Today in History

1302 – The poet Dante Alighieri is banished from Florence for political activities.

1340 – Edward III of England declares himself king of France, a claim that leads to the Hundred Years’ War.

1820 – First confirmed sighting of Antarctica, by a Russian expedition led by Fabian Gottlieb von Bellingshausen and Mikhail Lazarev.

1880 – American inventor Thomas

Edison receives a patent for his electric incandescent lamp.

1926 – Scottish inventor John Logie Baird displays his first television images.

1944 – German siege of Leningrad is finally lifted after 880 days.

1945 – Red Army liberates Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps in Poland.

1956 – Heartbreak Hotel, Elvis Presley’s first million-selling single, is released.

1962 – Olympic 800-metre champion Peter Snell, left, breaks the world mile record at Cooks Gardens, Whanganui.

1967 – US, Soviet Union and 60 other nations sign treaty to limit military activities in outer space.

1998 – The Catholic Church in Germany stops issuing certificates allowing abortions.

2002 – More than 1000 people die when a munitions depot in Lagos, Nigeria, explodes.

2017 – US President Donald Trump bans travel to the US from seven mostly Muslim countries, and suspends admission for refugees.

2019 – Novak Djokovic, of Serbia, wins his record seventh Australian Open singles title.

Birthdays

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Austrian composer (1756-91); Lewis Carroll, UK novelist (1832-98); William Larnach, NZ politician (1833-98); Wilhelm II, German emperor (1859-1941); Nick Mason, UK musician, Pink Floyd (1944-); Rosamund Pike, UK actor (1979-); Daniel Vettori, NZ cricketer (1979-); Tony Woodcock, All Black (1981-).