Today in History

1626 – St Peter’s Basilica in Rome is consecrated.

1874 – The ship Cospatrick, laden with immigrants bound for Auckland, catches fire and sinks off South Africa. Only three of 473 on board survived. Although the tragedy happened far from New Zealand, it has been described as the country’s worst civil disaster. 1903 – United States and Panama sign a treaty granting the US rights to build the Panama Canal.

1916 – British forces call off the first Battle of the Somme after five months of futile fighting.

1918 – Belgians retake Brussels after four years of German occupation.

1928 – Mickey Mouse, left, makes his debut at a New York theatre in

Steamboat Willie.

1947 – A fire in the Ballantyne’s department store in Christchurch kills 41 people.

1976 – Spain’s parliament approves a bill to establish a democracy after 37 years of dictatorship.

1978 – US pastor Jim Jones leads 909 followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana, by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit drink.

1987 – A fire on a wooden escalator at London’s King Cross Underground station kills 31 people.

1991 – Kidnappers in Lebanon free Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite after more than four years.

1993 – South Africa approves a new democratic constitution that gives black people the vote.

1995 – The Vatican says the ban on the ordination of women as priests is an unquestionable part of Catholic Church doctrine.

2018 – American missionary John Chau is killed by tribesmen on the remote North Sentinel Island in the Bay of Bengal.

Birthdays

William Hogarth, UK artist (16971764); Margaret Atwood, Canadian author (1939-); Peter Schmeichel, Danish footballer (1963-); Owen Wilson, US actor (1968-); Chloe Sevigny, US actress (1974-); Nic Sampson, NZ actor (1984-).