Today in History, December 26
By AAP and agencies
Today is Thursday, December 26, the 360th day of 2002. There are five days left in the year.
Highlights in history on this date:
1492 - Columbus founds the first European settlement in the New World, on Hispaniola.
1793 - French victory at Weissenburg forces allies to retreat across Rhine River.
1805 - Peace of Pressburg is signed between France and Austria.
1825 - Russian army uprising is crushed.
1827 - Turkey's Sultan Mohamud II rejects right of allies to mediate in war with Greece.
1836 - The colony of South Australia is founded by settlers.
1901 - Completion of Uganda Railway from Mombassa to Lake Victoria.
1906 - World's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, is premiered at theAthenaeum Hall, Melbourne.
1908 - American Jack Johnson becomes first black boxer to win world heavyweight titlewhen he defeats Canadian Tommy Burns in Sydney.
1931 - Melvil Dewey, American librarian and inventor of the Dewey classification system, dies.
1941 - As Japanese forces approach, the United States declares Manila an open city.
1961 - United Nations officials charge that Northern Rhodesia is aiding the secessionistCongo province of Katanga in its fight against UN forces.
1971 - Sixteen US veterans of Vietnam War seize Statue of Liberty in New York harbourto dramatise their anti-war stand.
1972 - Harry S Truman, 33rd US president (1945-53), dies.
1974 - US comedian Jack Benny, whose career spanned vaudeville, stage, TV, radio and film, dies.
1992 - Moderate Yugoslav Prime Minister Milan Panic concedes defeat in Serbian presidentialelections and congratulates the incumbent, hard-liner Slobodan Milosevic.
1993 - A large avalanche of snow and ice crashes down a part of Mont Blanc, damagingchalets and cars in the Alps, while floodwaters rise in northern and southwestern France.
1995 - Israeli troops hand dozens of villages to the Palestinian Authority in the finalphase of a pullback in the West Bank.
1995 - NSW riot police battle a bottle-throwing mob after 12,000-strong Christmas celebrationsturn ugly at Bondi Beach.
1996 - Tupac Amaru guerrillas release Guatemala's ambassador in Lima but still hold 103 hostages.
1998 - Khmer Rouge leaders Khieu Samphan and Nuon Chea, considered to be among thearchitects of the group's genocidal reign in the 1970s, surrender to the government, leavingonly the brutal general Ta Mok, still at large.
1999 - Alfonso Portillo, a populist lawyer, scored a resounding victory in Guatemala'sfirst peacetime presidential elections in nearly 40 years.
2000 - Russian ground controllers lose contact for nearly 20 hours with the Mir spacestation before re-establishing communication, allaying fears the accident-prone, 140-tonnevessel might have spun dangerously out of control.
2001 - The Arabic TV station Al-Jazeera airs new videotaped excerpts of Osama bin Ladenin which the al-Qaeda leader condemns the United States as a nation that committed crimesagainst millions of Afghans.
Today's Birthdays:
Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor of first computer (1791-1871);George Romney, English artist (1734-1802); Henry Miller, US writer (1891-1980), Mao Tse-tung,Chinese leader (1893-1976); Leopold Mannes, US co-developer of Kodachrome film (1899-1964);Steve Allen, US Comedian/TV host (1921-2000); Alan King, US comedian (1927-); Abdul 'Duke'Fakir, US rhythm-and-blues singer (1935--).
Thought for Today:
A fool and his money are soon parted, but you never call him a fool till the moneyis gone - Anonymous.
AAP/AP/REUTERS wa
KEYWORD: HISTORY 26/12 EMBADGOED: DEC 26 RPT
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