Today in History

1602 – Dutch East India Company is established. During its 96-year history it becomes one of the world’s most powerful companies. 1616 – Sir Walter Raleigh is freed from the Tower of London to seek gold in Guiana.

1815 – Napoleon arrives back in Paris from Elba to reclaim power at the start of ‘‘the Hundred Days’’ before defeat at Waterloo.

1834 – Northern chiefs meet at Waitangi to choose a first national flag. They adopt the design known as the United Tribes ensign, left.

1846 – The foundation stone of Melbourne’s Princes Bridge is laid.

1916 – Allies agree on partition of Turkey.

1933 – First concentration camp is opened in Germany, at Dachau.

1956 – France recognises independence of Tunisia, with Habib Bourguiba as first president.

1964 – Death of Irish writer Brendan Behan.

1969 – Beatle John Lennon weds Japanese artist Yoko Ono.

1987 – Italian air force General Livio Giorgieri is shot dead by two youths on motorcycle, an attack attributed to Red Brigades terrorists; the sale of AZT, a drug shown to prolong the lives of Aids patients, is approved in the US.

2000 – Germany’s scandal-scarred Christian Democrats nominate Angela Merkel as the country’s first woman leader.

2010 – Pope Benedict XVI sends an unprecedented letter to Ireland apologising for chronic child abuse within the Roman Catholic church.

2011 – Japanese officials report progress in their battle to gain control over a leaking, tsunamistricken nuclear complex.

Birthdays

Ovid, Latin poet (43 BC-17 AD); Phil Judd, NZ musician (1953-); Louis Sachar, US children’s author (1954-); Spike Lee, US filmmaker (1957-); Holly Hunter, US actor (1958-); Lawrence Makoare, NZ actor (1968-); Keven Mealamu, All Black (1979-).