1494 Brokered by the Pope to affirm Christian unity against the Ottoman menace, Spain and Portugal signed the Treaty of Tordesillas to divide the world between them.
1654 Paris, History. Louis XIV was crowned king. He became known as the Sun King and ruled until his death in 1715. The palace at Versailles was his creation. ‘L’état c’est moi’ is one of his most famous bons mots. Another is ‘Après moi, le deluge.’ He was a master manipulator of fractious nobles. A double posed for him, since he was too busy making war to do it.
1893 Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. A young lawyer refused to comply with seating arrangements in the first class carriage of a train and was forcibly ejected. This was Mohandas Gandhi’s first act of civil disobedience. He had bought a first-class ticket but was directed to the third class car where the coloured people travelled. No sooner was he off the train than he started to organise protests by travellers.
1905 Oslo. Norway parted from Sweden. It had been Swedish since 1814 and before that Danish. The territorial legislature in Oslo voted to secede in the picture below. Many Swedes became bellicose but in the end a peaceful dissolution was negotiated.
1914 Central America. The first vessel passed through the Panama Canal, making the United States a two-ocean power as never before. It was the SS Ancon pictured below.
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