Today in History

1890 – Convicted murderer William Kemmler becomes the first human put to death in an electric chair at Auburn Prison, New York. 1926 – Gertrude Ederle, 19, becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel.

1936 – Jack Lovelock, right, wins New Zealand’s first athletics gold medal at the Berlin Olympics, winning the 1500 metres.

1945 – An American bomber drops the world’s first atomic bomb, on Hiroshima, Japan. About 80,000 people are killed as a direct result of the blast, designed to hasten the end of World War II.

1962 – Jamaica achieves independence after 300 years of British rule. 1996 – A Game of Thrones, an epic fantasy novel by George RR Martin, is released.

1997 – A Korean Air Boeing 747 crashes in Guam, killing 228 people. 2003 – Action film star Arnold Schwarzenegger announces he will run as a Republican candidate for governor of California.

2012 – Valerie Adams, of New Zealand, appears to come second in the shot put at the London Olympics. Belarusian Nadzeya Ostapchuk is later stripped of her gold medal after a positive drugs test. Adams is declared the winner. 2015 – Comedian Jon Stewart hosts The Daily Show for the last time.

Birthdays

Lord Alfred Tennyson, English poet (1809-1892); Alexander Fleming, Scottish discoverer of penicillin (1881-1955); Lucille Ball, US actresscomedian (1911-1989); Robert Mitchum, US actor (1917-1997); Andy Warhol, US artist (1928-1987); Simon Doull, New Zealand cricketer (1969-); Geri Halliwell, English singer (1972-); Stuart O’Grady, Australian cyclist (1973-); Robin van Persie, Dutch footballer (1983-); Jesse Ryder, NZ cricketer (1984-); Sarah Gregorious, NZ footballer (1987-); Nick Wilson, NZ hockey player (1990-).