Today in History

1839 – Hong Kong is taken by the British in a war with China.

1926 – Film idol Rudolph Valentino dies suddenly in a New York hospital, aged 31.

1927 – Despite worldwide demonstrations proclaiming their innocence, Italian-born American anarchists Nicola Sacco and Bartolomeo Vanzetti are executed by electric chair for murder.

1939 – New Zealand poet and writer Robin Hyde, left, takes her own life in London, aged 33.

1947 – British immigrants arrive in Auckland on the Rangitata liner under an assistance scheme that resumed after World War II.

1948 – The World Council of Churches is founded.

1970 – Lou Reed plays his last show with rock pioneers the Velvet Underground.

1975 – Communists complete their takeover of Laos.

1979 – Bolshoi Ballet star Alexander Godunov is granted political asylum in the United States.

2000 – Richard Hatch wins the season-one finale of the reality television show Survivor and takes home the US$1 million prize.

2006 – Natascha Kampusch, an Austrian teenager who was kidnapped at age 10, escapes from her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, after more than eight years. Priklopil kills himself hours later.

2011 – Sexual assault charges against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-kahn are dropped.

Birthdays

Louis XVI of France (1754-1793); Gene Kelly, US actor-dancer (1912-1996); Vera Miles, US actress (1929-); Keith Moon, English drummer of The Who (1946-1978); Shelley Long, US actress (1949-); Richard Illingworth, English cricketer and umpire (1963-); River Phoenix, US actor (1970-1993); Richard Petrie, New Zealand cricketer (1967-); Greg Murphy, NZ racing driver (1972-); Sean Marks, NZ basketball player (1975-); Kobe Bryant, US basketball player (1978-).