It happened today – this day in history – October 8
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1769: Captain James Cook lands in Poverty Bay, New Zealand.
1856: The Second Opium War begins.
1862: Otto von Bismark becomes chancellor of the German Empire.
1869: Death of 14th US President Franklin Pierce.
1871: The Great Fire of Chicago kills 200 people and destroys four square miles of buildings.
1892: Sergei Rachmaninoff first performs his “Prelude in C-sharp-Minor” in Moscow.
1924: The Labour government of Ramsey MacDonald falls to the Conservatives.
1927: The first Laurel and Hardy film with them as a team “The Second Hundred Years” is released.
1939: Germany annexes Western Poland.
1940: German troops occupy Romania.
1945: The microwave oven is patented.
1959: The Conservatives win the general election. Harold MacMillan becomes prime minister.
1967: Guerrilla leader Che Guevara is captured in Bolivia. On the same day, former British Prime Minister Clement Attlee dies aged 84.
1971: The John Lennon album Imagine is released.
1976: The Sex Pistols sign with EMI.
1980: British Leyland starts selling the Mini Metro.
1982: Poland bans Solidarity and all trade unions.
1992: Death of former West German Chancellor Willy Brandt.
2001: George W Bush announces the establishment of the Office of Homeland Security.
2015: Death of TV presenter Hugh Scully.
BIRTHDAYS: Rev Jesse Jackson, politician, 78; Chevy Chase, comedian, 76; Hamish Stuart, musician (Average White Band), 70; Sigourney Weaver (Susan Weaver), actress, 70; Robert Bell, musician (Kool and the Gang) 69; Matt Damon, actor/screenwriter 49; Sadiq Khan, Mayor of London, 49; Bruno Mars (Peter Hernandez) 34.
