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On this day: A love story for the ages, Running Up That Hill, the last Apartheid laws abolished and slaughter at Boipatong
A sad end for the emperor who built the white-marble Taj Mahal for his wife.
On this day: June 17
1631 Mumtaz Mahal dies during childbirth. Her husband, Mughal emperor Shah Jahan I, goes on to spend more than 20 years building her tomb – a symbol of great love – the Taj Mahal.
1837 Chemist and inventor Charles Goodyear obtains his first rubber patent.
1855 A heavy French/British bombardment of Sevastopol, in Crimea, kills more than 2 000.
1877 The Nez Perce Indians defeat the US Cavalry at White Bird Canyon in Idaho.
1885 The Statue of Liberty – gift from the people of France – arrives in New York City.
1928 Aviator Amelia Earhart leaves Newfoundland to become the first woman to cross the Atlantic (as a passenger).
1938 Japan finally declares war on China, a year after having invaded the country.
1939 The last public guillotining – that of a murderer – takes place in France.
1940 The liner RMS Lancastria is sunk by the Luftwaffe near Saint-Nazaire, France.
1954 Rocky 'Raging Bull' Marciano beats heavyweight boxing champion Ezzard Charles over 15 rounds. Marciano is the only person to hold the heavyweight title undefeated, with a boxing record of 49 fights, 49 wins and 43 KOs. He dies at 45 in a 1969 plane crash.
1958 Things Fall Apart by Nigerian Chinua Achebe, the most widely read book in African literature, is published.
1982 President Galtieri resigns after leading Argentina to defeat in the Falkland Islands.
1991 The last apartheid laws are abolished.
1992 The slaughter by Inkatha followers at Boipatong leaves 42 people dead.
2019 Former Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi dies after collapsing in a court.
2021 China launches its Shenzhou-12 spacecraft, with three astronauts arriving at its space station, Tiangong, 6.5 hours later.
2022 Running Up That Hill single by Kate Bush goes to #1 on the UK chart; originally released in 1985, the song was featured in sci-fi TV show Stranger Things, its record 44-year climb to the top also makes Bush, 63) the oldest female artist to score a No 1.
2024 The Philippines accuses the Chinese coastguard of 'a brazen act of aggression' after a confrontation in the contested Spratly Islands escalating the tension in the area.
DAILY NEWS
