Today in History

1553 – Lady Jane Grey, right, goes on trial for treason. She had been queen of England for nine days. 1789 – American inventor Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to a friend in which he says, ‘‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’’ 1832 – The first streetcar – a horsedrawn vehicle called the John Mason – goes into operation in New York City.

1896 – Te Maari, a crater at the northern end of the Tongariro range, erupts spectacularly. It continues to erupt sporadically for nearly a year.

1941 – Britain’s finest aircraft carrier, the Ark Royal, is torpedoed by a German submarine and sinks off Strait of Gibraltar the next day.

1942 – US President Franklin D Roosevelt signs a measure lowering the minimum draft age from 21 to 18.

1974 – Karen Silkwood, a critic of safety procedures at an Oklahoma plutonium plant, dies in a mysterious single-car crash.

1975 – World Health Organisation announces that Asia is free of smallpox for first time in history.

1990 – Unemployed David Gray, 33, kills 13 people in a shooting spree at Aramoana, near Dunedin, after a dispute with a neighbour.

2006 – Voters in South Ossetia overwhelmingly approve a referendum calling for independence from Georgia.

2010 – Democracy activist Aung San Suu Kyi walks free after more than seven years under house arrest in Myanmar, and is welcomed by thousands of cheering supporters outside the home that had been her prison.

Birthdays:

Robert Louis Stevenson, Scottish writer (1850-94); Oskar Werner, Austrian actor-director (1922-84); Peter Arnett, Nz-born US journalist (1934-); Joe Mantegna, US actor (1947-); Lockwood Smith, NZ politician (1948-); Whoopi Goldberg, US actress (1955-).