Today in History
1605 – Guy Fawkes is arrested in cellars beneath the Houses of Parliament in London. Barrels of gunpowder are found nearby. 1688 – William of Orange lands in England to claim the throne as William III.
1872 – Suffragist Susan Anthony, right, casts a vote in the US presidential election. She is later arrested and fined US$100. She never pays it.
1881 – About 1600 police and volunteers raid the Taranaki settlement at Parihaka to break up the Ma¯ori protest movement opposing European confiscation of Ma¯ori lands.
1895 – George Selden of Rochester, New York, receives the first US patent for a petroldriven car.
1913 – Supporters of striking workers clash with special constables in the ‘‘Battle of Featherston St’’ in central Wellington.
1914 – France and Britain declare war on Turkey, widening the conflict of World War I.
1940 – Franklin D Roosevelt is elected president for an unprecedented third term.
1941 – Japanese military leaders send the order to bomb the US base at Pearl Harbour. 1967 – A train derailment at Hither Green, southeast London, kills 49 passengers. Survivors include Robin Gibb, right, of the Bee Gees.
1968 – Richard Nixon is elected 37th president of the United States, defeating Democratic candidate Hubert Humphrey, and American Independent George Wallace.
1974 – Democrat Ella Grasso is elected governor of Connecticut, the first woman to win a gubernatorial office without succeeding her husband.
1994 – George Foreman, at 45, becomes boxing’s oldest heavyweight champion by knocking out Michael Moorer in Las Vegas. 1999 – All Blacks coach John Hart quits after the team’s fourth placing in the Rugby World Cup, hosted mainly in Wales.
2006 – Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death by an Iraqi court.
2009 – Army psychiatrist Nidal Hasan shoots 13 people dead at the Fort Hood army post in Texas.
2012 – Royal Commission on the Pike River Coal Mine Tragedy delivers its final report, saying the 29 miners died due to failings by their employers and government agencies.
2013 – India launches its first interplanetary spacecraft, the unmanned Mars Orbiter Mission.
Birthdays
Roy Rogers, US actor/singer (1911-98); Vivien Leigh, UK actor (1913-67); Art Garfunkel, US singer (1941-); Sam Shepard, US actor/ playwright (1943-2017); Gram Parsons, US musician (1946-73); Kris Jenner, US reality TV star (1955-); Bryan Adams, Canadian singersongwriter (1959-); Tilda Swinton, UK actor (1960); Taine Randell, All Black (1974-); Eliud Kipchoge, Kenyan athlete (1984-); Virat Kohli, Indian cricketer (1988-).