Today in History

1066 – Harold II is crowned king of England on the death of his brother-in-law, Edward the Confessor.

1649 – England’s Parliament votes to put Charles I on trial for treason.

1838 – Samuel Morse first publicly demonstrates his telegraph, in Morristown, New Jersey.

1907 – Italian physician and educator Maria Montessori, right, opens her first school, in Rome.

1919 – Theodore Roosevelt, 26th US president (1901-09), dies.

1929 – Young novice Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu arrives in Kolkata to begin working with the poor. She becomes known as Mother Teresa.

1942 – The Pan American Airways Pacific Clipper arrives in New York after the first round-the-world trip by a commercial airliner.

1953 – Godfrey Bowen sets a world record, for shearing 456 full-wool ewes in nine hours, at piki, near Palmerston North.

1971 – The US Army drops charges against four officers of covering up the My Lai massacre of unarmed villagers in Vietnam.

1994 – Olympic skating hopeful Nancy Kerrigan is attacked, an act arranged by a rival’s ex-husband.

2001 – The US Congress certifies George W Bush winner of a closefought presidential election that hung on disputed votes in Florida.

2005 – A baby boy is declared China’s 1.3 billionth citizen in a blaze of publicity to promote the government’s ‘‘one child’’ birth limits.

2016 – North Korea claims it has successfully tested its first hydrogen bomb.

Birthdays

Joan of Arc, French leader and saint (1412-31); Kate Edger, first NZ woman to gain a university degree (1857-1935); Norm Kirk, NZ politician (1923-74); John DeLorean, US car engineer (1925-2005); Rowan Atkinson, UK actor (1955-); Hone Harawira, NZ politician (1955-); Kapil Dev, Indian cricketer (1959-); Nigella Lawson, UK cookery writer/ broadcaster (1960-).