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SCMP Reporter

In Hong Kong

1962: Sixteen people were arrested and fined $100 after police intercepted public vehicles at road blocks in Tsun Wan and Sha Tin and seized dog meat.

1964: The ashes of Mrs T K  Chiu arrived in Hong Kong. The wife of the managing director of the Far East Bank Ltd was among 57 passengers killed in a Taipei plane crash that also claimed the life of Malaysian millionaire Dato Loke Wan-tho.

1967: The Governor, Sir David Trench, left for London on a three-month 'busman's holiday' to discuss future plans for the colony with the Commonwealth office.

1976: Charlton Heston arrived in Hong Kong to promote his latest film, Battle Of The Midway. The star of Ben Hur insisted his new film was 'not meant to glorify the American victory in the Pacific' but rather was an 'attempt to treat in documentary detail a crucial event of the 20th century'.

Around the world

1080: A council of bishops at Brixen deposed Pope Gregory VII

1580: The Book Of Concord, a collection of doctrinal standards of the Lutheran Church, was first published.

1867:  Lucien B Smith, of Ohio, patented the first barbed wire.

1870: Queen Isabella II of Spain abdicated in favour of Alfonso XII.

1910: US Congress passed the White Slavery Act (or Mann Act), outlawing the interstate transportation of women for immoral purposes.

1940: In World War II, hostilities in France ended after the French signed an armistice with Germany the previous week.

1950: North Korea invaded South Korea, heralding the start of the Korean War.

1953: John Christie, the notorious British murderer of 10 Rillington Place, was sentenced to death for killing six women.

1967: The first live TV programme to be shown worldwide, Our World, was broadcast in 26 countries from Mexico to Japan.

1968: British comedian Tony Hancock was found dead in a Sydney hotel room after committing suicide.

1975: Mozambique became independent and Samora Machel was sworn in as president, ending more than 477 years of Portuguese rule.

1976: Johnny Mercer, US popular song composer and actor, died. He wrote the lyrics for songs including Moon River.

1988: Hundreds of thousands of Laotians went to the polls for the first elections since the Communists took power in 1975.

1991: The last Soviet troops stationed in Czechoslovakia left the country, 23 years after the Warsaw Pact invasion.

1991: Croatia and Slovenia declared independence from Yugoslavia, plunging the federation into a violent break-up.

1996: A bomb blast in a Saudi Arabian military complex housing foreigners killed 19 Americans and injured nearly 400.

1997: Veteran French oceanographer Jacques-Yves Cousteau, who popularised underwater exploration, died aged 87.

2000: A gas leak triggered a huge explosion at Kuwait's largest oil refinery at Mina al-Ahmadi, killing six people, injuring 50 and forcing production to close.



Today in history