Today in History
1386 – Treaty of Windsor is signed between Portugal and England, cementing what remains the world’s longest continuing alliance.
1509 – Christopher Columbus sails from Cadiz on his fourth and last voyage to the New World.
1671 – Thomas Blood, an Irish adventurer, is captured attempting to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.
1788 – British Parliament votes to abolish the slave trade.
1865 – US President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation declaring armed resistance in the South is virtually at an end, making it the commonly accepted end date of the American Civil War.
1907 – New Zealand’s first School Journal is published.
1914 – Mother’s Day is proclaimed in the United States.
1915 – NZ tennis star Anthony Wilding, four times Wimbledon champion, is killed in action in France.
1933 – In Berlin, 25,000 books are thrown into a bonfire in the first Nazi book burning.
1936 – Italy annexes Ethiopia. 1941 – British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines, above.
1945 – New Zealand celebrates VE Day after a 24-hour delay, to wait for the official declaration of peace from Britain.
1946 – King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and is succeeded by his son Umberto II, who reigns for only 34 days before the monarchy is abolished.
1960 – The US Food and Drug Administration approves use of a birth control pill.
1969 – New York Times reporter William Beecher breaks news of US forces’ secret bombing raids over Cambodia.
1974 – The US House of Representatives’ judiciary committee opens impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon, voting to impeach him on three counts on July 30.
1978 – The bullet-riddled body of former Italian prime minister Aldo Moro is found, 54 days after his abduction by Red Brigade terrorists.
1994 – South Africa’s newly elected parliament chooses Nelson Mandela as its first black president.
2009 – The Napier siege ends, with the discovery of gunman Jan Molenaar’s body. 2017 – US President Donald Trump dismisses FBI director James Comey.
Birthdays
John Brown, US anti-slavery activist (1800-59); Sir James Barrie, UK writer (1860-1937); Alan Bennett, UK writer (1934-); Albert Finney, UK actor (1936-2019); Glenda Jackson, UK actor/politician (1936-); Billy Joel, US musician (1949-); Shane van Gisbergen, NZ racing driver (1989-).