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SCMP Reporter

In Hong Kong

1958: Beauty queen Charlotte Sheffield, reigning Miss USA, arrived in Hong Kong from Bangkok to campaign for the Mormon Church.

1961: What was thought to be an ancient mail delivery route and a toll station were discovered at Temple Hill, Wong Tai Sin, by archeologist Siu Wan-on.

1964: Christina von Saltza, an American swimmer who won the gold medal in the 400-metre freestyle at the 1960 Rome Olympics, arrived in Hong Kong to hold swimming clinics and coaching sessions.

Around the world

1559: In England, the Act of Supremacy was passed, making new Queen Elizabeth I Supreme Governor of the Church of England and introducing the Common Prayer book.

1794: Antoine-Laurent Lavoisier, French chemist who identified oxygen, was guillotined by the Revolutionary Convention.

1849: The first international yacht race was won by Pearl of Bermuda, beating the US yacht, Brenda.

1880: French novelist Gustave Flaubert, famous for his novel Madame Bovary, a portrayal of bourgeois life, died.

1902: Mount Pelee on Martinique erupted and destroyed the town of St Pierre; more than 30,000 people died.

1921: Sweden abolished capital punishment.

1942: In World War II, the Battle of the Coral Sea ended when a US fleet turned back a Japanese invasion force heading for Port Moresby in New Guinea. It was the first naval battle at which no shots were fired.

1944: A Czech-Soviet agreement was signed to cover possible entry of Soviet troops into Czechoslovakia.

1945: British Prime Minister Winston Churchill broadcast to the nation as part of Victory in Europe Day celebrations; President Truman spoke to the US.

1952: William Fox, US film producer, died; in 1915 he founded the Fox Film Corporation, which later became 20th Century Fox.

1964: Harry Truman, 33rd President of the United States (1945-1953) became the first former president to address the Senate, on the occasion of his 80th birthday.

1973: The siege of Wounded Knee in South Dakota ended peacefully as militant Indians who had occupied the tiny prairie settlement for almost 10 weeks began to file out and surrender to the authorities.

1995: Germans and leaders of the main wartime Allied countries which defeated them 50 years earlier sat side by side in Berlin to honour the dead of World War II.

1996: Spanish bullfighter Luis Miguel 'Dominguin', known as the world's best bullfighter in the 1950s and whose exploits inspired writer Ernest Hemingway, died aged 69.

1996: South Africa's Constitutional Assembly adopted the country's permanent post-apartheid constitution.

1997: Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi flew to Niger in apparent defiance of a UN ban on flights from Libya.

1999: Dirk Bogarde, British film actor, died aged 78. Best remembered for roles in the films Death In Venice and The Victim.



Today in history