Today in History

1829 – British home secretary Robert Peel’s Metropolitan Police Act, establishing a unified police force for London, gains royal assent.

1862 – United States Congress prohibits slavery in US territories.

1865 – Union general Gordon Granger declares slaves are free in Texas. The date is now celebrated across the US as Freedom Day, or ‘‘Juneteenth’’.

1905 – The first nickelodeon (a small theatre charging US5c admission) opens in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Typically offering live vaudeville acts and short films, nickelodeons spread rapidly across the US. 1917 – Britain’s King George V, in the midst of World War I, changes the royal family’s surname from the Germanic Saxe-CoburgGotha, to Windsor.

1940 – The trans-Pacific liner Niagara is sunk by German mines off the Northland coast. All 349 people on board escape safely.

1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of nuclear espionage for the Soviet Union, are executed in the US.

1973 – The Rocky Horror Show, a stage musical written by Anglo-New Zealander Richard O’Brien, premieres in London.

1978 – The first comic strip of Garfield, right, by Jim Davis, is published.

1984 – Michael Jordan is first selected by the Chicago Bulls basketball team.

1991 – Drug lord Pablo Escobar surrenders to Colombian police after a plea-bargain deal. He later escapes from custody and is shot dead by police in 1993.

2000 – Reports emerge of 58 bodies found in a truck container at the English port of Dover. Eight men are later convicted in the deaths of the Chinese migrants, who suffocated during the trip from Belgium. 2005 – New Zealand golfer Michael Campbell wins the US Open at Pinehurst, North Carolina.

2013 – James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in TV series The Sopranos, dies aged 51.

2014 – Felipe VI becomes king of Spain, on the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I. 2018 – England set the current world record one-day international score of 481-6, against Australia in Nottingham.

Birthdays

James I, UKmonarch (1566-1625); Suzanne Aubert, French-born NZ nun (1835-1926); Jose´ Rizal, Filipino writer and national hero (1861-96); Wallis Simpson, US-born duchess (1896-1986); Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar politician (1945-); Salman Rushdie, AngloIndian writer (1947-); Kathleen Turner, US actor (1954-); Paula Abdul, US singer (1962-); Boris Johnson, UK politician (1964-); Richard Ussher, NZ multisport athlete (1976-); Moss Burmester, NZ swimmer (1981-); Casey Kopua, NZ netball player (1985-).