Today in History

1517 – Martin Luther nails 95 theses to the door at Wittenberg Palace church, marking the start of the Protestant Reformation.

1888 – John Boyd Dunlop patents his pneumatic bicycle tyre.

1922 – Benito Mussolini becomes prime minister of Italy.

1926 – Magician Harry Houdini dies in Detroit of peritonitis resulting from a ruptured appendix.

1955 – Princess Margaret, right, ends weeks of speculation by announcing she will not marry divorced Royal Air Force Group Captain Peter Townsend.

1961 – A cloud of radioactive debris moves across central Siberia after Soviets explode what is called the biggest man-made nuclear bomb. 1984 – India’s Prime Minister Indira Gandhi is mortally wounded by her Sikh bodyguards in reprisal for the Indian army attack on a Sikh shrine four months earlier.

1985 – Keri Hulme’s debut novel, The Bone People, becomes the first

NZ winner of the Booker Prize. 1988 – Former Philippines first lady Imelda Marcos pleads not guilty in New York to racketeering charges. 1992 – The Catholic Church admits it was wrong to condemn Galileo Galilei 359 years earlier for stating that the Earth orbits the Sun.

1998 – Iraq announces that it will no longer allow UN weapons inspectors to work in the country. 2007 – Three lead defendants in the 2004 Madrid train bombings are convicted of mass murder and other charges, but four others are convicted on lesser charges and an accused ringleader is acquitted. 2015 – The All Blacks defeat Australia 34-17 at Twickenham to become the first team to win successive Rugby World Cups.

Birthdays

John Keats, British poet (1795-1821); Anthony Wilding, NZ tennis player (1883-1915); John A Lee, NZ politician (1891-1982); John Candy, US actor (1950-94); Peter Jackson, NZ film director (1961-); Gareth Hughes, NZ politician (1981-).