Today in History ...

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1520 – After navigating through a strait at the southern end of South America, three ships under the command of Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan reach the Pacific Ocean, becoming the first European ships to sail from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific. 1811 – Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major, Op. 73, premieres at the Gewandhaus in Leipzig. 1814 – The Times in London is for the first time printed by automatic, steam-powered presses built by the German inventors Friedrich Koenig and Andreas Friedrich Bauer, signaling the beginning of the availability of newspapers to a mass audience. 1885 – Bulgarian victory in the Serbo-Bulgarian War preserves the Unification of Bulgaria. 1893 – New Zealand becomes the first country in which women vote in a national election. 1907 – In Haverhill, Massachusetts, scrap-metal dealer Louis B. Mayer opens his first movie theater. 1909 – Sergei Rachmaninoff makes the debut performance of his Piano Concerto No. 3, considered to be one of the most technically challenging piano concertos in the standard classical repertoire. 1919 – Lady Astor is elected as a Member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She is the first woman to sit in the House of Commons. Countess Markievicz, the first to be elected, refused to sit. 1958 – Chad, the Republic of the Congo, and Gabon become autonomous republics within the French Community. 1972 – Last executions in Paris: Claude Buffet and Roger Bontems are guillotined at La Santé Prison. The chief executioner is André Obrecht. (Bontems had been found innocent of murder, but as Buffet's accomplice was condemned to death anyway). 1987 – South African Airways Flight 295 crashes into the Indian Ocean, killing all 159 people on board. 1989 – In the face of protests, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia announces it will give up its monopoly on political power. 2014 – Gunmen set off three bombs at the central mosque in the northern city of Kano killing at least 120 people.