Today in History

1639 – Transit of Venus (its passage across the Sun’s disc) is first observed by astronomer Jeremiah Horrocks.

1642 – Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sights southwest coast of what is now Tasmania, and names it Van Diemen’s Land.

1859 – British naturalist Charles Darwin publishes On The Origin Of Species, on the theory of evolution.

1877 – Publication of the children’s book Black Beauty, by Anna Sewell.

1959 – Fifteen sailors are lost when the coastal freighter Holmglen founders off South Canterbury. The cause of the tragedy is never established.

1963 – Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of US President John F Kennedy, is shot dead by Jack Ruby in Dallas, Texas.

1969 – Apollo 12 splashes down in the Pacific ending the second manned mission to the Moon.

1977 – Archaeologist says tomb uncovered near Salonika, Greece, is that of Macedon’s King Philip II, father of Alexander the Great.

1991 – Freddie Mercury, left, of rock group Queen, dies of pneumonia resulting from HIV/AIDS.

1993 – Two 11-year-old boys are convicted of murdering Liverpool 2-year-old James Bulger. They are given indefinite detention.

2005 – Pat Morita, the JapaneseAmerican actor in the Karate Kid movies, dies aged 73.

2017 – Former vice-president Emmerson Mnangagwa is sworn in as the president of Zimbabwe, replacing Robert Mugabe.

Birthdays

Baruch Spinoza, Dutch philosopher (1632-77); Laurence Sterne, AngloIrish novelist (1713-68); Henri de Toulouse-lautrec, French artist (1864-1901); Scott Joplin, US ragtime musician (1868-1917); Bob Jones, NZ property investor/politician (1939-); Billy Connolly, UK actor/comedian (1942-); Bob Harvey, NZ politician (1942-); Ian Botham, England cricketer (1955-); Nyla Carroll, NZ runner (1965-).