Today in History

1399 – Richard II becomes the first English monarch to abdicate.

1789 – Congress votes to create the United States Army, made up of 1000 enlisted men and officers.

1829 – The first units of the Metropolitan Police appear on the streets of London.

1862 – First professional opera performance in NZ staged by English Opera Troupe and Royal Princess Theatre Company in Dunedin. 1916 – American oil tycoon John D Rockefeller becomes the world’s first billionaire.

1918 – Allied forces breach the ‘‘Hindenburg Line’’, last line of German defences on Western Front.

1939 – Germany and the USSR agree to divide control of occupied Poland roughly along the Bug River.

1941 – Over two days, German forces kill 33,771 Jewish men, women and children in the Babi Yar massacre at a ravine near Kyiv.

1950 – General Douglas Macarthur hands over Seoul to President

Syngman Rhee of South Korea.

1979 – Pope John Paul II, left, arrives in Ireland for the first papal visit there.

1988 – The shuttle Discovery is launched in the first space mission since the explosion of the shuttle Challenger in January 1986.

2008 – Dow Jones Industrial Average has its biggest single-day loss, at the time the largest singleday point loss in its history.

2015 – Fifa bans ex-vice-president Jack Warner from all football activity for life due to ‘‘misconduct’’.

Birthdays

Miguel de Cervantes, Spanish author (1547-1616); Caravaggio, Italian artist (1571-1610); Horatio Nelson, UK admiral (1758-1805); Gene Autry, US singer (1907-98); Anita Ekberg, Swedish actor (1931-2015); Jerry Lee Lewis, US musician (1935-); Silvio Berlusconi, Italian politician (1936-); Lech Walesa, Polish politician (1943-); Jenny Morris, Nz-born singer (1956-); Sebastian Coe, UK athlete/politician (1956-); Julia Gillard, Australian politician (1961-); Kevin Durant, US basketballer (1988-).