Today in History

1693 – The first women’s magazine, The

Ladies’ Mercury, is published in London. 1829 – English scientist James Smithson dies. His will requested the establishment of the Smithsonian Institution.

1844 – The founder of the Mormon Church, Joseph Smith, and his brother are killed by a mob who break into an Illinois jail where they had been imprisoned on politically related charges.

1880 – Ned Kelly and his bushrangers occupy Glenrowan Hotel in Victoria, Australia.

1898 – Canadian-born Joshua Slocum completes the first recorded single-handed circumnavigation of the world, in a gaff rigged sloop named Spray.

1929 – The world’s first colour TV demonstration takes place in New York. New Zealand wouldn’t get colour TV until 44 years later. 1936 — A statue of Sir Ma¯ ui Po¯ mare, right, is unveiled at Waitara, in Taranaki. The first Ma¯ori medical graduate, Po¯mare was a health reformer and Cabinet minister.

1939 – One of the most famous scenes in

movie history is shot – the parting of Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara in Gone with the

Wind.

1940 – Germans employ Enigma coding machine for the first time.

1950 – US President Harry Truman orders US forces to Korea, to help repulse an invasion by communist North Korea.

1954 – The world’s first nuclear power station opens at Obninsk, near Moscow.

1957 – The British Medical Research Council publishes a report suggesting a direct link between smoking and lung cancer.

1967 – The world’s first ATM is installed in Enfield, London.

1975 – Northland-born Mark Williams’

Yesterday was Just the Beginning of My Life

tops the Kiwi music charts.

1976 – A factory storekeeper in Sudan becomes ill and dies five days later in the first recorded case of Ebola.

2001 – The US actor Jack Lemmon dies, aged 76.

2008 – Bill Gates steps down as chairman of Microsoft to work fulltime for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

Birthdays

Helen Keller, US blind and deaf scholar (1880-1968); William (Bill) Sutch, NZ diplomat acquitted of spying for Soviets (1907-1975); Edgar ‘‘Cobber’’ Kain, NZ fighter pilot (1918-1940); Ben Couch, NZ politician, All Black (1925-1996); Brian Brake, NZ photographer (1927-1988); Brendon Pongia, NZ basketball player and TV presenter (1969-); Tobey Maguire, US actor (1975-); Kevin Pietersen, UK cricketer (1980-); Khloe Kardashian, US TV personality (1984-); Nico Rosberg, German F1 driver (1985-).