Today in History

1014 – King Sweyn I of Denmark dies. His son Cnut, or Canute, is proclaimed king of England.

1867 – Prince Mutsuhito becomes Emperor Meiji of Japan at 14. 1868 – More than 40 people die after an ex-tropical cyclone sweeps south across New Zealand.

1924 – Woodrow Wilson, 28th US president, and architect of the League of Nations, dies, aged 67. 1928 – Palaeoanthropologist

Davidson Black declares ancient human fossils found at Zhoukoudian, China, to be a new species, ‘‘Sinanthropus pekinensis’’ (now known as ‘‘ Homo erectus’’). 1931 – A 7.8-magnitude quake kills 256 people and destroys many buildings in Napier and Hastings. 1959 – Rock musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and JP ‘‘The Big Bopper’’ Richardson are killed in a plane crash in Iowa.

1960 – World premiere of La Dolce Vita, Federico Fellini’s classic film. 1966 – First controlled, rocketassisted landing on Moon, by Soviet unmanned spacecraft Luna IX. 1984 – A woman in California becomes the world’s first to give birth from a donated embryo. 1994 – US President Bill Clinton lifts 19-year trade embargo against Vietnam.

2003 – US music producer Phil Spector is arrested after the death of actress Lana Clarkson.

2009 – Harry Potter author JK Rowling is named a chevalier of the French Legion of Honour.

2014 – Olympic swimmer Ian

Thorpe is admitted to hospital with depression after being found disoriented in a Sydney street.

Birthdays

Felix Mendelssohn, German composer (1809-47); Horace MooreJones, UK/NZ soldier/war artist (1868-1922); Gertrude Stein, US author (1874-1946); Gordon Coates, NZ politician (1878-1943); Guy Ngan, NZ artist (1926-2017); Steve Maharey, NZ politician (1953-); Isla Fisher, Australian actor (1976-); Amal Clooney, British lawyer (1978-).