Highlights in History on this date:

1124 - Alexander I, King of Scotland, dies.

1500 - Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares Cabral is the first European to discover Brazil, putting ashore in what is today Porto Seguro.

1760 - A Belgian wears the first known pair of roller skates at a party. (He crashes into a mirror.)

1793 - US President George Washington issues a Proclamation of Neutrality to ensure that the United States does not become involved in the war between France and Britain.

1821 - Greek Patriarch of Constantinople is slain by Turks as reprisal for Greek massacre of Turks in the Peloponnese.

1822 - Turkish fleet captures island of Chios off Greece and massacres Christian inhabitants or sells them as slaves.

1838 - British steamship Sirius becomes the first vessel to cross the Atlantic from Britain to New York on steam power only. From Cork in Ireland to New York took 18 days 10 hours.

1864 - The words "In God We Trust" begins appearing on US coins.

1915 - German army uses poison gas for first time on Western Front in World War I, as the second battle of Ypres begins in Belgium.

1931 - Treaty of friendship between Egypt and Iraq marks the first pact between Egypt and another Arab state.

1933 - Death of Sir Frederick Henry Royce, co-founder of the English car company Rolls-Royce.

1944 - Allied forces begin invading Japanese-held New Guinea with amphibious landings near Hollandia.

1945 - Allied forces take Bologna in Italy during World War II.

1952 - An atomic test conducted in Nevada becomes the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television.

1956 - China appoints Dalai Lama chairman of committee to prepare Tibet for regional autonomy within Chinese People's Republic.

1975 - First Vietnamese refugees arrive on west coast of United States while South Vietnam is falling to communists; Honduran President General Osvaldo Lopez Arellano is overthrown in a bloodless coup and replaced by General Juan Alberto Melgar Castro.

1977 - Political violence escalates in Pakistan, with at least 10 people killed when police fire on anti-government demonstrators in Karachi.

1983 - Australia expels First Secretary of the Soviet Embassy, Valery Ivanov.

1990 - American Robert Polhill, held captive since January 24, 1987, is released by pro-Iranian Shi'ite group in Beirut; The Queensland town of Charleville is evacuated because of severe flooding.

1991 - A strong earthquake hits Costa Rica, causing extensive damage throughout the country and in western Panama.

1992 - Petrol leaking from a nearby refinery explodes in the sewer system of Guadalajara, Mexico, ripping open streets and killing 194 people.

1993 - A military court in Cairo sentences to death seven of 49 Islamic militants tried for attacks against tourists.

1994 - Former US President Richard Nixon dies of a stroke.

1995 - Hutu refugees flee the refugee camp at Kibeho, Zaire, after thousands are gunned down by soldiers or trampled to death in stampedes.

1997 - Peruvian troops storm the Japanese ambassador's mansion in Lima, Peru, and rescue 72 hostages held for four months, but one dies on the way to the hospital. All 14 rebel captors and two soldiers die.

1998 - Despite a last-minute plea from the president of Honduras, the US state of Arizona executes a Honduran citizen for murder.

1999 - NATO destroys Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's home in Belgrade with bombs, claiming it is part of his military machine.

2000 - Armed US immigration agents seize Cuban boat boy Elian Gonzalez from his relatives' home in Miami. He is reunited with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.

2002 - All four defendants on trial for the kidnapping and murder of US journalist Daniel Pearl plead not guilty as the trial begins in Pakistan; Former Sotheby's chairman Alfred Taubman is sentenced to a year and a day in prison for fixing commission fees with rival Christie's.

2003 - France calls for the immediate suspension of most UN sanctions against Iraq.

2004 - A train laden with explosives blows up at a station near the centre of Ryongchon in North Korea, killing at least 161 people.

2006 - Hundreds are injured in Kathmandu when Nepali security forces open fire on tens of thousands of protesters marching toward the royal palace in defiance of a curfew, as opposition leaders reject the king's proposals for restoring democracy.

2007 - Gunmen execute 23 members of the ancient Yazidi religious sect in northern Iraq after stopping their bus and separating out followers of other faiths.

2008 - The office of Colombia's chief prosecutor orders the arrest of President Alvaro Uribe's cousin over alleged links to paramilitary gangs.

2009 - Taliban militants extend their grip in northwestern Pakistan, pushing out from a valley where the government has agreed to impose Islamic law and patrolling villages as close as 96 kilometres from the capital.

2010 - President Barack Obama rebukes Wall Street for risky practices even as he seeks its leaders' help for "updated, commonsense" banking regulations to head off any new financial crisis.

2011 - Syrian security forces fire bullets and tear gas at tens of thousands of protesters across the country, killing at least 75 people and signalling the authoritarian regime is prepared to turn more ruthless to put down the revolt against President Bashar Assad.

2012 - The US and Afghanistan reach a deal on a long-delayed strategic partnership agreement that ensures Americans will provide military and financial support to the Afghan people for at least a decade beyond 2014, the deadline for most foreign forces to withdraw.

2012 - Parliamentary Speaker Peter Slipper stands aside amid allegations of sexual harassment against a former male staffer and misusing Cabcharge entitlements.

2013 - A seriously wounded Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is charged in his hospital room with bombing the Boston Marathon in a plot with his older brother. Their family moved to the United States from Chechenya more than a decade ago.

2014 - Bill Shorten unveils ALP reforms, including allowing people to join without being union members; Most Sherpa mountain climbers decide to leave Mount Everest, confirming a walkout certain to disrupt the climbing season that was already marked by grief over the 16 lives lost in Everest's deadliest disaster.