Today in History

1327 – Edward III accedes to the English throne.

1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

1554 – Jesuit priests found what is now the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo. 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte becomes president of the Italian Republic.

1905 – The 3106-carat Cullinan Diamond, the largest yet discovered, is found in the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa. 1918 – Russia is declared a republic of Soviets.

1924 – The first Winter Olympics open at

Chamonix, in the French Alps. 1942 – Thailand, allied to Japan, declares war on Britain and the United States.

1944 – The Battle for Cassino begins in Italy. 1949 – First Israeli election, won by David Ben-Gurion’s Mapai party.

1961 – US President John F Kennedy holds the first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television. 1971 – Idi Amin, left, leads military coup that overthrows President Milton Obote in Uganda; cult leader Charles Manson is convicted, with followers Susan Atkins, Leslie Van Houten, and Patricia Krenwinkle, of the 1969 murders of actress Sharon Tate and six others in Los Angeles.

1974 – First day of competition at the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

1979 – Pope John Paul II begins his first overseas visit, to the Dominican Republic, Mexico and the Bahamas.

1980 – Paul McCartney is deported from Japan after marijuana was found in his luggage.

1981 – The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days return home; Jiang Qing, the widow of Chinese leader Mao Zedong, is sentenced to death for her ‘‘counterrevolutionary crimes’’ during the Cultural Revolution.

1985 – Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram, aged 18, plays his first test, against New Zealand at Eden Park, Auckland.

2011 – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin vows revenge for the suicide bombing that killed 35 people at a Moscow airport the previous day.

2014 – Li Na, of China, becomes the first Asian winner of the Australian Open tennis tournament, beating Dominika Cibulkova´ of Slovakia 7-6, 6-0.

2015 – Radical Left-wing party Syriza wins election in Greece, vowing to end an austerity programme and setting up a showdown with international creditors.

Birthdays

Robert Boyle, Anglo-Irish physicist (1627-91); Robert Burns, UK poet (1759-96); Tahupo¯tiki Wiremu Rᾱtana, NZ church leader (1873-1939); W Somerset Maugham, UK author (1874-1965); Virginia Woolf, UK author (1882-1941); Eusebio, Portuguese footballer (1942-2014); Christine Fletcher, NZ politician (1955-); Xavi Hernandez, Spanish footballer (1980-); Alicia Keys, US singer (1981-).