Today in History

1703 – Tokyo hit by earthquake; about 37,000 die.

1777 – Bavaria, on death of Maximillian III, passes to Charles Theodore, Elector of Palatine, igniting the War of the Bavarian Succession.

1803 – Sindhia of Gwalior submits to British in India.

1834 – Church Missionary Society printer William Colenso arrives in the Bay of Islands with New

Zealand’s second printing press.

1835 – Charles Darwin leaves NZ after a nine-day visit.

1903 – About 600 people die in the Iroquois Theater fire in Chicago. 1916 – Self-proclaimed holy man

Rasputin, left, is murdered by Russian nobles.

1922 – Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) established – a confederation of Russia, Belorussia, Ukraine, and the Transcaucasian Federation (divided in 1936 into the Georgian, Azerbaijan, and Armenian republics).

1950 – Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia become independent states within the French Union.

1972 – US halts its heavy bombing of North Vietnam.

1987 – NZ cricket team denied historic win against Australia at the MCG, Melbourne, by dodgy umpiring and last-wicket stand.

1997 – China announces stronger restrictions on the use of the internet, aiming to curtail the use of email and the world wide web among dissidents.

2006 – Saddam Hussein, 69, the former dictator of Iraq who was driven from power by a US-led war, is hanged.

2014 – Search team finds wreckage of AirAsia Flight 8501, which disappeared on December 28.

Birthdays

Rudyard Kipling, English author (1865-1936); Bo Diddley, US singer/ guitarist (1928-2008); Davy Jones, singer/actor of Monkees fame (1945-2012); Tiger Woods, US golfer (1975-); LeBron James, US basketballer (1984-).