Today in History

1307 – Scottish king Robert the Bruce heavily defeats an English cavalry force at the battle of Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire.

1774 – Louis XVI becomes king of France after Louis XV dies of smallpox.

1857 – The Indian Mutiny, against rule by the British East India Company, begins.

1897 – Ethel Benjamin becomes the first woman admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand. 1925 – NZ primeministerWilliam Ferguson Massey, left, dies in office.

1940 – British prime minister Neville Chamberlain resigns and Winston Churchill forms new government.

1941 – Hitler’s deputy Rudolf Hess parachutes into Scotland in an apparent attempt to negotiate a peace; he is arrested and jailed.

1960 – An all-white All Blacks team departs for a tour of South Africa, in the face of widespread opposition.

1963 – The Rolling Stones hold their first recording session.

1981 – Socialist Francois Mitterrand wins presidential election, bringing first leftist government in three decades to power in France.

1994 – Nelson Mandela inaugurated as president of South Africa.

1996 – Storm hits Mt Everest, killing eight climbers, including New Zealanders Rob Hall and Andy Harris, both guides, in one of the worst disasters since Everest first conquered in 1953.

2007 – The Privy Council quashes David Bain’s convictions for murdering his family in Dunedin in 1994, and orders a retrial.

Birthdays

Sir Thomas Lipton, UK merchant/ sportsman (1848-1931); Fred Astaire, US dancer-actor (1899-1987); Donovan, UK musician (1946-); Sid Vicious, UKmusician (1957-79); Bono, Irish musician (1960-); Blyth Tait, NZ equestrian (1961-); Madeleine Sami, NZ actor (1980-).