Today in History

1528 – Pope Clement VII establishes commission to determine validity of Henry VIII’s marriage to Catherine of Aragon.

1742 – George Frederick Handel conducts the first performance of his Messiah, in Dublin.

1870 – The Metropolitan Museum of Art is founded in New York.

1896 – National Council of Women is formed in Christchurch.

1919 – British troops shoot nearly 380 of Mahatma Gandhi’s followers in the Amritsar massacre.

1945 – Vienna, the first foreign capital to be occupied by the Nazis, is liberated by the Russians.

1961 – United Nations General Assembly condemns South African apartheid. 1964 – Sidney Poitier, left, becomes the first black man to win the best-actor Oscar, for his role in

Lilies Of The Field.

1970 – James Lovell, leader of the Apollo 13 mission that is four-fifths of the way to the Moon, reports: "Houston, we’ve had a problem" after a tank of liquid oxygen explodes. The three-man crew reaches Earth safely four days later.

1990 – Soviet Union admits for the first time its responsibility for the 1940 massacre of thousands of Polish officers at Katyn, Poland.

1997 – Tiger Woods becomes the youngest golfer to win the Masters tournament and the first of AfricanAmerican heritage to claim a major title. 2019 – Australian champion racehorse Winx is retired after winning her 33rd consecutive race.

Birthdays

Guy Fawkes, English conspirator (1570-1606); Thomas Jefferson, US president (1743-1826); Frank Winfield Woolworth, US retailer (1852-1919); Butch Cassidy, US outlaw (1866-1908); Samuel Beckett, Irish playwright (1906-89); Alan Jones, Australian radio host (1941-); Al Green, US musician (1946-); Possum Bourne, NZ rally driver (1956-2003); Garry Kasparov, Russian chess champion (1963-).