Today in History
1605 – English authorities arrest Guy Fawkes, the leader of the "Gunpowder Plot" to blow up Houses of Parliament.
1630 – Treaty of Madrid ends Anglo-spanish War.
1688 – William of Orange lands in Tor Bay, England, heralding the start of the Glorious Revolution whereby he becomes William III of England.
1872 – Suffragist Susan Anthony is fined US$100 for attempting to vote in a US presidential election. She never pays the fine.
1881 – 1600 police and volunteers raid the pacifist settlement at Parihaka to break up the Ma¯ori protest movement opposing European confiscation of native lands.
1895 – George Selden of Rochester, New York, receives the first US patent for an automobile.
1914 – France and Britain declare war on Turkey; Britain annexes Cyprus.
1974 – Ella Grasso is elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win gubernatorial office in the United States without succeeding her husband.
1985 - The UN General Assembly approves a resolution calling on Vietnam to withdraw its forces from Cambodia.
1987 – South Africa releases Govan Mbeki, African National Congress leader and colleague of Nelson Mandela, after 23 years in prison. 1994 – Former US President
Ronald Reagan, left, 83, discloses he has Alzheimer’s; George Foreman, 45, becomes boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion by knocking out Michael Moorer in the 10th round of their World Boxing Association fight in Las Vegas.
1995 – A draft peace accord presented to the parties in Bosnia excludes Serb leader Radovan Karadzic from power.
1999 – All Blacks coach John Hart quits after the team’s fourth placing in the Rugby World Cup, it’s worst ever result - at that point.
2006 – Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by an Iraqi court for crimes against humanity.
2010 – A surge of searing gas races down the sides of Mt Merapi, smothering houses, cattle and Indonesian villagers in its path. The death toll after the volcano’s largest eruption in a century soared to 122.
2012 – 29 Pike River miners died because of massive failings on the part of their employers and government agencies, a royal commission announces.