Today in History

753 BC – According to legend, the city of Rome is founded by Romulus and Remus.

1910 – Death of United States author Mark Twain.

1918 – Baron Manfred von Richthofen, right, the German flying ace known as the Red Baron, is killed in action in World War I. 1960 – Brazil’s capital moves from Rio de Janeiro to Brasilia.

1989 –Thousands of students, shouting for democracy and human rights, march from campuses to converge on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

1995 – FBI arrests former soldier Timothy McVeigh in connection with the deadly Oklahoma City bombing two days earlier.

2002 – French far-Right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen shocks France and the world by coming second in the first round of a presidential election, qualifying for the run-off with incumbent Jacques Chirac.

2004 – Nuclear whistleblower

Mordechai Vanunu is freed from prison in Israel after 18 years, saying he is proud of revealing secrets that exposed Israel as an atomic power.

2011 – Japan seals off a wide area around the radiation-spewing Fukushima nuclear power plant to prevent thousands of residents from sneaking back to the homes they had been forced to evacuate.

2016 – US musician Prince is found dead at his home near Minneapolis, aged 57, from an accidental overdose of the opioid fentanyl.

Birthdays

Charlotte Bronte, UK novelist (1816-55); Queen Elizabeth II (1926-); Sir Geoffrey Palmer, NZ politician (1942-); Iggy Pop, US singer (1947-); Tony Danza, US actor (1951-); Danyon Loader, NZ swimmer (1975-); James McAvoy, Scottish actor (1979-).

Correction

Allison Roe (History, April 20) was not the first New Zealander to win the Boston Marathon. She was the first New Zealand woman to do so.