Today in History

337 – Death of Roman emperor

Constantine the Great, right.

1570 – The first atlas, Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World), is published in Antwerp.

1840 – The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony is abolished.

1843 – The ‘‘Great Emigration’’ - a wagon train made up of 1000 settlers and 1000 head of cattle sets off down the Oregon Trail from

Independence, Missouri.

1884 – The first representative New Zealand rugby team has its opening match, beating a Wellington XV 9–0 at Newtown Park, Wellington.

1906 – The Wright brothers patent their flying machine.

1939 – Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini sign Pact of Steel, a 10-year political and military alliance between Germany and Italy.

1973 – President Richard Nixon confesses his role in the Watergate cover-up.

1995 – Waikato-Tainui is the first iwi to reach a Treaty settlement with the Crown for injustices dating from the1860s.

2010 – Remains of Polish astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus are reburied in Frombork Cathedral after a 200-year search for his tomb.

2015 – Ireland votes in a referendum to legalise gay marriage, with 62.1 per cent saying ‘‘yes’’ to changing the constitution.

2017 – A suicide bomber kills 22 people at a concert in Manchester by singer Ariana Grande.

Birthdays

Richard Wagner, German composer

(1813-83); Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, UK writer (1859-1930); Sir Laurence Olivier, UK actor (1907-89); Charles Aznavour, French singer (19242018); George Best, UK footballer

(1946-2005); Bernie Taupin, UK songwriter (1950-); Mark Mitchell, NZ politician (1968-); Naomi Campbell, UK model (1970-); Novak Djokovic, Serbian tennis player (1985-).