Today in History
1871 - While Prussian guns bombard Paris, the Reich is formed when William I of Prussia is crowned the first emperor of Germany.
1913 - Greek and Turkish naval forces battle off Tendos Isle.
1968 - United States and Soviet Union agree on draft treaty to control nuclear weapons. 1977 - Australia's worst rail crash, at Granville, Sydney, kills 83 when a train hits a concrete bridge.
1980 - New Zealand singer Jon Stevens achieves the rare feat of back-to-back No 1 singles when his song Montego Bay knocks another of his songs, Jezebel, from the top of the charts.
1990 - Right-wing gunman wounds mayor of Nagasaki who had said late Emperor Hirohito bore partial responsibility for World War II.
1996 - Lisa Marie Presley-Jackson files for divorce from Michael Jackson.
2003 - Protesters take to the streets from Tokyo to London to San Francisco in antiwar demonstrations fired up by speculation that a US-led strike on Iraq is drawing near; Four people die and almost 500 homes are destroyed when bushfire takes thousands of Canberrans by surprise.
2007 - Sir Edmund Hillary returns to Antarctica, 50 years after his pioneering trip to help establish Scott Base, the New Zealand base on the ice.
2013 - Seven-time Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong admits drug use to boost his cycling career, in a confessional interview with Oprah Winfrey.
Birthdays:
A A Milne, Winnie the Pooh author (18821956); Oliver Hardy, comic actor (1892-1957); Cary Grant, US actor (1904-1986); Paul Keating, former Australian prime minister (1944-); Kevin Costner, US actor-director (1955-); Bernice Mene, NZ netball player (1975-).