Today in History

217 – Roman emperor Caracalla is assassinated (and succeeded) by his Praetorian Guard prefect, Marcus Opellius Macrinus.

1783 – Catherine II (‘‘the Great’’) of Russia annexes the Crimea.

1820 – Ancient Greek statue the Venus de Milo is discovered on the Aegean island of Milos.

1873 – Julius Vogel, right, becomes premier of New Zealand. He introduced a huge programme of immigration and public works.

1913 – Mormon missionary Richard Shumway arrives in Auckland from Vancouver for a hui, sparking a smallpox epidemic that, by year’s end, killed 55 people, all Ma¯ori.

1919 – Russian Communist army enters the Crimea.

1939 – King Zog of Albania flees as the country is invaded by Italy.

1946 – The League of Nations assembles in Geneva for the last time. 1986 – Actor Clint Eastwood is elected mayor of Carmel, California.

1994 – Nirvana musician Kurt Cobain is found dead in his home in Seattle, Washington. It is determined that he died three days earlier.

2009 – The American crew of a hijacked ship takes control of the vessel from Somali pirates, but the captain is still held hostage in a lifeboat.

2013 – Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s first female prime minister, dies.

2019 – Fourteen tonnes of blackmarket pangolin scales from 36,000 animals are discovered in

Singapore, one of the largest single seizures worldwide.

Birthdays

Sonja Henie, Norwegian skater (1912-1969); Ian Smith, Rhodesian prime minister (1919-2007); Jacques Brel, Belgian singer (1929-78); Kofi Annan, Ghanaian UN secretary-general (1938-2018); Vivienne Westwood, UK fashion designer (1941-); Dame Tariana Turia, NZ politician (1944-); Barbara Kingsolver, US novelist (1955-); Michael Jones, All Black (1965-).