Today in History

529 – First draft of Corpus Juris Civilis (fundamental work in jurisprudence) issued by Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I.

1530 – King Henry VIII’s divorce request from Catherine of Aragon is denied by the pope. Henry declares that he, not the pope, is head of England’s church.

1614 – Painter, sculptor and architect El Greco dies in Spain.

1739 – Dick Turpin, English highwayman, is hanged for murder at York.

1956 – First state secondary school opens in NZ, Nelson College.

1876 – Alexander Graham Bell receives a US patent for the phone. 1912 – Norwegian explorer Roald

Amundsen, left, announces the discovery of the South Pole.

1927 – Image and voice of Commerce Secretary Herbert Hoover are transmitted live from Washington to New York in the first successful long-distance demonstration of television.

1933 – Purge of Jews, socialists and democrats in public office begins in Germany. Nazis came to power a month earlier.

1948 – World Health Organisation set up.

2007 – Russian rocket carrying US billionaire Charles Simonyi and two cosmonauts blasts off en route to the international space station. Simonyi paid US$20m.

2008 – Coroner’s jury in London rules Princess Diana and boyfriend Dodi Fayed were unlawfully killed through the reckless actions of their driver and paparazzi in 1997.

2009 – Israel successfully tests an anti-missile system.

Birthdays

David Low, NZ cartoonist (1891-1964); Geoffrey Cox, NZ war correspondent (1910-2008); Billie Holiday, US jazz singer (1915-57); Moana-Nui-a-Kiwa Ngarimu, NZ soldier, posthumous VC recipient (1918-43); David Frost, British TV personality (1939-2013); Francis Ford Coppola, US director (1939-); Viv Richards, West Indies cricketer (1952-); Russell Crowe, NZ actor (1964-).