Today in History

1666 – Firefighters in London begin blowing up homes in a bid to halt the spread of the Great Fire.

1698 – Russian Tsar Peter the Great imposes a tax on beards.

1877 – Oglala Sioux chief Crazy Horse is fatally bayoneted by a United States soldier after resisting confinement in Nebraska.

1939 – ‘‘Where she goes, we go. Where she stands, we stand.’’ From his sickbed, NZ Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage declares support for Britain and opposition to Nazi Germany.

1969 – Lt William Calley is charged with premeditated murder after the deaths of 109 Vietnamese civilians at My Lai in March 1968.

1972 – Palestinian terrorists storm the Olympic Village apartment of Israeli athletes in Munich, killing two and taking nine hostage. In a later shootout, the hostages, five terrorists and a policeman are killed.

1975 – Lynette ‘‘Squeaky’’ Fromme, a follower of jailed cult leader Charles Manson, tries to assassinate US President Gerald Ford. A Secret Service agent wrests her gun away. 1976 – The Muppet Show, created by

Jim Henson, left, is first screened, on

Britain’s ITV.

1990 – Jane Campion’s film An Angel at My Table, based on the autobiographies of Janet Frame, screens at the Venice Film Festival. It wins the Grand Special Jury prize.

1997 – Death of Mother Teresa, who worked with India’s poor, aged 87.

2018 – UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirms in Parliament that two Russian military intelligence officers carried out a Novichok nerve agent attack in Salisbury, England.

Birthdays

Louis XIV, king of France (1638-1715); John Wisden, UK cricketer/author (1826-84); Emily Hill, NZ teacher/ suffragist (1847-1930); Jesse James, US outlaw (1847-82); Raquel Welch, US actor (1940-); Freddie Mercury, UK singer (1946-91); Murray Mexted, All Black (1953-); Rose McGowan, ItalianUS actor/activist (1973-); Chris Hipkins, NZ politician (1978-).