Today in History

1305 – Scottish independence leader William Wallace is executed in London for high treason.

1839 – Hong Kong is taken by the British in a war with China.

1920 – Violet Waldron, 15, becomes New Zealand’s first female Olympian, in a 100m freestyle heat at the Antwerp Games.

1926 – Film idol Rudolph Valentino dies in a New York hospital, aged 31. 1938 – England hit 903-7 declared against Australia at The Oval, with

Len Hutton, left, scoring 364. 1939 – New Zealand poet and writer Robin Hyde takes her own life in London, aged 33; the Soviet Union and Germany sign a nonaggression pact.

1942 – 40,000 people are killed as German planes bomb Stalingrad.

1947 – British immigrants arrive in Auckland on the Rangitata liner under an assistance scheme that resumed after World War II.

1975 – Communists complete their takeover of Laos.

2000 – Richard Hatch wins the season-one finale of the reality television show Survivor and takes home the US$1 million prize.

2005 – Hurricane Katrina forms over the Bahamas, later becoming a category 5 hurricane.

2006 – Natascha Kampusch, an Austrian teenager who was kidnapped at age 10, escapes from her captor, Wolfgang Priklopil, after more than eight years. Priklopil kills himself hours later.

2011 – Sexual assault charges against former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn are dropped.

Birthdays

Louis XVI of France (1754-93); Gene Kelly, US actor-dancer (1912-96); Peter Thomson, Australian golfer (1929-2018); Keith Moon, UK musician, The Who (1946-78); Willy Russell, UK playwright (1947-); River Phoenix, US actor (1970-93); Greg Murphy, NZ racing driver (1972-); Sean Marks, NZ basketball player (1975-); Kobe Bryant, US basketball player (1978-).