Today in History

1881 – United States President James Garfield dies 80 days after being shot by a disgruntled and possibly insane man.

1893 – New Zealand becomes the first country to grant all its women the right to vote.

1952 – The United States bars actor

Charlie Chaplin, right, from reentering the country after a trip to England.

1954 – Death of Australian author

Miles Franklin, writer of My Brilliant Career.

1955 – Argentine President Juan Peron is deposed in a military coup.

1957 – The US detonates a nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel in Nevada. There was no radioactive fallout.

1959 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is incredulous when he learns he cannot visit Disneyland.

1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival is held in England, a day after American guitarist Jimi Hendrix died.

1988 – A day after sustaining a head injury in a frightening accident, US diver Greg Louganis wins gold in the springboard competition at the Seoul Olympics. It was his second consecutive Olympic gold in the event.

1989 – A terrorist bomb explodes on UTA Flight 772 above the Sahara Desert in Niger, killing 170 people. 1990 – Martin Scorsese’s Mafia film Goodfellas premieres.

2004 – Hu Jintao becomes the undisputed leader of China as the country completes its first orderly transfer of power in the communist era.

Birthdays

William Golding, English novelist (Lord of the Flies) (1911-1993); Adam

West, US actor (Batman) (1928-2017); Cherry Wilder, New Zealand author (1930-2002); Brian Epstein, English manager of the Beatles (1934-1967); Jeremy Irons, English actor (1948-); Twiggy, English model and actress (1949-); Jimmy Fallon, US television host (1974-).