Today in History

1291 – Eleanor of Castile, wife of Edward I of England, dies in Northamptonshire. Crosses are erected at each of 12 points where her body rests on the way to London. Three of the crosses survive more or less intact. 1520 – Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reaches the Pacific Ocean from the Atlantic after passing through a South American strait that now bears his name. 1814 – The Times of London is first printed by automatic, steam-powered presses, allowing much quicker printing and making newspapers available to a wider audience. 1821 – Panama declares itself independent of

Spain and joins the Republic of Colombia. 1893 – New Zealand women vote in a general election for the first time.

1905 – The Sinn Fein Party, part of the Irish Republican movement, is founded in Dublin. 1916 – German planes bomb London, already subject to Zeppelin raids.

1919 – Lady (Nancy) Astor, left, is elected the first female member of Britain’s Parliament.

1943 – United States President Franklin D Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin meet in Tehran, Iran, during World War II. 1953 – New Zealand’s first family planning clinic opens in Remuera, Auckland.

1979 – Air NZ Flight TE901 crashes onMt Erebus, killing all 257 on board.

1990 – John Major becomes British prime minister, as Conservative PartyMPs choose him to succeed Margaret Thatcher.

1991 – Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi says he will not surrender two Libyans accused of the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

1994 – US serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, convicted of 15 murders, is beaten to death by a fellow inmate at a prison in Wisconsin. 2001 – Enron Corp, the largest US energytrading concern, collapses after its credit is downgraded to junk-bond status.

2003 – Opponents of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez hold a drive to collect the 2.4 million signatures needed for a recall election to remove Chavez from office.

2004 – Iran agrees not to test any centrifuges as part of a total suspension of nuclear activities that could yield weaponsgrade uranium, in what diplomats describe as an apparent about-face to avoid possible United Nations Security Council sanctions. 2008 – Five Kiwis and two German pilots die when an Air New Zealand Airbus crashes into the Mediterranean while on a test flight. 2012 – The first of Sir Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, has its world premiere in Wellington.

Birthdays

William Blake, UK artist/poet (1757-1827); Berry Gordy Jr, USMotown Records founder (1929-); Randy Newman, US musician (1943-); Hugh Fletcher, NZ businessman (1947-); Ed Harris, US actor (1950-); Jon Stewart, US TV host (1962-); David de Lautour, NZ actor (1982-).