Today in History

1773 – Ten men serving on the Adventure, sister ship to James Cook’s Resolution, are killed in Wharehunga Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, at the hands of Nga¯ti Kuia and Rangita¯ne.

1777 – France formally recognises the United States.

1889 – A wooden replica of the Eiffel Tower opens in Dunedin, as part of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, which attracts 625,000 visitors over the summer.

1903 – Wilbur and Orville Wright make the first successful flight in a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft near Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. It stays aloft for 12sec.

1939 – German battleship Graf Spee is scuttled off Uruguay to stop it falling into British hands.

1967 – Australian Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming at Cheviot Beach, Victoria. His body is never found.

1986 – Davina Thompson becomes the first patient to have a heart, lung and liver transplant, at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England. She lives till 1998.

1989 – The Simpsons, left, premieres as a full animated series, on Fox TV.

1991 – Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin announces the Soviet Union will officially cease to exist by the year’s end.

2003 – The Return of the King, last of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, opens in US cinemas, taking US$72m on its opening weekend.

2011 – North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il dies, to be succeeded by his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.

2019 – Australia records its hottest day, with a nationally averaged temperature of 40.9C.

Birthdays

Sir Humphry Davy, UK inventor (1778-1829); Pope Francis (1936-); Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (1937-2005); Peter Snell, NZ athlete (1938-2019); Tiki Taane, NZ musician (1976-); Julie Anne Genter, NZ politician (1979-); Chelsea Manning, US whistleblower (1987-).