Today in History

1897 – George Smith, a 25-year-old London taxi driver, becomes the first person arrested for drinkdriving after crashing his cab into a building.

1898 – Empress Elizabeth of Austria-hungary is assassinated by an Italian anarchist in Geneva.

1914 – An eruption on White Island kills 10 people.

1943 – German troops occupy Rome. 1962 – Australian Rod Laver, left, wins the US Open, completing a Grand Slam of all four major tennis singles titles in the same year.

1976 – Two jets collide in midair over Zagreb, Yugoslavia, killing 176 people.

1977 – In France, Hamida Djandoubi, a Tunisian immigrant convicted of murder, becomes the last person executed by guillotine.

1981 – Pablo Picasso’s monumental anti-war mural Guernica is returned to Spain. Picasso gave the painting to New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1939 on an extended loan.

1984 – Te Mãori exhibition opens in New York. A milestone in the Mãori cultural renaissance, it toured the US until 1986, before returning to New Zealand for a nationwide tour in 1987.

1989 – Hungary permits East German refugees to leave for West Germany.

2008 – Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (Cern), near Geneva, power up the Large Hadron Collider for first time.

2010 – A special commission finds pervasive abuse of children in the Belgium Catholic Church.

Birthdays

Henry Purcell, English composer (1659-95); Arnold Palmer, US golfer (1929-2016); Karl Lagerfeld, German fashion designer (1933-2019); Colin Firth, UK actor (1960-); Jay Laga’aia, NZ actor (1963-); Guy Ritchie, UK film director (1968-); Craig Innes, All Black/league player (1969-); Ryan Phillippe, US actor (1974-); Greg Henderson, NZ cyclist (1976-); Misty Copeland, US ballerina (1982-).