Today in History

1349 – Jews are expelled from Zurich.

1774 – British House of Lords rules authors do not have perpetual copyright.

1775 – Jews are expelled from the outskirts of Warsaw.

1819 – Spain cedes the remainder of its former province of Florida to the United States.

1886 – The Times becomes the first British newspaper to institute a personal column.

1888 – ‘‘Father of American Golf’’ John Reid first demonstrates golf on a Yonkers cow pasture to friends.

1892 – Oscar Wilde’s play Lady Windermere’s Fan premieres in London.

1902 – Thousands flock to the opening day of

Wellington’s cable car service linking the central city with Kelburn.

1920 – First artificial rabbit used at a dog racing track, in California.

1928 – First solo flight from England to Australia lands in Darwin, 15 days after takeoff, piloted by Australian Bert Hinkler.

1941 – Nazis begin rounding up Jews in Amsterdam.

1942 – US President Franklin Roosevelt orders General Douglas MacArthur out of the Philippines as American defences collapse.

1980 – Underdog US hockey team, made up of college players, beats the Soviets, 4-3, in the ‘‘Miracle on Ice’’ at XIII Winter Olympics in Lake

Placid, New York.

1987 – US artist Andy Warhol, left, dies in New York, aged 58.

1997 – The Roslin Institute in Scotland announces the existence of Dolly the sheep, the world’s first cloned mammal from an adult cell.

2006 – A gang commits largest robbery in British history, stealing £53 million from a Kent bank depot. Nearly £20m is said to have been recovered; there have been arrests, but no convictions.

2011 – A magnitude 6.3 earthquake causes severe damage in Christchurch and Lyttelton, killing 185 people and injuring thousands.

2012 – American reporter Marie Colvin, right, 56, and French photojournalist Remi Ochlik, 28, are killed by Syrian government shelling.

2014 – ‘‘El Chapo’’, the world’s most wanted drug kingpin, is captured in Mexico, more than a decade after he escaped from a Mexico prison.

Birthdays

George Washington, US president (1732-99); Robert Baden-Powell, founder of Scouting movement (1857-1941); Frank Worsley, NZ explorer (1872-1943); Edward Kennedy, US politician (1932-2009); Don Merton, NZ ornithologist (1939-2011); Niki Lauda, Austrian racing driver (1949-2019); Julie Walters, UK actress (1950-); Steve Irwin, Australian naturalist (1962-2006); Drew Barrymore, US actress (1975-); James Blunt, UK musician (1977-).