Today in History
1429 – Joan of Arc leads the French Army against the English at Patay in north-central France.
1812 – The United States declares war on Britain because of restrictions imposed on shipping.
1815 – Napoleon Bonaparte is defeated at Waterloo, in Belgium, by the Duke of Wellington.
1873 – US women’s suffrage activist Susan B. Anthony is found guilty of illegally voting in the 1872 presidential election, and fined $100, which she refuses to pay. She was pardoned in 2020.
1895 – Southland woman Minnie Dean goes on trial for baby murder, leading to her conviction and execution.
1900 – Empress Dowager Cixi orders the killing of all foreigners in China, in support of the ‘Boxer’ rebellion.
1932 – Esther James arrives in Bluff after walking the length of the country to promote NZ-made goods during the Depression.
1940 – General Charles de Gaulle, left, makes his famous BBC broadcast, declaring himself leader of the Free French and urging compatriots to resist Nazi occupation; the ‘‘this was their finest hour’’ speech by Winston Churchill, right, urging perseverance during Battle of Britain, is delivered to House of Commons.
1983 – Sally Ride becomes the first American woman to travel into space, aboard Challenger.
1992 – The US Supreme Court rules that criminal defendants cannot use race as a basis for excluding potential jurors from their trials.
1995 – All Blacks wing Jonah Lomu lays waste to England in the semifinal of the Rugby World Cup in South Africa, scoring four tries in a 45-29 win.
2000 – Tiger Woods wins his first US Open by 15 strokes, a record margin in a Major golf championship.
2001 – Nearly 14,000 New Zealand dairy farmers vote to merge the country’s main milkprocessing and marketing companies into one, to be known as Fonterra.
2006 – Three-month-old twins Chris and Cru
Kahui die of serious head injuries in Auckland’s Starship hospital. The deaths trigger a homicide inquiry centred on their family.
Birthdays
George Mallory, UK mountaineer (1886-1924); Joe Walding, NZ politician (1926-85); Denny Hulme, NZ racing driver (1936-92); Sir Paul McCartney, UK musician (1942-); Thabo Mbeki, South African politician (1942-); Isabella Rossellini, Italian actor (1952-); Simon Dallow, NZ TV presenter (1964-); Nigel Owens, UK rugby referee (1971-); Cameron Smith, Australian rugby league player (1983-); Georgia Fowler, NZ model (1992-).