Today in History

1697 – Sir Christopher Wren’s replacement St Paul’s Cathedral in London is consecrated for use.

1804 – Napoleon Bonaparte, right, crowns himself emperor of France in Paris, taking the crown from attending Pope Pius VII.

1917 – The 6pm closing of New Zealand pubs is introduced as a temporary wartime measure. It lasts for 50 years.

1928 – Frederick Bennett is consecrated as the first Bishop of Aotearoa, in Napier Cathedral.

1942 – Italian-born US physicist Enrico Fermi, working on the Manhattan Project, conducts the first nuclear chain reaction, underneath the University of Chicago’s football stadium.

1956 – Fidel Castro and a band of revolutionaries crash-land their boat Granma on the coast of Cuba to begin their guerrilla war against the Batista regime.

1982 – Doctors at the University of Utah Medical Centre implant the first permanent artificial heart in Barney Clark, a retired dentist, who lives 112 days with the device.

1993 – Drug lord Pablo Escobar is killed in a gunfight with security forces in Colombia, 16 months after he escaped from prison.

2001 – Enron, the largest United States energy-trading company, files for bankruptcy protection, dealing a blow to financial markets worldwide. It is the largest bankruptcy in United States history.

2018 – Israeli police recommend Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife be charged with fraud and bribery.

Birthdays

Georges Seurat, French artist (1859-91); Rewi Alley, NZ writer (1897-1987); Maria Callas, US opera singer (1923-1977); Jonathan Hunt, NZ politician (1938-); John Banks, NZ politician (1946-); Gianni Versace, Italian fashion designer (1946-1997); Lucy Liu, US actor (1968-); Monica Seles, Yugoslav-american tennis player (1973-); Britney Spears, US singer (1981-).