Today in history
Today in history:
1586 — Anthony Babington and fellow conspirators go on trial for attempting to seize the throne of England for Mary Queen of Scots by plot to murder Elizabeth I.
1598 — King Philip II of Spain dies, having led Spain through wars with the Ottoman Empire (1571-78) and England (1588-1604).
1788 — New York is declared the first federal capital of the United States.
1899 — At 74th Street and Central Park West in New York City, pedestrian Henry Bliss, 68, becomes the first person killed by an automobile.
1922 — The world’s highest recorded shade temperature, 58 degrees celsius, is recorded at Al Aziziyah, Libya.
1933 — The Labour Party’s Elizabeth Mccombs became New Zealand’s first woman member of Parliament, winning the Lyttelton seat in a by-election caused by the death of her MP husband James Mccombs.
1959 — Bonanza, starring Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, Dan Blocker and Parnell Roberts, is shown for the first time on US television.
1970 — Israel arrests 450 Arabs in occupied Jordan and says it will exchange them for hostages held by guerrillas.
1982 — Lindy and Michael Chamberlain go on trial for allegedly murdering their baby Azaria, who they say was killed by a dingo at Ayers Rock.
1989 — Archbishop Desmond Tutu leads huge crowds of singing and dancing people through central Cape Town in the biggest anti-apartheid protest march in South Africa for 30 years.
1993 — Israel and the PLO sign peace accord in Washington.
1996 — Rapper Tupac Shakur, 25, dies at a Las Vegas hospital six days after he is wounded in a drive-by shooting.
1997 — Mother Teresa buried in Calcutta.
2001 — President George W Bush calls the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington ‘‘the first war of the 21st century’’ as his administration labels fugitive Osama bin Laden a prime suspect.
2001 — The New Zealand government bails out Air New Zealand with $550 million, after the airline suffers one of the country’s worst-ever corporate results.
2005 — US President George W Bush says ‘‘I take responsibility’’ for failures in dealing with Hurricane Katrina. Today’s Birthdays: Roald Dahl, Welsh-born author (1916-1990); Michael Johnson, US Olympic champion athlete (1967-); Shane Warne, Australian cricketer (1969-); Goran Ivanisevic, Croatian tennis player (1971-).