Today in History
1272 – Death of Henry III of England, who had ruled since 1216.
1581 – Tsar Ivan the Terrible attacks his son and heir, Ivan Ivanovich, with a sceptre after an argument, leading to the latter’s death three days later.
1840 – New Zealand officially becomes a separate colony of Britain; the North, South and Stewart Islands are to be known respectively as the provinces of New Ulster, New Munster and New Leinster.
1869 – Ma¯ori rebel Hamiora Pere is hanged in Wellington, becoming the first and only New Zealander executed for treason. 1907 – Oklahoma becomes the 46th state of the United States.
1959 – Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music premieres in New York.
1968 – Soviet Union announces it has launched world’s largest space ship to date, the Proton Four.
1970 – Pakistani officials say death toll in typhoon and tidal wave that struck Bay of Bengal may reach 500,000.
1989 – South African President FW de Klerk announces the scrapping of the Separate Amenities Act, opening up the country’s beaches to all races. 2000 – The only known oil painting of Winnie-the-Pooh done by illustrator Ernest Howard Shepard is sold at auction to a Winnipeg museum for C$243,000.
2000 – Bill Clinton becomes the first US President to visit Vietnam since the end of the Vietnam War.
2001 – First Harry Potter film, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, opens in United States theatres.
2006 – Death of Milton Friedman, economist who championed free markets, and won the 1976 Nobel Prize for economics.
2006 – The Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa is in ruins after pro-democracy rioters attack buildings and businesses linked to the royal family and Chinese immigrants.
2007 – A Sydney coroner declares that the ‘‘Balibo Five’’ – five Australia-based journalists, including Kiwi Gary Cunningham, left – were murdered by Indonesian soldiers during the 1975 invasion of East Timor, to prevent them from exposing the role of the Indonesian military in the takeover.
2010 – Engagement announced between Prince William and Catherine Middleton at Clarence House, London.
2015 – Largest diamond discovered in more than a century, a 1111-carat stone found in the Karowe mine, Botswana.
Birthdays
Roman Emperor Tiberius (42BC-37AD); Burgess Meredith, US actor (1910-1998); Chinua Achebe, Nigerian writer (1930-2013); Chris Laidlaw, All Black and politician (1943-); Andy Dalton, All Black (1951-); Griff Rhys Jones, UK actor (1953-); Frank Bruno, UK boxer (1961-); Diana Krall, Canadian jazz singer (1964-); Waqar Younis, Pakistani cricketer (1971-); Maggie Gylllenhaal, US actress (1977-).