Today in History

1043 – Edward the Confessor crowned king of England.

1657 – Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell refuses the English crown.

1882 – Outlaw Jesse James is shot in the back at St Joseph, Missouri, by a member of his gang.

1913 – UK women’s suffrage activist Emmeline Pankhurst is convicted of encouraging supporters to arson and jailed for three years. 1922 – Lenin appoints Stalin general secretary of the Russian Communist Party.

1943 – Tensions between Kiwi troops and their American counterparts posted to New Zealand boil over into a mass brawl in central Wellington, dubbed the Battle of Manners St.

1948 – US President Harry Truman signs the Marshall Plan, which brings US$5 billion in aid to 16 European countries.

1973 – The world’s first portable cellphone call is made in New York.

1982 – Britain dispatches a naval taskforce to the south Atlantic to reclaim the disputed Falkland Islands from Argentina.

1991 – Death of British novelist Graham Greene, left, aged 86, in

Switzerland.

2007 – Disappearance of British 3-year-old Madeleine McCann on holiday in Portugal; a commission of inquiry into the culture of the New Zealand police force prompts an apology from the police commissioner for the ‘‘disgraceful’’ actions of rogue officers.

2016 – Publication of the Panama Papers, exposing illegal tax activity.

Birthdays

Henry IV, king of England (1367-1413); Niccolo Macchiavelli, Italian philosopher (1469-1527); Marlon Brando, US actor (1924-2004); Doris Day, US actresssinger (1924-2019); Jane Goodall, UK primatologist (1934-); James Brown, US singer (1933-2006); David Carter, NZ politician (1952-); Eddie Murphy, US actor (1961-); Nigel Farage, UK politician (1964-).