Today in History

1512 – The ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, with its paintings by Michelangelo, is exhibited to the public for the first time.

1755 – An earthquake in Lisbon kills as many as 50,000 people.

1800 – US President John Adams, right, becomes the first occupant of the newly built President’s House, now known as the White House.

1894 – Nicholas II becomes tsar of Russia.

1898 – The Old-Age Pensions Act becomes law in New Zealand, for those with few assets and ‘‘of good moral character’’.

1922 – The Ottoman Empire is formally abolished.

1944 – More than 800 Polish refugees disembark in Wellington, having survived deportation to the Soviet Union, forced labour, and evacuation to the Middle East.

1952 – The US detonates the world’s first hydrogen bomb, in the Pacific.

1964 – US Surgeon-General Luther Terry issues the first government report saying smoking may be hazardous to health.

1993 – The European Union is formally established, replacing the European Community.

1994 – The Irish government announces the end of a 20-year broadcasting ban on the IRA and its political arm Sinn Fein.

2002 – The first 20 Taliban and al Qaeda detainees from Afghanistan arrive at the US naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

2008 – Eleven US soldiers are convicted and five officers disciplined in the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal.

2012 – Scientists detect evidence of light from the first stars, predicted to have formed 500 million years after the Big Bang.

Birthdays

LS Lowry, UK artist (1887-1976); Les Mills, NZ athlete/gym chain founder (1934-); Gary Player, South African golfer (1935-); Anne Audain, NZ athlete (1955-); Hekia Parata, NZ politician (1958-).