Today in History, 13/9

Highlights in history on this date:

1900 - Australia's first full-length film, Soldiers of the Cross, goes into production.

1945 - Wartime censorship of radio broadcasts ends in Australia.

1955 - West Germany and Soviet Union establish diplomatic relations, their first since World War II.

1959 - Bonanza, starring Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker and Parnell Roberts, is shown for the first time on US television.

1964 - Egypt and Saudi Arabia announce agreement of peaceful settlement of two-year-old Yemeni civil war.

1970 - Israel arrests 450 Arabs in occupied Jordan and says it will exchange them for hostages held by guerillas.

1975 - US Defence Department defers planned 8000-man reduction in support of troops in West Germany on grounds it would weaken US in Europe.

1982 - Lindy and Michael Chamberlain go on trial for allegedly murdering their baby Azaria, who they say was killed by a dingo at Ayers Rock.

1986 - Iraqi warplanes bomb five airfields in Iran as demonstrators seek revenge for Iran's missile attack on Baghdad.

1993 - Israel and the PLO sign peace accord in Washington.

1995 - A military transport aircraft crashes into the sea off the coast of western Sri Lanka, killing all 75 people on board.

1996 - Rapper Tupac Shakur, 25, dies at a Las Vegas hospital six days after he is wounded in a drive-by shooting.

1997 - Mother Teresa buried in Calcutta.

1998 - The Yugoslav republic of Montenegro deports thousands of Kosovo refugees to Albania.

1999 - The fourth major blast in Russia in two weeks destroys an apartment building in Moscow and kills 118 people.

2001 - US President George W Bush calls the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington "the first war of the 21st century" as his administration labels fugitive Osama bin Laden a prime suspect.

2002 - Two US pilots are charged with involuntary manslaughter and assault for mistakenly bombing Canadian forces near Kandahar in southern Afghanistan in April.

2004 - North Korea says a huge cloud caused by an explosion was the planned demolition of a mountain for a hydro-electric project and invites a British diplomat to visit the site.

2005 - US President George W Bush takes responsibility for the government's failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina.

2006 - A gunman opens fire at a Canadian college and wounds at least 20 people - six critically - before shooting himself dead.

2006 - Billionaire financier George Soros pledges $US50 million ($A54.10 million) to help the United Nations tackle extreme poverty and AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa.

2007 - At least 10 people are killed when three earthquakes send a three-metre tsunami crashing onto the shores of Indonesia.

2010 - Cuba announces it will cast off at least half a million state workers by early 2011 and reduce restrictions on private enterprise to help them find new jobs.

2012 - More than 33,000 people are evacuated from communities surrounding a volcano in Guatemala after it exploded following a series of eruptions.

2013 - Nigeria's Bodo community in the oil-rich Niger Delta rejects a compensation offer from Shell for two oil spills in 2008 that devastated the mangrove and fishing area.

2014 - Terror suspect Abdul Numan Haider, 18, is shot dead in Melbourne after attacking two police officers.

2015 - Hundreds of pilgrims are killed or injured during a stampede near Mecca in Saudi Arabia during the hajj.

2016 - The Liberal Party of Australia signs off on a proposal to hold the same-sex plebiscite in February.

Today's Birthdays:

Clara Schumann, German pianist (1819-1896); John Joseph Pershing, US general (1860-1948); Claudette Colbert, US actress (1903-1996); Roald Dahl, Welsh-born author (1916-1990); Marjorie Jackson-Nelson, Australian Olympic champion athlete (1931-); Kerry Stokes, Australian billionaire businessman (1940-); Jacqueline Bisset, English-born actress (1944-); Steve Kilbey, Australian musician (1954-); Alain Ducasse, French chef (1956-); Anne Geddes, Australian photographer (1956-); Shane Warne, Australian cricketer (1969-); Stella McCartney, British fashion designer (1971-); Goran Ivanisevic, Croatian tennis player (1971-); Ben Savage, US actor (1980-); Niall Horan, British singer of One Direction fame (1993-).

Thought for Today:

We do not attach ourselves lastingly to anything that has not cost us care, labour or longing - Honore de Balzac, French dramatist (1799-1850).