Today in History

1522 – Juan Sebastian Del Cano completes first circumnavigation of the world.

1901 – United States President William McKinley, right, is shot in Buffalo, New York, by an anarchist. He dies eight days later.

1915 – A prototype tank nicknamed Little Willie rolls off the assembly line in England.

1943 – A new high-speed train travelling between New York and Washington DC derails, killing 79 people.

1948 – New Zealand citizenship is established. The British Nationality and New Zealand Citizenship Act gives citizenship to all current residents who had been either born British subjects or later naturalised.

1966 – South African Prime Minister Hendrik Verwoerd, who oversaw the introduction and application of apartheid policies, is stabbed to death.

1988 – Thomas Gregory, 11, becomes the youngest person to swim the English Channel from Cap Gris-Nez to Shakespeare Point, Dover.

1994 – Irish premier Albert Reynolds and Gerry Adams, leader of the IRA-allied Sinn Fein party, commit to peaceful settlement in Northern Ireland.

1997 – Some 2.5 billion people watch television broadcasts of Princess Diana’s funeral, which includes Elton John singing a rewritten Candle in the Wind.

2001 – Air France is cleared to resume Concorde flights after a crash outside Paris in July 2000, which killed 113 people.