Today in HistoryToday is Wednesday, May 9, the 129th day of 2007. There are 236 days left in the year.

ON THIS DATE<$>

In 1927, Canberra replaced Melbourne as the capital of Australia.

In 1936, Italy annexed Ethiopia.

In 1945, Field Marshal Keitel signed Germany’s final surrender documents to end World War Two in Europe; the German garrison in the Channel Islands surrendered.

In 1946, King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicated and the monarchy was later replaced by a republic.

In 1960, the United States became the first country to legalise use of the birth control pill, Enovid.

In 1978, the bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro, who had been abducted by the Red Brigades, was found in an automobile in the center of Rome.

THOUGHT FOR TODAY

“Television has changed the American child from an irresistible force into an immovable object.” — Laurence J. Peter, Canadian-born educator (1919-1990).