Today in History
1594 – Henry IV, having renounced Protestantism, is crowned king of France.
1706 – Death of English writer
John Evelyn, right, who kept a diary throughout most of his life that is now considered an invaluable record of the period.
1788 – Convicted thief Thomas Barrett becomes the first person to be sentenced to death in NSW colony.
1861 – Warsaw Massacre, in which a crowd demonstrating against Russian rule is fired upon by Russian troops.
1900 – A meeting in London of the Trades Union Congress and the Independent Labour Party results in the eventual creation of the modern Labour Party.
1933 – The Reichstag, German parliament building, is burned, and Nazis blame Communists.
1940 – Martin Kamen and Sam Ruben discover carbon-14 (radiocarbon dating) at the University of California Radiation Laboratory in Berkeley.
1951 – Troops are sent onto the Auckland and Wellington wharves to load and unload ships during a strike by waterfront workers.
1973 – Native Americans begin an occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in a siege that lasts until May.
1980 – First election giving black majority full voting powers in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
2001 – Veteran New Zealand broadcaster Selwyn Toogood dies.
2010 – One of the largest earthquakes on record, in central Chile, kills more than 500 people.
Birthdays
John Steinbeck, US novelist
(1902-68); Peter Whittle, NZ mathematician (1927-); Joanne Woodward, US actress (1930-); Elizabeth Taylor, UK-born actress
(1932-2011); Ralph Nader, US consumer advocate (1934-); Timothy Spall, UK actor (1957-); Chelsea Clinton, former US president’s daughter (1980-).