Today in History

• 2009 The Black Saturday bushfires in Australia kill 173 people

  The fires were the worst natural disaster in Australian history.

• 2005 Ellen MacArthur breaks the speed record for sailing solo around the world

  The journey took her 71 days, 14 hours, 18 minutes, and 33 seconds.

• 1992 The European Union is established as the Maastricht Treaty is signed

  The treaty also defined a single European currency: the Euro.

• 1986 Haiti’s president, Jean-Claude “Baby Doc” Duvalier, flees the country, ending 28 years of family rule

  On the same day 5 years later, the first democratically elected president, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, was sworn in.

• 1984 NASA astronauts take the first untethered spacewalk

  The photographs of Bruce McCandless and Robert L. Stewart hovering freely in space became some of the most iconic images of the 1980s.