Today in History

1793 – French revolutionary JeanPaul Marat is murdered in his bath by patriot Charlotte Corday.

1836 – King William IV approves the naming of Adelaide after his queen, right.

1914 – An Austrian investigation into Archduke Franz Ferdinand’s assassination finds no evidence of Serbian government involvement. Nonetheless, the assassination triggers World War I.

1916 – Vivian Walsh obtains New Zealand’s first pilot’s certificate.

1930 – France defeat Mexico, and the United States defeat Belgium, in the first World Cup football matches, in Uruguay.

1934 – New Zealand suffragist Kate Sheppard dies.

1939 – Frank Sinatra cuts his first single with the Harry James Band,

From the Bottom of my Heart.

1955 – Ruth Ellis becomes the last woman to be hanged in Britain after she murdered her lover.

1960 – John F Kennedy wins the Democratic presidential nomination at his party’s convention in Los Angeles.

1985 – Live Aid concert watched by

1.5 billion around the world raises

$100 million for African famine relief.

2001 – Fiji’s coup leaders release their remaining 18 captives, ending a two-month-old parliamentary hostage crisis.

Birthdays

Julius Caesar, Roman leader (100BC-44BC); Bob Crane, US actor,

Hogan’s Heroes (1928-1978); Patrick Stewart, English actor (1940-); Harrison Ford, US actor (1942-); Roger McGuinn, US guitarist-singer, The Byrds (1942-); Erno Rubik, Hungarian inventor of Rubik’s Cube

(1944-); Rod Dixon, New Zealand athlete (1950-); Didi Conn, US actress (Frenchy in Grease) (1951-); Mark Hammett, NZ rugby player

(1972-); Xavier Rush, NZ rugby player (1977-); Ladyhawke, NZ singer-songwriter (1979-); Kieran Foran, NZ rugby league player

(1990-).