Today in history

1769 - Captain James Cook lands in New Zealand for the first time, at Poverty Bay.

1826 - The first gravity-powered American railroad goes into operation, running from Quincy to Milton, Massachusetts, carrying granite rock down to the waterfront.

1917 - New Zealand authorities imprison the German naval captain Felix Graf von Luckner after his capture in Fiji.

1950 - UN General Assembly approves Allied advance north of 38th parallel in Korean conflict.

1954 - Marian Anderson becomes the first black singer hired by the New York Metropolitan Opera House.

1981 - Egypt’s Vice President Hosni Mubarak is nominated as successor to slain President Anwar Sadat.

1993 - African National Congress President Nelson Mandela and South African President FW de Klerk are awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts in dismantling apartheid and negotiating South Africa’s transition to a non-racial democracy.

1995 - New York’s Central Park is transformed into a giant open-air cathedral as Pope John Paul II celebrates Mass before a flock of 250,000.

1996 - Two car bombs explode inside the British army’s heavily guarded headquarters in Northern Ireland, injuring 31 people.

2000 - Vojislav Kostunica takes the oath of office as Yugoslavia’s first popularly elected president, closing the turbulent era of Slobodan Milosevic.

2001 - The United States and Britain launch a military attack on Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, and his Taliban backers in Afghanistan.

2003 - California votes in a special election to recall Democratic Governor Gray Davis from office and replace him with Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican action-film star.

2004 - Conjoined twins are successfully separated after 22 hours of surgery at Waikato Hospital, the first such operation in New Zealand.

2007 - The All Blacks are knocked out of the Rugby World Cup in their quarter-final with France, in a dark day for the sport in New Zealand.

2011 - Revolutionary fighters assault Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte from all sides in what they hope will be a final all-out offensive to crush resistance in the most important bastion of regime loyalists.

Today’s Birthdays:

Sir Walter Raleigh, English explorer-poet-courtier (1552-1618); Desmond Tutu, Anglican Archbishop in South Africa, winner of the 1984 Nobel Peace Prize (1931- ); John Mellencamp, US singer (1951- ); Simon Cowell, British producer/judge of TV’S American Idol (1959- ).