Today in History

1492 – Fall of Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain.

1839 – French photographer Louis Daguerre reportedly takes the first photograph of the Moon.

1879 – Australian bowler Fred Spofforth takes the first hat-trick in test cricket, against England at the MCG.

1903 – US President Theodore Roosevelt closes a post office in Mississippi because of its refusal to accept a black postmistress. 1906 – US engineerWillis Carrier is granted a patent for the first air conditioner.

1938 – The first official New Zealand airmail to the United States leaves Auckland for San Francisco on a flying boat. The mail arrives in the US on January 6.

1942 – Philippines capital Manila is captured by Japanese.

1960 – Massachusetts senator John F Kennedy announces his candidacy for the Democratic presidential nomination.

1969 – RupertMurdoch secures control of the News of the World, his first foothold in the British media.

1971 – Sixty-six people die when a crowd barrier gives way at a football match in Glasgow between Rangers and Celtic. 1974 – US President Richard Nixon signs a law limiting speeds on all national highways to 55mph. It is not repealed until 1995.

1981 – Serial killer Peter Sutcliffe, until then known as the Yorkshire Ripper, is arrested. He was later jailed for life for the murders of 13 women.

1992 – Spin bowler ShaneWarne, left, makes his debut for Australia, against India in Sydney.

2004 – The US Stardust spacecraft downloads images and collects samples of space dust after surviving inside the tail of theWild 2 comet about 390 million kilometres from Earth.

2005 – After the devastation wreaked by the Boxing Day tsunami, a deluge triggers flash floods in Sri Lanka.

2006 – The roof of an ice rink in southern Germany collapses after a heavy snowfall, killing 15 people.

2008 – A mob torches a church where hundreds had sought refuge in Eldoret, Kenya. About 30 people, mostly women and children, are burned or hacked to death in ethnic violence after a disputed election. 2018 – The World Health Organisation says it will classify gaming addiction as amental health condition in its next Classification of Diseases.

Birthdays

Isaac Asimov, Russian-born US writer (1920-92); Roger Miller, US singer (1936-92); David Bailey, UK photographer (1938-); Arthur Allan Thomas, NZ farmer wrongfully convicted of murder (1938-); John Hood, NZborn Oxford University vice-chancellor (1952-); Francois Pienaar, South African rugby player (1967-); Cuba Gooding Jr, US actor (1968-); Christy Turlington, US model (1969-); Reuben Thorne, All Black (1975-).