Today in History

1792

- Highwayman Nicolas Jacques Pelletier becomes the first person under French law to be executed by guillotine.

1915 - Allied soldiers invade the Gallipoli Peninsula in an unsuccessful attempt to take the Ottoman Turkish Empire out of World War I. The event is now commemorated as Anzac Day.

1942 - In the first US counter-attack of World War II, 16 bombers make a daring daylight raid on Tokyo.

1945 - US and Soviet troops meet at the Elbe River in central Europe, a meeting that dramatises the collapse of Nazi Germany; delegates of 45 nations meet in San Francisco to organise the United Nations.

1993 - Russian President Boris Yeltsin wins vote of confidence in referendum but fails to force new parliamentary elections.

1997 - In what is called a monumental defeat for the US tobacco industry, a federal judge rules for the first time that tobacco can be regulated as a drug.

2000 - The United Nations releases a new assessment of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear meltdown, saying the worst health consequences for millions of people may be yet to come.

2010 - An RNZAF Iroquois helicopter en route to Anzac Day commemorations in Wellington from Ohakea crashes into a hillside, killing three of the four personnel on board. The Defence Force ultimately accepts that its breaches of health and safety laws led to the crash.

Birthdays

Oliver Cromwell, English statesman (15991658); Al Pacino, US actor (1940-); Bjorn Ulvaeus, Swedish musician, Abba member (1945-); Talia Shire, US actress (1946-);

Renee Zellweger, US actress (1969-).