Today in History

1500 – The Brazilian coast is discovered by Spanish navigator Vicente Yanes Pinzon.

1788 – British settlement begins in Australia, as Captain Arthur Phillip guides a fleet of 11 convict ships to the colony of New South Wales.

1905 – The world’s largest diamond, the Cullinan, is discovered near Pretoria, South Africa, weighing 3106 carats.

1926 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird displays his first TV images, in Soho, London.

1931 – Mahatma Gandhi is freed from prison in India to hold talks with the government during his civil disobedience campaign.

1950 – India is formally proclaimed a republic within the Commonwealth.

1965 – Hindi becomes the official language of India, leading to riots in the south of the country.

1984 – A record one-day total of up to 84.8mm of rain causes widespread flooding in Invercargill and surrounding towns. By the next day, a state of emergency had been declared for all of Southland.

1998 – US President Bill Clinton denies having an affair with a White House intern, telling reporters: ‘‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky’’. 2003 – Martina Navratilova, right, becomes the oldest player to win a grand slam title when, at 46, she takes the Australian Open mixed doubles, with Leander Paes.

2020 – Basketball star Kobe Bryant dies, along with his 13-year-old daughter Gianna and seven others,

Birthdays

Maria von Trapp, Austrian singer (1905-87); Nicolae Ceausescu, Romanian politician (1918-89); Paul Newman, US actor (1925-2008); Murray Ball, NZ cartoonist (1939-2017); Eddie Van Halen, US musician (1955-2020); Ellen DeGeneres, US TV host (1958-); Wayne Gretzky, Canadian ice hockey player (1961-); Jose Mourinho, Portuguese football manager, (1963-).