Today in History

1327 – Edward III accedes to the English throne.

1533 – Henry VIII of England secretly marries his second wife, Anne Boleyn.

1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte becomes president of the Italian Republic.

1858 – Wedding March , by Felix Mendelssohn, right, is first played, at the wedding of Queen Victoria’s daughter Princess Victoria. 1918 – Russia is declared a republic of Soviets.

1924 – First Winter Olympics open at Chamonix, in the French Alps.

1939 – 8.3-magnitude earthquake in Chillan, Chile, kills up to 28,000 people.

1942 – Thailand, allied to Japan, declares war on Britain and the US.

1944 – Battle for Cassino begins in Italy.

1949 – First Israeli election, won by David Ben-Gurion’s Mapai party.

1961 – US President John F Kennedy holds the first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television.

1971 – Idi Amin leads military coup that overthrows President Milton Obote in Uganda.

1974 – First day of competition at the Commonwealth Games in Christchurch.

1980 – Paul McCartney is deported from Japan after marijuana was found in his luggage.

1981 – The 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days return home.

2015 – Radical Left-wing party Syriza wins election in Greece, vowing to end an austerity programme and setting up a showdown with international creditors.

Birthdays

Edmund Campion, English Jesuit (1540-81); Robert Burns, UK poet (1759-96); W Somerset Maugham, UK author (1874-1965); Virginia Woolf, UK author (1882-1941); Eusebio, Portuguese footballer (1942-2014); Christine Fletcher, NZ politician (1955-); Alicia Keys, US singer (1981-).