Today in History
1871 – The English Football Association Challenge Cup Competition (the FA Cup) is established.
1892 – The Wellington and Manawatū Railway Company’s No 10 steam locomotive sets a world speed record for the narrow gauge, averaging 68kph, and hitting 103kph near Tokomaru.
1917 – Pact of Corfu is agreed under which Serbs, Croats and Slovenes form a union called Yugoslavia.
1944 – Adolf Hitler is injured by a bomb in an attache case, an assassination attempt by German officers that leads to a brutal purge.
1951 – Jordan’s King Abdullah is assassinated in Jerusalem.
1954 – Armistice for Indo-China is signed in Geneva, separating Vietnam into North and South.
1965 – Riots rock Auckland’s Mt Eden prison after a botched escape attempt. Hostages are taken and fire guts part of the prison.
1969 – US astronauts Neil
Armstrong and Edwin ‘‘Buzz’’ Aldrin become the first people to set foot on the Moon.
1973 – Actor and martial arts expert Bruce Lee dies aged 32.
1989 – Burmese opposition leader
Aung San Suu Kyi, left, is placed under house arrest.
2012 – Gunman hurls a gas canister inside a Colorado movie theatre, then opens fire, killing 12 and wounding nearly 60.
2015 – US and Cuba restore full diplomatic relations after more than 50 years.
Birthdays
Alexander the Great (356BC-323BC); Sir Edmund Hillary, NZ explorer (1919-2008); Natalie Wood, US actor (1938-81); Dame Diana Rigg, UK actor (1938-2020); Pita Sharples, NZ politician (1941-); Chris Amon, NZ racing driver (1943-2016); Carlos Santana, Mexican guitarist (1947-); Ian Ferguson, NZ kayaker (1952-); Terri Irwin, US-Australian naturalist (1964-); Leigh Hart, NZ comedian (1970-); Gisele Bundchen, Brazilian model (1980-); Steven Adams, NZ basketball player (1993-).