Today in history

– Christopher Columbus receives a commission from Spanishmonarchs Isabella I and Ferdinand II to equip his fleet to the NewWorld.

– GeorgeWashington is inaugurated as the first president of the United States.

– The US doubles in size with the purchases of the Louisiana Territory and New Orleans from France.

– The first instalment of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities is published in literary periodical All the Year Round. Weekly instalments continue until November.

– Former NZ governor Robert FitzRoy commits suicide after a chequered career in public service.

– UK physicist J J Thomson announces his discovery of electrons.

– Engineer John Luther ‘‘Casey’’ Jones of the Illinois Central Railroad dies in a train wreck in Mississippi, after staying at the controls in a successful effort to save the passengers.

– William Sanders is awarded NZ’s only naval Victoria Cross, for bravery during a German U-boat attack on his ship off Ireland. He never received his medal, dying in a U-boat attack four months later.

– As Soviet troops close in, Adolf Hitler commits suicide in his Berlin bunker with Eva Braun, whom he had married a day earlier.

– Britain’s Life Peerages Act 1958 allows women to become members of the House of Lords.

– US President Richard Nixon announces the resignations of four top aides implicated in theWatergate scandal.

– Vietnamese troops take over Saigon, ending the VietnamWar.

– Queen Juliana of the Netherlands abdicates in favour of eldest daughter Beatrix. She in turn abdicates on the same day in 2013, in favour of her son, Willem-Alexander.

– Tennis player Monica Seles is stabbed by a fan of rival Steffi Graf.

– Japanese Emperor Akihito abdicates in favour of his eldest son, Naruhito.

– British NHS fundraiser Captain Tom Moore turns 100.

– Disneyland reopens after a 13-month Covid closure. Only California residents are allowed in.

Casimir III The Great, Polish king (1310-70); Carl XVI Gustaf, king of Sweden (1946-); Antonio Guterres, Portuguese UN chief (1949-); Dame Jane Campion, NZ director (1954-); David Cunliffe, NZ politician (1953-); Lars von Trier, Danish director (1956-); Ian Healy, Australian cricketer (1964-); John Boyne, Irish author (1971-); Kirsten Dunst, US actor (1982-); Rohit Sharma, Indian cricketer (1987-); Ana de Armas, Cuban actor (1988-).