Today in History

1782 – The United States and Britain sign preliminary peace articles in Paris, ending American Revolutionary War.

1900 – Irish-born author Oscar Wilde dies, aged 46.

1928 – Don Bradman makes his test cricket debut for Australia, against England in Brisbane.

1939 – The Soviet Union invades Finland in World War II.

1949 – The National Party, led by

Sidney Holland, wins its first general election, defeating the Peter Fraser-led Labour.

1982 – Michael Jackson’s album Thriller is released and has since sold more than 66 million copies.

1993 – US President Bill Clinton, left, signs into law the Brady bill, which requires a five-day waiting period for handgun purchases and background checks of buyers.

1995 – The UN Security Council votes unanimously to end its 3 1/2-year peacekeeping mission in Bosnia by January 31, 1996.

2000 – South and North Korean relatives, separated for half a century, are reunited in the North Korean capital, Pyongyang.

2003 – Time magazine reports that 140 of the roughly 660 prisoners detained at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were due to be released at a ‘‘politically propitious time’’.

2005 – Reports emerge that Auckland University student Harmeet Singh Sooden has been taken hostage by Iraqi insurgents; he is held for almost four months.

2018 – George H W Bush, the 41st president of the United States, dies at the age of 94.

Birthdays

Jonathan Swift, Irish author (1667-1745); Mark Twain, US author (1835-1910); Sir Winston Churchill, UK politician (1874-1965); Paddy Webb, NZ trade unionist (1884-1950); Ridley Scott, UK film director (1937-); Sir Graeme Dingle, NZ mountaineer (1945-); David Mamet, US playwright/director (1947-); Ben Stiller, US actor (1965-);