Today in History, 15/11

Highlights in history on this date:

1492 - Christopher Columbus notes in journal use of tobacco among Indians: the first recorded reference to tobacco.

1791 - First grapevine in colony of NSW is planted at Parramatta.

1837 - Details of the first practical shorthand system, designed by Isaac Pitman, are published for the first time as "Stenographic Sound-Hand".

1920 - League of Nations Assembly holds first meeting in Geneva.

1928 - Fascist Grand Council becomes part of Italian constitution.

1942 - After three days of sea battles around the Solomon Islands in World War II, the Japanese suffer heavy losses at Guadalcanal.

1971 - Delegation from the People's Republic of China is seated at the UN General Assembly for the first time.

1972 - Miloslav Harabinec shoots himself dead after a shoot-out with police after failing in an attempt to hijack an Ansett aircraft at Alice Springs.

1976 - Syrian army takes full control of Beirut, effectively ending 18-month civil war in Lebanon.

1977 - Israel sends formal invitation to Egypt's President Anwar Sadat to visit Jerusalem and address Israeli Parliament.

1979 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher names Sir Anthony Blunt as a spy for the Russians and the "fourth man" in the Burgess-Philby-MacLean spy ring.

1985 - British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish Prime Minister Garret FitzGerald sign the Anglo-Irish agreement which gives the Republic a consultative role in the running of Northern Ireland for the first time.

1990 - NATO and Warsaw Pact nations agree in principle on a treaty drastically slashing their stocks of conventional weapons.

1993 - Gunmen in Lebanon kill a senior aide of Yasser Arafat, the fifth PLO assassination since Israeli-Palestinian accord was signed.

1996 - Shine is awarded best film at the AFI awards.

1997 - China's best known dissident Wei Jingsheng is released on health grounds from a 14-year jail term and left for the United States the next day.

1998 - US President Bill Clinton announces that Iraq has "backed down" and has promised to co-operate unconditionally with UN weapons inspectors.

2001 - President George W Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin fail to resolve their dispute over US missile shield plans but pledge to fight terrorism and deepen US-Russian ties as their summit, which began at the White House then shifted to Bush's Texas ranch, comes to a close.

2002 - Palestinian gunmen ambush Jewish settlers at Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs, killing at least 12 people and wounding 15.

2006 - Pakistan's parliament approves amendments to an Islamic-based law on rape, dropping the death penalty and flogging for people convicted of having consensual sex outside marriage.

2007 - Cyclone Sidr roars across the southwestern coast of Bangladesh with 240kph winds, killing at least 3100 people.

2008 - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd joins 19 other world leaders at a G20 emergency summit in Washington on the global financial crisis.

2009 - Kosovo holds its first local election since declaring independence from Serbia.

2010 - Scientists exhume the remains of 16th-century astronomer Tycho Brahe in Prague, in an effort to solve the mystery of his sudden death.

2012 - Oil giant BP agrees to plead guilty to a raft of criminal charges and pay a record $US4.5 billion ($A4.87 billion) in a settlement with the US government over the deadly 2010 disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

2013 - China's leaders announce the first significant easing of its one-child policy in 30 years and move to abolish its labour camp system.

2014 - Australia hosts US president Barack Obama, Russian president Vladimir Putin, China's Xi Jinping and Germany's Angela Merkel at a two-day G20 meeting in Brisbane.

2016 - Australian underworld figure Pasquale Barbaro becomes the eighth victim in the last 12 years of gangland killings in NSW after his bullet-ridden body is found on a footpath in the suburb of Earlwood.

2017 - The Socceroos beat Honduras 3-1, securing Australia's ticket to the 2018 World Cup.

Today's Birthdays: Sam Waterston, US actor (1940-); Daniel Barenboim, Argentinean-born conductor-pianist (1942-); Frida Lyngstad, Swedish singer of Abba (1945-); Benny Elias, Australian NRL player (1963-); Rachel True, US actress (1969-); Chad Kroeger, Canadian rocker (1974-); Giaan Rooney, Australian swimmer, (1982-); Shailene Woodley, US actress (1991-).

Thought For Today: In a time of war ... the task of news-writers is easy; they have nothing to do but to tell that the battle is expected, and afterward that a battle has been fought, in which we and our friends, whether conquering or conquered, did all, and our enemies did nothing - Samuel Johnson, English critic (1709-1784).

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