Today in History

1535 – Sir Thomas More is executed in England for treason.

1885 – Louis Pasteur performs the first inoculation of a human being: a young boy bitten by a rabid dog.

1923 – The Auckland-Wellington express ploughs into a huge slip across the tracks at O¯ngarue in the King Country. Seventeen people are killed and 28 injured.

1928 – The first all-talking feature film, The Lights of New York, premieres in New York.

1942 – Diarist Anne Frank, left, and her family take refuge from the Nazis in Amsterdam.

1944 – A circus tent catches fire in Connecticut and 168 people die.

1957 – Althea Gibson becomes the first black tennis player to win a Wimbledon singles title, defeating fellow American Darlene Hard.

1971 – United States jazz musician Louis Armstrong dies, aged 69.

1976 – The US Naval Academy admits women for the first time.

1988 – An explosion rips through

an oil rig in the North Sea, killing 167 workers.

1994 – Forrest Gump, starring Tom

Hanks, is released.

2000 – A heat wave baking southeastern Europe sends temperatures soaring to 45 degrees Celsius, killing 25 people.

2016 – An inquiry concludes British Prime Minister Tony Blair overstated the case for Iraq war.

Birthdays

Frida Kahlo, Mexican artist (1907-1954); Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand athletics coach

(1917-2004); Nancy Reagan, former US first lady (1921-2016); Bill Haley, rock’n’roll pioneer (1925-1981); Janet Leigh, US actress (1927-2004); Dalai Lama, exiled Tibetan leader (1935-); George W Bush, former US president (1946-); Sylvester Stallone, US actor-producer (1946-); Geoffrey Rush, Australian actor

(1951-); Jennifer Saunders, English comedian and actress (1958-); 50 Cent, US rapper (1975-); Makhaya Ntini, South African cricketer

(1977-).