Today in History

1890 - The poem The Man from Snowy River, by Banjo Paterson is published in Sydney.

1915 - Italy secretly signs the Pact of London with Britain, France and Russia to put them on the side of the allies in World War I.

1923 - The Duke of York, the future George VI, marries Lady Elizabeth BowesLyon in Westminster Abbey.

1937 - Germany tests its new aircraft with an unprovoked attack on the Spanish town of Guernica, killing at least 200 people.

1943 - New Zealand merchant ship Limerick is torpedoed by a Japanese submarine off New South Wales. A Kiwi and an Australian die.

1945 - Marshal Petain, leader of France’s collaborationist regime, is arrested for treason.

1964 - Tanganyika and Zanzibar form a united republic, becoming Tanzania later that year.

1986 - A test on a turbine at the nuclear plant in Chernobyl, Ukraine, triggers the world’s worst nuclear disaster. Thirty-two people die immediately.

1989 - Chinese students march to central Beijing in pro-democracy protest; US comedy actress Lucille Ball dies, aged 77.

2005 - Civil unions come into effect in

New Zealand, giving the same legal rights to all couples, whether married or not.

2018 - US comedian Bill Cosby is found guilty of sexual assault in a Pennsylvania courtroom.

Birthdays

Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, Roman emperor (121-80); Muhammad, Arabian prophet (570-632); Joseph Ward, NZ prime minister (1856-1930); Ludwig Wittgenstein, Austrian/UK philosopher (1889-1951); Rudolf Hess, Nazi deputy (1894-1987); IM Pei, Chinese/US architect (1917-); Melania Trump, US first lady (1970-); Channing Tatum, US actor (1980-).