Today in History

1642 – Harvard College in Cambridge, Massachusetts, holds its first commencement ceremony.

1846 – The planet Neptune is first observed by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.

1875 – Billy the Kid is arrested for the first time after stealing laundry. He later broke out of jail and roamed the American West as an outlaw.

1887 – The mountaintops of

Tongariro, Ngāuruhoe and Ruapehu in the central North Island are gifted to the Crown by Ngāti Tūwharetoa, forming the nucleus of Tongariro National Park.

1889 – Nintendo Karuta, forerunner of the video game company, is founded in Japan to make playing cards.

1932 – Abdulaziz Ibn Saud merges the kingdoms of Nejd and Hejaz into the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

1957 – Nine black students entering Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas are forced to withdraw by a white mob outside.

1973 – Juan Peron is elected for his third and final presidential term in Argentina.

1987 – Senator Joe Biden, left, withdraws from the Democratic presidential race after questions about borrowed quotations and the portrayal of his academic record.

2010 – The US delegation walks out of the UN speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad after he refers to speculation that Americans were behind the September 11 terror attacks, staged to assure Israel’s survival.

2018 – Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi launches the world’s biggest healthcare plan, catering for 500 million people.

Birthdays

Augustus Caesar, Roman emperor (63BC-14AD); John Coltrane US musician (1926-67); Ray Charles, US musician (1932-2004); Julio Iglesias, Spanish singer (1943-); Bruce Springsteen, US musician (1949-); Ryan Crotty, All Black (1988-); Lea Tahuhu, NZ cricketer (1990-).