Today in History

192 – Roman emperor Commodus is strangled in his bath, after surviving an attempt by his mistress to poison him.

1660 – The London-based East India Company is granted a trading charter by Elizabeth I. By the early 18th century, it had grown to become an agent of British imperialism, intervening in Indian and Chinese political affairs.

1853 – Sir George Grey leaves New

Zealand after his first term as governor. He returned eight years later for a second term, and later served as premier from 1877-79.

1879 – US inventor Thomas Edison gives the first demonstration of his electric incandescent light at Menlo Park, New Jersey.

1911 – Physicist Marie Curie, left, is awarded her second Nobel prize, in chemistry, for her discovery of polonium and radium.

1923 – The chimes of Big Ben in London are first broadcast on BBC radio to herald the new year.

1935 – Charles Darrow receives a patent for his board game Monopoly.

1974 – Private citizens in the United States are allowed to buy and own gold for the first time in more than 40 years.

1999 – US hands over the Panama Canal to Panamanian control; Boris Yeltsin resigns as president of Russia, leaving Vladimir Putin as acting president.

2003 – Four climbers, including mountain guides Paul Scaife and David Hiddleston, are killed in an avalanche on Mt Tasman, in AorakiMt Cook National Park.

Birthdays

‘‘Bonnie Prince’’ Charles Stuart, claimant to British throne (17201788); Henri Matisse, French artist (1869-1954); Sir Anthony Hopkins, UK actor (1937-); Sir Alex Ferguson, UK footballmanager (1941-); John Denver, US singer (1943-97); Sir Vaughan Jones, NZ mathematician (1952-2020); Guyon Espiner, NZ journalist (1970-); Richiemccaw, All Black (1980-).