Today in History

1356 – The English under Edward, the Black Prince, defeat the French at Poitiers during the Hundred Years’War.

1777 – Americans defeat a British force at the First Battle of Saratoga, a turning point in the AmericanWar of Independence.

1796 – GeorgeWashington gives his farewell address as US president.

1881 – James Garfield, the 20th president of the United States, dies of wounds inflicted by an assassin.

1893 – Nz becomes the first self-governing country to grant all women the right to vote. 1939 – Lord Haw-Haw (William Joyce) becomes radio host of Reichsrundfunk Berlin. 1940 – Witold Pilecki is voluntarily captured and sent to Auschwitz in order to smuggle out information and start a resistance. He becomes the subject of the 2019 book The Volunteer: The True Story of the Resistance Hero Who Infiltrated Auschwitz.

1955 – Argentina’s President Juan Peron, left, is ousted.

1957 – Nevada is site of first-ever underground nuclear explosion.

1984 – China and Great Britain announce their agreement to transfer Hong Kong to Chinese rule in 1997. 1970 – The Mary Tyler Moore Show premieres. 1985 – Earthquake under the Pacific coast shakesMexico City, killing 10,000 people. 1989 – A French airliner blows up over Niger, killing 171 people. Libya is later blamed for the explosion.

1992 – Dr Nigel Cox is convicted of attempted murder in Great Britain. He administered a fatal injection to an elderly patient who asked him to help her die.

2001 – Islamic clerics urge terrorist suspect Osama bin Laden to leave Afghanistan voluntarily.

2003 – New Zealand police announce they have found the body of murderedWairarapa child Coral Burrows.

2008 – China’s food safety crisis widens after the industrial chemical melamine is found in milk produced by three of the country’s leading dairy companies.

2013 – Pope Francis warns that the Catholic Church’s structure might ‘‘fall like a house of cards’’ if the church does not balance its divisive rules about abortion, gays and contraception with the greater need to make it amerciful, more welcoming place for all. 2016 – Angelina Jolie files for divorce from fellow actor Brad Pitt.

Birthdays

Antoninus Pius, Roman emperor (86-161); France’s King Henry III (1551-1589); George Cadbury, British chocolate manufacturer (1839-1922); William Golding, British writer and Nobel laureate (1911-1993); Dana Za´topkova´, Czech Olympic gold medal-winning javelin thrower (1922-2020); Emil Za´topek, Czech distance runner, winner of four Olympic gold medals (1922-2000); Jeremy Irons, English actor (1948-); Twiggy, British actress and former model (1949-); Jimmy Fallon, US comedian (1974-); Tamati Coffey, NZ politician (1979-); GuyWilliams, NZ comedian (1987-).