Today in History
1431 – Joan of Arc is burned at the stake for heresy.
1593 – English playwright Christopher Marlowe is killed in a brawl over a bar tab. 1806 – Future United States president Andrew Jackson kills Charles Dickinson in a duel to settle an argument over a horse bet. 1842 – John Francis attempts to assassinate Queen Victoria as she rides in her carriage with Prince Albert in London.
1848 – Mexico ratifies a treaty giving New Mexico, California and parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Colorado to the United States in return for US$15 million.
1883 – Twelve people are trampled to death when a rumour that the recently opened Brooklyn Bridge in New York is in imminent danger of collapsing causes a stampede. 1895 – WG Grace, left, becomes the first cricketer to score 1000 first-class runs by the end of May.
1901 – A royal commission in New Zealand rejects the idea that the colony should become an Australian state.
1911 – Ray Harroun wins in the first Indianapolis 500 car race in a time of 6 hours, 42 minutes.
1913 – Treaty of London is signed, bringing an end to the First Balkan War
1935 – Babe Ruth plays his last game of baseball.
1959 – The Auckland Harbour Bridge opens. 1964 – The Beatles’ first single Love Me Do single goes to No 1 on the United States record charts.
1965 – Viet Cong offensive against US base at Da Nang begins.
1967 – One Hundred Years of Solitude , by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, is first published, in Buenos Aires.
1971 – United States unmanned Mariner 9 is launched on a mission to gather scientific information on Mars.
1983 – Essex dismiss Surrey for 14 in an English county cricket match, still the lowest first-class score since the 1920s.
1996 – The New Zealand Order of Merit is introduced in a new honours system.
1998 – A powerful earthquake rocks northern Afghanistan, burying entire villages and killing thousands of people.
1999 – Fifty-three people, mostly teenage girls, are trampled to death as they try to escape a sudden hailstorm at an outdoor rock concert in Belarus.
2017 – Large suicide bomb in the diplomatic quarter of Kabul, Afghanistan, kills more than 150 and injures 400.
Birthdays
Dante Alighieri, Italian poet (1265-1321); Peter the Great, Russian tsar (1672-1725); Mel Blanc, US voice actor (1908-89); Benny Goodman, US bandleader (1909-86); Pro Hart, Australian artist (1928-2006) Bob Willis, UK cricketer (1949-2019); Allison Roe, NZ athlete (1956-); Harry Enfield, UK comedian (1961-); Tony Iro, NZ league player/coach (1967-); Paul Henare, NZ basketball player/coach (1976-); Steven Gerrard, UK footballer/coach (1980-).