Today in history

1693 – The first women’s magazine,

The Ladies’ Mercury, is published by John Dunton in London.

1844 – Founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, and his brother are killed by amob who break into an Illinois jail where they have been imprisoned on politically related charges.

1880 – Ned Kelly and his gang of bushrangers occupy Glenrowan Hotel in Victoria, Australia.

1929 – The world’s first colour TV demonstration takes place in New York City. New Zealand wouldn’t get colour TV until 44 years later.

1932 – A constitution is proclaimed in Siam (now Thailand).

1940 – Soviet Union invades Romania during Worldwar II after King Carol refuses to cede Besarabia and Bukovina.

1949 – New Zealand cricketer Martin Donnelly reaches his 100 in a test against England at Lord’s, London, on his way to 206. New Zealand draw the match and the series.

1954 – The world’s first nuclear power station opens at Obninsk, near Moscow.

1961 – Death ofwilliam Wyler, US film director responsible for Ben Hur.

1967 – The world’s first ATM machine is installed in Enfield, London.

1975 – Kiwi singermarkwilliams tops the New Zealand charts with

Yesterday Was Just the Beginning of My Life. In a long career, Williams became lead singer of Dragon in 2005.

1976 –

Palestinian extremists hijack an Air France plane in Greece with 246 passengers and 12 crew.

1983 – The Melbourne Cricket Club votes to admit women as members.

1996 – US President Bill Clinton and other world leaders at their annual G7 summit in Lyon, France, pledge to combat international terrorism in the aftermath of a truck bomb that killed 19 Americans in Saudi Arabia.

1998 – In Beijing, US President Bill Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin hold a news conference during which they clash over dissidents, the Tiananmen Square massacre and the Dalai Lama.

2000 – The United Nations releases a report that says Aids has killed 19 million people worldwide.

2013 – South Korean President Park Guen-hye arrives in China for four days of talks with President Xi Jinping aimed at reducing tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

Today’s birthdays:

Alexis Bouvard, French astronomer (1767-1843); Charles Stewart Parnell, Irish nationalist leader (1846-1891);

Helen Keller, US blind and deaf scholar

(1880-1968); Bob

Keeshan, US actor

Captain Kangaroo (1927-2004); Ross Perot, US businessman and presidential candidate (1930-2019)