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SCMP Reporter

In Hong Kong

1958: 'Hong Kong should remain a British colony for some time', former Governor Sir Alexander Grantham told the press in Singapore. In his opinion, he said, the people of Hong Kong did not want self-government, or a change in the present administrative policy.

1969: Charmaine Kwan was named Miss Festival of Hong Kong on an evening when a crowd of more than 200,000 turned the open-air fiesta in Central into chaos. All willow trees surrounding Statue Square were stripped and thrown into the fountain. Pickpockets were also arrested and the beauty pageant contestants were pelted with shoes, tree branches and cardboard cartons. Kim Cha Hwan of South Korea won Hong Kong's first international marathon in two hours 20 minutes and 39 seconds.

Around the world

1675: Jan Vermeer, Dutch painter, died. His most famous works include Head Of A Girl and View Of Delft.

1791: The Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the US constitution, went into effect.

1840: Napoleon's remains were interred in Les Invalides in Paris after being brought from St Helena where he died.

1892: J. Paul Getty, American oil magnate, was born. As president of the Getty Oil Corporation, he became one of the richest men in the world.

1939: In the United States, the film Gone With The Wind had its world premiere in Atlanta.

1943: Fats Waller, US jazz pianist and composer, died. His songs included Ain't Misbehavin and Honeysuckle Rose.

1961: Adolf Eichmann, a fanatical Nazi SS colonel in World War II, was sentenced to death in Jerusalem after being convicted of organising the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.

1961: The UN General Assembly voted against a Soviet proposal to admit Communist China as a member.

1964: Canada's parliament adopted a new national flag with a red maple leaf on a white background.

1965: The US spacecraft Gemini 6 and Gemini 7 achieved the first space rendezvous, flying side by side for two orbits.

1966: Walt Disney, American film producer and animator, died.

1970: The unmanned Soviet spacecraft Venera 7 landed on Venus.

1973: J Paul Getty III was found in southern Italy after being kidnapped for five months, during which his right ear was cut off and sent to a Rome newspaper.

1978: US president Jimmy Carter announced he would establish diplomatic relations with China from January 1, 1979 and break off relations with Taiwan.

1995: Southeast Asian nations signed a treaty banning the possession, manufacture and acquisition of nuclear weapons and also created a nuclear arms-free zone from Burma and Vietnam in the north to Indonesia in the south.

1995: European Union leaders christened their new single currency the 'Euro'.

1999: Venezuelans voted overwhelmingly for a new constitution in an endorsement of President Hugo Chavez's plans to overhaul the political and economic system.



Today in history