Today in History

1513 – Spaniard Ponce de Leon claims Florida for Spain, not realising it is part of mainland North America.

1792 – United States Congress passes the Coinage Act, which authorises establishment of the US Mint and allows the government to make its own money.

1801 – British naval forces, led by Horatio Nelson, destroy the Danish fleet in the Battle of Copenhagen. 1915 – About 2500 New Zealand and Australian troops riot in a redlight district of Cairo, reportedly in retaliation for the spread of venereal disease, and rumours that pimps had stabbed soldiers.

1916 – Prophet and Tuhoe leader Rua Ke¯nana is arrested in a raid by 57 police in the Urewera range. He is later jailed for treason.

1917 – US President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to declare war on Germany.

1930 – Ras Tafari Makonnen becomes Emperor Haile Selassie of Abyssinia (Ethiopia).

1932 – Aviator Charles Lindbergh, left, pays US$50,000 ransom for the return of his kidnapped son.

1977 – Red Rum wins third Grand National, the only horse to have done so.

1979 – Anthrax poisoning kills 62 in Russia.

1982 – Argentina seizes the disputed Falkland Islands. Britain takes them back in June.

1998 – Maurice Papon, a Vichy official and later Cabinet minister in postwar France, is jailed for 10 years in jail for deporting Jews during World War II.

Birthdays

Charlemagne, Emperor of the West (742-814); Hans Christian Andersen, Danish writer (1805-75); William Holman Hunt, UK artist (1827-1910); Emile Zola, French author (1840-1902); Sir Alec Guinness, UK actor (1914-2000); Lauris Edmond, NZ writer, poet (1924-2000); Marvin Gaye, US musician (1939-84); Steve Sumner, NZ footballer (1955-2017).