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Today in History, 11/1
AAP and agencies
Published: Saturday, 11 January 2020 12:13 AM GMT+11
2016 - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress-model Jerry Hall announce their engagement. Credit: AAP
Highlights in history on this date:
49 BC - Roman dictator Julius Caesar crosses the Rubicon river and moves his troops into an offensive position in the war against Pompey.
1569 - First lottery in England is drawn in St Paul's Cathedral under the patronage of Queen Elizabeth I.
1841 - Adelaide's first substantial theatre, The Queen's Theatre, is opened.
1866 - The ship "London" is wrecked in the Bay of Biscay en route to Australia, with the death of some 231 people.
1919 - Romania annexes Transylvania.
1922 - A 14-year-old Canadian, Leonard Thompson, becomes the first person to have his diabetes successfully treated with insulin.
1928 - Death of English novelist and poet Thomas Hardy.
1935 - US aviator Amelia Earhart begins a trip from Honolulu to Oakland, California, becoming the first woman to fly solo across the Pacific.
1945 - Truce is declared in Greek civil war.
1962 - An avalanche buries a village in the Peruvian Andes with 3000 people reported killed.
1964 - US Surgeon General Luther Terry issues the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to health.
1974 - The first sextuplets known to survive are born to Sue Rosenkowitz in Cape Town, South Africa.
1977 - France sparks international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a Palestinian suspected of involvement in the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics.
1981 - A three-man British team led by Sir Ranulph Fiennes completes the longest and fastest crossing of Antarctica, reaching Scott base after 75 days and 4022km.
1981 - Tasmania's first quintuplets are born by Caesarean section.
1994 - Australian National Party federal leader Tim Fischer is seriously injured in a car crash, in the Riverina district of NSW.
1994 - The Irish government announces the end of a 20-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Fein.
1998 - Two people drown and about $A50 million in damage is caused by floods in the Townsville area of far north Queensland.
2002 - The first 20 Taliban and al-Qaeda detainees from the US campaign in Afghanistan arrive at the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
2008 - Eleven US soldiers are convicted and five officers disciplined in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.
2011 - Thousands of people flee Brisbane as high waters threaten the Queensland capital.
2014 - The UNHCR says Australia may be in breach of international law for towing or turning back boats to Indonesia.
2015 - More than three million people march in French cities, in a mass show of solidarity following recent terrorist attacks in which 17 people were killed.
2016 - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch and actress-model Jerry Hall announce their engagement in The Times.
2017 - Independent senator Rod Culleton loses his spot in the Senate after being declared bankrupt by a Federal Court judge.
2018 - Australian mother-of-four Maria Exposto is released on bail in Malaysia, after being found not guilty of drug trafficking late last year and avoiding the death penalty.
2019 - An estimated 800,000 workers miss their first pay cheque of the US federal government shutdown.
Today's Birthdays:
Francesco Parmigianino, Italian artist (1504-1540); William James, US philosopher (1842-1910); Rod Taylor, Australian actor (1930-2015); Clarence Clemons, US saxophonist with the E Street Band (1942-2011); Daryl Braithwaite, Australian singer (1949-); Mary J Blige, US singer (1971-); Amanda Peet, US actress and writer; Rahul Dravid, Indian cricketer (1973-); Holly Brisley, Australian actress (1978-); Cody Simpson, Australian pop singer (1997-).
If you are ruled by mind you are a king; if by body, a slave. - Cato, Roman statesman and historian (234 BC-149 BC)
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