Today in History

1386 - Treaty of Windsor is signed between Portugal and England, cementing what remains the world’s longest continuing alliance.

1788 - British Parliament votes to abolish the slave trade.

1865 - US President Andrew Johnson issues a proclamation declaring armed resistance in the South is virtually at an end, making it the commonly accepted end date of the American Civil War.

1907 - New Zealand’s first School Journal is published.

1915 - NZ tennis star Anthony Wilding, four times Wimbledon champion, is killed in action in France.

1941 - British intelligence at Bletchley Park breaks German spy codes after capturing Enigma machines.

1945 - New Zealand celebrates VE Day after a 24-hour delay, to wait for the official declaration of peace from Britain.

1960 - The US Food and Drug Administration approves use of a birth control pill.

1969 - New York Times reporter William Beecher breaks news of US forces’ secret bombing raids over Cambodia.

1974 - The US House of Representatives’ judiciary committee opens impeachment hearings against President Richard Nixon, voting to impeach him on three counts on July 30.

1994 - South Africa’s newly elected parliament chooses Nelson Mandela as its first black president.

2009 - The Napier siege ends, with the discovery of gunman Jan Molenaar’s body.

Birthdays

John Brown, US anti-slavery activist (1800-59); Sir James Barrie, UK writer (1860-1937); Albert Finney, UK actor (1936-2019); Glenda Jackson, UK actor/ politician (1936-2023); Billy Joel ,US musician (1949-); Shane van Gisbergen, NZ racing driver (1989-).