Today in History

1648 – Scots begin second Civil War. 1707 – Acts of Union between England and Scotland come into effect under the name Great Britain. 1786 – Mozart’s opera Marriage of Figaro premieres in Vienna.

1840 – The world’s first adhesive postage stamp, the Penny Black, is issued in Britain.

1851 – Great Exhibition opens at the Crystal Palace in London.

1886 – US general strike for an eight-hour working day begins. 1893 – Richard Seddon becomes New Zealand premier.

1931 – President Herbert Hoover officially dedicates New York City’s Empire State Building.

1942 – Japanese forces take Mandalay, Burma, in World War II. 1948 – The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, known as North Korea, is proclaimed.

1955 – Five New Zealand jets attack Malayan guerrillas, in NZ’s first combat strike since World War II. 1960 – The Soviet Union shoots down US U-2 spy plane.

1967 – Elvis Presley, left, marries Priscilla Beaulieu in Las Vegas.

1970 – US and South Vietnamese troops invade Cambodia to root out Vietnamese Communist bases.

1979 – Greenland gains home rule from Denmark.

1988 – Police clash with demonstrators throughout Poland as thousands heed Solidarity’s call for national day of protest.

1997 – British Labour Party, under Tony Blair, elected to government after 18 years in opposition; Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness win two Northern Ireland seats.

Birthdays

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (1769-1852); Otto von Bismarck, German statesman (1815-98); Sir Francis Joseph Kitts, NZ politician, longest-serving mayor of Wellington (1912-1979); Joseph Heller, US writer (1923-99); Dick Joyce, NZ Olympic gold-medallist rower (1946-); Glenn Ford, Canadian-born movie actor (1916-2006).