Today in History

1429 – Henry VI is crowned king of England, aged 7.

1860 – Abraham Lincoln is elected president of the United States. 1861 – Jefferson Davis is elected president of the Confederate States of America.

1893 – Death of Russian composer Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.

1908 – New Zealand Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward, right, opens the North Island Main Trunk

Line by driving home a final rail spike at Manganuioteao, between National Park and Ohakune.

1917 – After three months of horrific fighting, the Third Battle of Ypres ends as Canadians take Belgian village of Passchendaele.

1928 – Jacob Schick obtains a patent for his "shaving implement", the first electric razor.

1968 – Richard Nixon is elected US president, defeating Hubert Humphrey.

1971 – World Synod of Catholic Bishops ends a stormy meeting at the Vatican, deeply divided on the question of whether married men may become priests.

2000 – Hillary Clinton becomes the only US first lady to win public office, winning a US Senate seat for New York.

2016 – Indian government declares levels of air pollution in Delhi an emergency situation, closing schools and construction sites.

2018 – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, 29, becomes the youngest person elected to the US House of Representatives.

Birthdays

Adolphe Sax, Belgian inventor of the saxophone (1814-94); James A Naismith, Canadian credited with inventing basketball (1861-1939); Sally Field, US actress (1946-); Glenn Frey, US musician, The Eagles (1948-2016); Brian McKechnie, NZ cricketer (1953-); Mike Brewer, All Black (1964-); Cory Bernardi, Australian politician (1969-); Emma Stone, US actress (1988-); Ana Ivanovic, Serbian tennis player (1987-); Conchita Wurst, Austrian singer (1988-).