Today in History

1258 – Baghdad falls to the Mongols.

1542 – England’s Queen Catherine Howard is executed for treason on the orders of Henry VIII.

1633 – Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei arrives in Rome to be tried for heresy for professing that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

1692 – About 38 MacDonald clan members are massacred at Glencoe, western Scotland, by the rival Campbell clan.

1867 – Johann Strauss’ Blue Danube waltz premieres in Vienna. 1869 – Northern Taranaki military settlement of Pukearuhe is attacked by a Ma¯ori war party, with eight settlers and soldiers killed.

1917 – Dutch dancer Mata Hari, left, is arrested in Paris on suspicion of being a German spy.

1945 – Allied forces capture Budapest, Hungary, in World War II; US warplanes firebomb Dresden, Germany, wiping out the city and killing more than 35,000 civilians.

1972 – The musical Grease opens on Broadway.

1990 – Roaring crowds give Nelson Mandela a hero’s welcome when he returns to the Johannesburg township of Soweto after being released from prison.

1991 – US planes destroy bunker in Baghdad that allies identified as military site, but apparently contained civilians, with reported death toll ranging from 40 to 500.

2008 – Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd makes a formal apology to the Aboriginal people and the stolen generation.

2018 – South African President Jacob Zuma is ordered to step down by the African National Congress.

Birthdays

Sir Joseph Banks, UK botanist

(1743-1820); Chuck Yeager, US pilot

(1923-); Oliver Reed, UK actor

(1938-1999); Peter Gabriel, UK musician (1950-); Metiria Turei, NZ politician (1970-); Robbie Williams, UK singer (1974-); Mena Suvari, US actress (1979-).