Today in History

1531 – Henry VIII recognised as supreme head of the Church in England by the Convocation of Canterbury.

1669 – Mt Etna, in Sicily, begins rumbling. Multiple eruptions over the next few weeks kill more than 20,000 people and leave thousands more homeless.

1702 – Queen Anne ascends British throne after the death of King William III. 1865 – Canal is begun in the Netherlands to connect Amsterdam with North Sea. 1917 – Riots and strikes in St Petersburg, marking start of Russian Revolution.

1921 – New Zealand appoints the first trainee school dental nurses. 1930 – Mohandas Gandhi, left,

begins his campaign of civil disobedience against British rule in India. 1942 – Japanese forces capture Rangoon, Burma, in World War II. 1948 – US Supreme Court rules that religious instruction in public schools violates the constitution.

1966 – Nelson Column in Dublin is destroyed by an IRA bomb.

2001 – Dame Ninette de Valois, founder of the Royal Ballet, dies in London, aged 102.

2006 – European Union agrees to end a 10-year ban on British beef, imposed at the height of the 1990s mad cow disease crisis.

2014 – Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 disappears while flying from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing, with 239 people on board.

2015 – US President Barack Obama, speaking at the 50th anniversary of the Selma civil rights march, tells a cheering crowd their march ‘‘is not yet finished’’.

Birthdays

Kenneth Grahame, UK author (1859-1932); Otto Hahn, German chemist (1879-1968); Cyd Charisse, US actress-dancer (1921-2008); Prince Tui Teka, NZ musician (1937-); Gary Numan, UK musician (1958-), Ross Taylor, NZ cricketer (1984-).