Today in History

1582 – William Shakespeare marries Anne Hathaway.

1703 – Coastal storm in England takes estimated 8000 lives.

1847 – Death of Te Rauparaha, right, in O¯ taki.

1931 – Don Bradman scores 200 for Australia in the first cricket test at Brisbane, against South Africa.

1935 – New Zealand’s first Labour government takes power, under Michael Joseph Savage.

1942 – The French navy at Toulon scuttles its ships and submarines to keep them out of the hands of the Nazis.

1983 – A huge rally called by all Uruguayan political parties demands the end of the dictatorship and return to civilian democratic rule.

1990 – John Major is elected prime minister of Britain.

1993 – After weeks of denial, the British government admits contacts with the Irish Republican Army.

1999 – Northern Ireland’s biggest party clears the way for the formation of an unprecedented Protestant-Catholic administration, the long-elusive goal of the 1998 Good Friday peace accord.

2002 – Pakistani doctor Amer Azia, who admitted treating Osama bin Laden and other al Qaeda leaders before and after the September 11, 2001 attacks, says that the terrorist mastermind is in excellent health. 2009 – Star golfer Tiger Woods is injured in an early morning car accident outside his mansion, as reports begin to emerge of serial marital infidelity and lead to a divorce from wife Elin Nordegren. 2014 – OPEC decides to keep its output target on hold and sit out falling crude oil prices that will likely spiral even lower as a result.

Birthdays

Anders Celsius, Swedish astronomer and inventor of Celsius scale (1701-44); Bruce Lee, ChineseAmerican actor (1940-73); Jimi Hendrix, American rock guitarist (1942-70); Farah Palmer, former Black Ferns captain (1972-).