Today in History

1497 – Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama leaves Lisbon in search of a sea route to India.

1777 – Vermont introduces a new constitution, making it first United States state to abolish slavery.

1893 – First meeting of the New Zealand Racing Conference, formed to control the thoroughbred horse-racing industry.

1918 – Ernest Hemingway, then an 18-year-old Red Cross ambulance driver, is wounded by amortar shell while serving in Italy during World War I.

1951 – Paris celebrates what it claims to be its 2000th birthday.

1967 – British stage and screen actress Vivien Leigh, left, best known for her award-winning role in Gone with thewind, dies.

1990 – West Germany beats Argentina 1-0 in Rome to win the Fifa World Cup.

1994 – OJ Simpson is ordered to stand trial on charges of murdering his ex-wife, Nicole, and Ronald

Goldman; death of Kimil Sung, leader of North Korea since 1948.

2003 – Ladan and Laleh Bijani, 29-year-old Iranian twins who were joined at the head, die in Singapore in a 54-hour operation after doctors managed to separate their brains but were unable to stop blood loss.

2017 – All Blacks draw 15-15 with the British and Irish Lions, to leave their three-match series tied 1-1.

2018 – Four boys are the first to be brought out of the Tham Luang cave in Thailand by rescuers.

2019 – US financier Jeffrey Epstein is charged with sex trafficking and conspiracy to traffic minors for sex.

Birthdays

Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, German airship inventor (18381917); John D Rockefeller, US oil tycoon (1839-1937); John Money, NZ psychologist, art collector (1921-2006); Waka Nathan, All Black (1940-); Kevin Bacon, US actor (1958-); Steve Gurney, NZ multisport athlete (1963-); Beck, US musician (1970-); Sourav Ganguly, Indian cricketer (1972-).