Today in History
42BC – Marcus Junius Brutus, a leading conspirator in the assassination of Julius Caesar, dies by suicide after his defeat at the second battle of Philippi.
1915 – The transport ship Marquette is sunk off Greece by a German torpedo. Among the 167 dead were 32 New Zealanders, including 10 from the NZ Army Nursing Service.
1942 – British 8th Army attacks Axis forces to begin the Battle of El Alamein in Egypt.
1948 – A National Airways Corporation Lockheed Electra crashes on Mt Ruapehu, killing all 11 passengers and two pilots.
1954 – Britain, France, US and Soviet Union agree to end their occupation of Germany.
1956 – More than 200,000 people gather in Budapest in support of demands for Hungarian independence from the Soviet
Union. It marks the start of the Hungarian Uprising, left, in which about 2500 civilians died before it was crushed by Soviet and Hungarian Communist troops.
1962 - Soviet Union warns that a US blockade of arms shipments to Cuba may risk a nuclear war.
1973 – US President Richard Nixon agrees to turn over White House tape recordings subpoenaed by a Watergate special prosecutor.
1977 – US palaeontologist Elso Barghoorn announces the discovery of a 3.4 billion-yearold one-celled fossil, one of the earliest life forms on Earth.
1983 – A suicide bomber drives a truck packed with explosives into the US Marine barracks in Beirut, killing 241 US military personnel. The same morning, 58 French soldiers are killed in their barracks in the city in a separate suicide attack.
1996 – A historian reveals the Swiss bank accounts of presumed Holocaust victims were used to settle Switzerland’s postwar compensation disputes with Poland and Hungary.
2002 – Chechen rebels take up to 700 people hostage in a Moscow theatre. The standoff ends six days later, with Russian special forces killing most of the 50 rebels, along with about 120 hostages.
2009 – US President Barack Obama declares a swine flu outbreak a national emergency, giving his health chief the power to let hospitals move emergency rooms offsite to speed treatment.
2011 – The All Blacks, led by left, win their second Rugby World Cup, beating France 8-7 at Eden Park in Auckland. 2018 – The world’s longest sea- crossing bridge, the 55km Hong Kong-Zhuhai bridge, is opened by Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Birthdays
Douglas Jardine, England ‘‘Bodyline’’ cricket captain (1900-58); Johnny Carson, US TV host (1925-2005); Diana Dors, UK actor (1931-84); Sir Patrick Hogan, NZ horse breeder (1939-); Pele, Brazilian footballer (1940-); Michael Crichton, US author (1942-2008); Ang Lee, Taiwanese director (1954-); Graeme Revell, NZ composer (1955-); Beatrice Faumuina, NZ athlete (1974-); Ryan Reynolds, Canadian actor (1976-); Monique Fiso, NZ chef (1987-); Stan Walker, Australian-born NZ singer (1990-).