The Press

Today in History

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1254 – The British Parliament first convenes.

1531 – Henry VIII is recognised as Supreme Head of the Church in England.

1858 – Bernadette Soubirous,

right, first claims to have seen the Virgin Mary in a grotto near Lourdes, in southwest France.

1864 – Charles Heaphy rescues a soldier under fire at Wairari, Waikato, for which he is later awarded a Victoria Cross. It was the only VC awarded to a member of New Zealand’s colonial forces.

1929 – Italy signs the Lateran Treaty establishi­ng an independen­t Vatican City.

1945 – US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin sign the Yalta Agreement during World War II.

1956 – Soviet spies Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess, who disappeare­d from Britain in 1951, resurface in Moscow.

1975 – Margaret Thatcher becomes the first female head of the British Conservati­ve Party.

1979 – Followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seize power in Iran.

1990 – African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela is released from 27 years in prison.

2008 – Rebels shoot and critically wound East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta and open fire on Prime Minister Xanana Gusmao, who is unhurt, in a failed coup attempt.

2013 – Pope Benedict XVI announces his resignatio­n, the first pope to do so since 1415.

Birthdays

Thomas Edison, US inventor

(1847-1931); Sir Keith Holyoake, NZ prime minister (1904-83); Sidney Sheldon, US author (1917-2007); Burt Reynolds, US actor

(1936-2018); Sheryl Crow, US musician (1962-); Sarah Palin, US politician (1964-); Eric Rush, NZ rugby sevens player (1965-); Jennifer Aniston, US actress (1969-).

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