Today in History

1861 – Archer wins the inaugural Melbourne Cup.

1908 – Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid are reportedly killed in Bolivia.

1910 – Death of Count Leo Tolstoy, right, author of War and Peace and Anna Karenina.

1912 – The Public Service Act is passed, creating a framework for New Zealand’s bureaucracy that was to last until 1988.

1917 – Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks seize power, overthrowing the provisional government in Russia.

1931 – Chinese People’s Republic proclaimed by Mao Zedong.

1940 – The original Tacoma Narrows Bridge in Washington state collapses in a windstorm, four months after its completion.

1972 – US President Richard Nixon is re-elected.

1975 – India’s Supreme Court reverses Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s conviction on two electoral offences.

1980 – Death of US actor Steve Mcqueen.

1982 – Actress Elizabeth Taylor files for her seventh divorce, from politician John Warner.

1991 – NBA basketball star Magic Johnson announces he has the HIV virus and retires from the Los Angeles Lakers.

1996 – Martin Bryant changes his plea to guilty over the Port Arthur shootings in Tasmania.

2011 – Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, is convicted of involuntary manslaughter for administering the powerful anaesthetic that killed the pop star.

Birthdays

James Cook, British explorer (1728-79); Marie Curie, Polishfrench scientist (1867-1934); Leon Trotsky, Russian Communist (1879-1940); Billy Graham, US evangelist (1918-2018), Dame Silvia Cartwright, New Zealand judge and governor-general (1943-); Ladi6, NZ rap singer (1982-); Lorde, NZ pop singer (1996-).