Today in History

1517 – Spanish explorer Francisco Hernandez de Cordoba sets sail from Cuba to ‘‘discover’’ Mexico. 1587 – Mary Queen of Scots is beheaded after being accused of plotting murder of Elizabeth I. 1904 – Russo-Japanese War begins. 1910 – The Boy Scouts of America is incorporated.

1915 – The Birth of a Nation, Civil War epic by DW Griffith, premieres in Los Angeles; a New Zealand warship is ambushed by Ottoman forces in Turkey, leaving Able Seaman William Edward Knowles dead. He is the first New Zealander killed by enemy action in WWI.

1922 – US President Warren

Harding, left, has a radio installed in the White House.

1924 – The first US execution by gas takes place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.

1943 – Japanese troops quit Guadalcanal, leaving the island in Allied hands.

1949 – Republic of Ireland declares it is unable to participate in Nato while island remains divided.

1975 – Soviet spacemen begin training with Americans for joint USSoviet Apollo-Soyuz flights.

1990 – Punctured oil tanker leaks more than 950,000 litres of oil into Pacific, threatening Southern California beaches.

1998 – New tremors kill 250 people in an area of Afghanistan hit by a quake that killed 4500 days earlier.

2009 – Zurich voters break with long-standing Swiss policy by ending tax breaks for wealthy foreigners.

2013 – Funeral of an assassinated leftist politician draws thousands of mourners chanting anti-government slogans to Tunisian capital, adding to the turmoil as the North African nation tries to transition from dictatorship to democracy.