Today in History

1839 – Honey bees brought to NZ by Mary Bumby, the sister of a Methodist missionary. She brought two hives ashore at Hokianga.

1920 – US Senate rejects for the second time the United States’ involvement in the League of Nations by a vote of 49-35.

1932 –Sydney Harbour Bridge in Australia officially opens.

1933 – Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini proposes a pact with Britain, France and Germany.

1970 – Heads of government of West and East Germany, Willy Brandt and Willi Stoph, meet for the first time in Erfurt.

1971 – At least 160 people perish in landslides north of Sao Paulo, Brazil. 1988 – Two British soldiers are shot to death after they were dragged from a car and beaten by mourners attending an Irish Republican Army funeral in Belfast, Northern Ireland. 1990 – Latvia’s political opposition claims victory in the republic’s first free elections in 50 years.

2003 - US launches an attack against Iraq after a deadline for Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to go into exile expires.

2013 – Iraqi insurgents send a bloody message on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the US-led invasion, carrying out a wave of bombings across the country that kill at least 65 people in the deadliest day in Iraq that year.

2014 – Russian forces take military installations in disputed Crimean Peninsula after Russian President Vladimir Putin, left, seized it.

2015 – Thousands of people, left homeless by a cyclone off Vanuatu, remain in shelters in the South Pacific island waiting for relief as death toll rises to 13.

Birthdays

David Livingstone, British explorer-missionary (1813-1873); Max Reger, composer (1873-1916); Adolf Eichmann, Nazi SS officer (1906-1962); Glenn Close, actress (1947-); Warren Lees, NZ cricketer, coach (1952-); Harvey Weinstein, film producer (1952-).