Today in History

1789 – Fletcher Christian and 25 other crew seize command of the HMS Bounty near Tonga, and set Captainwilliam Bligh and 18 others adrift in a small, open boat.

1888 –The first British rugby team to tour New Zealand plays its first match, against Otago in Dunedin, winning 8-3.

1941 – NZ’S Jack Hinton awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions on this night at Kalamata during the evacuation from Greece.

1945 – Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his mistress, Clara Petacci, are shot by partisans who captured them as they attempted to flee to Switzerland.

1967 – Heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali, left, refuses to be inducted into the US Army, and is stripped of his title.

1969 – Charles de Gaulle resigns as president of France after his plans for constitutional reform are defeated in a national referendum.

1986 – Soviet officials admit an accident at the Chernobyl nuclear reactor in Ukraine two days after the event.

1995 – Fourteen people standing on a viewing platform at Cave Creek, in Paparoa National Park on the West Coast, die as it collapses and falls about 30metres into the creek-bed below.

1996 – 35 people are killed in a shooting spree by a gunman in Port Arthur, Tasmania.

2004 – A merino wether nicknamed Shrek, who had evaded muster in Central Otago for six years, is shorn on television. His fleece weighs 27kg.

Birthdays

Frances Hodgkins, NZ artist (18691947); Oskar Schindler, German businessman (1908-74); Ferruccio Lamborghini, Italian car designer (1916-93); Harper Lee, US novelist (1926-2016); Ans Westra, NZ photographer (1936-); Ian Rankin, UK novelist (1960-); Hamish Carter, NZ triathlete (1971-); Andrewmehrtens, All Black (1973-); Penelope Cruz, Spanish actor (1974-).