Today in History

1594 – Gustavus II of Sweden born. By his death in 1632, Sweden was the strongest power in Europe.

1854 – Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem The Charge of the Light Brigade is published in England.

1867 – The first train-load of passengers travels through the 2.6-kilometre tunnel linking the Canterbury plains and Lyttelton.

1868 – The world’s first traffic light is erected near Westminster Bridge in London; it was removed a month later after a gas leak caused one of the lights to explode.

1979 – Ten years after the World Health Organisation began a global vaccination programme against smallpox, the disease was officially declared eradicated.

1990 – Lech Walesa wins a landslide victory to become the first directly elected president of Poland.

1992 – Prince Charles and Princess Diana, left, announce they are separating; US Marines enter Mogadishu, Somalia, to restore order – they are withdrawn two years later, with Somalia still lacking a functioning government.

1997 – Ted Matthews, the last Australian survivor of the Gallipoli landings on April 25, 1915, dies. 2002 – United Airlines files for bankruptcy, the largest such case in the global airline industry.

2004 – Canada’s Supreme Court rules gay marriage is constitutional.

2019 – A volcanic eruption on Whakaari/White Island kills 22 tourists and guides. Many survivors suffer severe or critical injuries.

Birthdays

John Milton, UK poet (1608-74); Clarence Birdseye, US frozen food inventor (1886-1956); Dame Whina Cooper, NZ kuia (1895-1994); Douglas Fairbanks Jr, US actor (1909-2000); Denis Glover, NZ poet (1912-80); Kirk Douglas, US actor (1916-2020); Bob Hawke, Australian politician (1929-2019); Dame Judi Dench, UK actor (1934-); John Malkovich, US actor (1953-); Sir Gordon Tietjens, NZ coach (1955-).