermining his government and causing his peace efforts to fail.
2005 - Thousands of people demonstrate in Sao Paulo to protest against corruption, demanding harsh punishment for politicians caught up in a corruption scandal shaking the administration of Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
2006 - Prince Hisahito - Japan's imperial family's first male heir since the 1960s - is born in Tokyo.
2007 - Syrian air defences open fire on Israeli aircraft that violated Syrian airspace, sharply elevating cross-border tensions.
2008 - Massive boulders crash down on a shantytown on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt, killing at least 24 people and burying many more under tons of rubble.
2009 - Passengers leap into the dark sea and parents drop children into life rafts from a stricken ferry carrying nearly 1,000 people after it capsized in the middle of the night in the southern Philippines, killing 9 and leaving 30 missing.
Today's Birthdays:
Guillaume Dubois, French cardinal-statesman (1652-1723); John Dalton, British chemist (1766-1844); Marie Joseph du Motier, Marquis de Lafayette, French politician and soldier (1757-1834); Joseph P. Kennedy, U.S. businessman and ambassador to England (1888-1969); Louis Federico Leloir, Argentinian Noble-winning biochemist (1906-1987); Rosie Perez, U.S. actress (1964--); Roger Waters, English rock musician (1943--).
Thought for Today:
Laziness is often mistaken for patience - French proverb.
- AP