Today in History, 1/9
HIGHLIGHTS IN HISTORY ON THIS DATE
1715 - Death of King Louis XIV of France. He is succeeded by his five-year-old great grandson Louis XV.
1858 - The East India Company's government of India ends with the British Crown taking over its territories and duties.
1873 - South Australian Government introduces eight-hour working day.
1879 - Britain signs peace treaty with Zulus in South Africa.
1912 - Australian Prime Minister Andrew Fisher incorporates wattle into the nation's coat of arms.
1916 - Bulgaria declares war on Romania in World War I.
1923 - Coalmine explosion and fire at Bellbird Colliery, at Newcastle, NSW, kills 21.
1928 - Albania is declared a kingdom, with Zog I as ruler.
1934 - The remains of Australia's Linda "Pyjama Girl" Agostini are found near Albury NSW and her husband is later convicted of manslaughter.
1939 - Germany invades Poland, leading to start of World War II.
1946 - Greeks vote to recall their exiled King, George II, to the throne.
1951 - Australia signs the ANZUS treaty, a mutual defence pact, with the United States and New Zealand.
1962 - Singapore votes to join Federation of Malaysia.
1967 - An Arab summit lifts the oil embargo on Western states imposed during the Six-Day war.
1969 - Army stages coup in Libya, monarchy is deposed and Libyan Arab Republic proclaimed.
1975 - The island of Bougainville declares itself independent from Papua New Guinea and renames itself the Republic of North Solomons.
1985 - US-French expedition locates the wreckage of the Titanic about 900km off Newfoundland.
1990 - Two Germanys sign a treaty that provides the blueprint for merging two countries into one.
1995 - Chief warlord Charles Taylor and other key militia leaders are installed in a new ruling council in Liberia.
1997 - French police sources say Princess Diana's driver had a blood-alcohol level three times the legal limit and the car's speedometer stopped at 190 kph when it crashed, killing the princess, her boyfriend and the driver.
1998 - US President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin agree at a summit in Moscow to rid their countries of tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium from old nuclear warheads.
1999 - Australian aid workers Steve Pratt and Peter Wallace are released after 154 days in Serbian jail after being convicted of spying.
1999 - Rampaging anti-independence militiamen kill a man outside the UN compound in East Timor's capital just as the United Nations begin counting ballots from a referendum on the territory's independence from Indonesia.
2000 - Muslim rebels in the Philippines demand $US10 million ($A10.82 million) for the release of an American kidnapped this week, despite a United States refusal to pay any ransom.
2003 - The Netherlands becomes the world's first country to make cannabis available as a prescription drug for those suffering from HIV/AIDS, cancer and MS.
2004 - Attackers wrapped in suicide-bomb belts seize a school in a region bordering Chechnya, taking 400 hostages - half of them children - and threaten to blow up the building.
2006 - After weeks of tension over revamped programming, Jana Wendt breaks her contract and leaves the Nine Network, where she first forged her journalism career.
2008 - American forces hand security responsibility back to Iraq in the troubled Anbar province.
2009 - Libya celebrates the 40th anniversary of the coup that brought Muammar Gaddafi to power in the oil-rich nation.
2011 - Notorious bushranger Ned Kelly's bones are confirmed as those remains found in Melbourne's former Pentridge prison.
2014 - Prime Minister Tony Abbott takes his case for an expanded Australian military role in Iraq to the parliament.
2015 - Pope Francis asks priests to pardon women who have abortions.
2016 - Brazil's Senate votes out the country's first female President Dilma Rousseff from office for allegedly manipulating the budget, despite her claims of innocence.
2017 - Rainbow flags line Sydney's streets as the city council launches its "vote yes" to same-sex marriage campaign.
TODAY'S BIRTHDAYS
Engelbert Humperdinck, German composer (1854-1921); Edgar Rice Burroughs, US author (1875-1950); Yvonne De Carlo, Canadian-born actress (1922-2007); Rocky Marciano, US boxer (1923-1969); Lily Tomlin, US actress-comedienne (1939-); Barry Gibb, British-born singer of the Bee Gees (1946-); Dr Phil McGraw, US talk show host (1950-); Nicu Ceausescu, Romanian politician (1951-1996); Gloria Estefan, US singer (1957-); Stephen Kernahan, Australian footballer (1963-); Craig McLachlan, Australian actor (1965-); Craig Gillespie, Australian film director (1967-); JD Fortune, Canadian singer, former frontman for INXS (1973-); Natalie Bassingthwaighte, Australian singer of the Rogue Traders (1975-); Marcos Ambrose, Australian racing car driver (1976-).
THOUGHT FOR TODAY
With history being made all the time, every day now seems to be the first anniversary of something awful - Anonymous.