Today in History

1783 – Big earthquake in Calabria, southern Italy, lays about 100 villages to waste. The event, along with a second quake, tsunami, aftershocks and starvation, kills an estimated 80,000 people.

1811 – British Regency Act is passed, whereby the Prince of Wales becomes Prince Regent during George III’s temporary insanity.

1867 – The 27-kilometre

Invercargill-Bluff railway line opens. It is New Zealand’s third public railway.

1885 – Leopold II of Belgium establishes the Congo as a personal colonial possession.

1911 – Vivian Walsh, left, makes the first recorded controlled powered flight in New Zealand, travelling for 350 metres at a height of 20m in South Auckland.

1922 – First Reader’s Digest magazine published.

1924 – The Royal Greenwich Observatory begins broadcasting

the hourly time signals known as the "BBC pips".

1936 – Modern Times, silent film directed by, written by and starring Charlie Chaplin, is released.

1945 – US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manila.

1962 – French President de Gaulle calls for Algerian independence.

1976 – Earthquake in Guatemala kills almost 23,000 people.

1994 – First Big Day Out festival, at Auckland’s Mt Smart Stadium.

1997 – OJ Simpson found liable in a civil court action for the deaths of Ron Goldman and Nicole Simpson.

2013 – Britain’s House of Commons votes in favour of same-sex marriage.