Today in History

1400 – Geoffrey Chaucer, right, English poet best known for his unfinished Canterbury Tales, dies.

1586 – Death sentence given against Mary Queen of Scots.

1854 – Lord James Cardigan leads a charge of the Light Brigade cavalry during the Crimean War. Over 100 killed.

1874 – Britain annexes Fiji islands.

1922 – Fascists march on Rome. Italian king nominates Benito Mussolini as prime minister. 1936 – Germany and Italy form Rome-Berlin Axis.

1944 – First kamikaze attack of World War ll, against American warships during Battle of the Leyte Gulf, considered the war’s largest naval battle.

1949 – Intellectually Handicapped Children’s Parents’ Association, the forerunner to the IHC, is formed at a meeting in Wellington.

1971 – New Zealand’s scheduled steam-hauled train services end.

1976 – Transkei becomes the first of South Africa’s black homelands to be given its independence.

1989 – Soviet State Bank announces rouble will be devalued by nearly 90 per cent for tourists and businessmen.

1995 – Israeli troops start Israel’s pullout from Jenin, West Bank, the first Palestinian city under the Israel-PLO autonomy agreement.

2001 – The US House of Representatives approves legislation that will give law enforcement and intelligence agencies broader powers to investigate suspected terrorists.

2012 – Authorities announce that 300 potential victims had come forward with accusations against Jimmy Savile, the popular BBC children’s entertainer, and that others might have acted with him.

Birthdays

Thomas Macauley, UK historian (1800-59); Johann Strauss II, Austrian composer (1825-99); Georges Bizet, French composer (1838-75); Pablo Picasso, Spanish artist (1881-1973); Richard E. Byrd, US aviator/explorer (1888-1957); Dipak Patel, NZ cricketer (1958-); Antony Starr, NZ actor (1975-); Katy Perry, US singer (1984-).