Today in History

1543 – Mary Stuart is crowned Queen of Scots, aged nine months.

1776 – The Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia changes the name United Colonies to United States.

1888 – Chile annexes Easter Island in the South Pacific.

1942 – A Japanese floatplane drops bombs on an Oregon forest, in the first and only air attack on the US mainland during World War II.

1948 – The Korean People’s Democratic Republic is formed in North Korea, claiming authority over the entire Korean peninsula.

1976 – Death of Chinese communist leader Mao Zedong, left; New Zealand establishes its first centralised electronic database under the Wanganui Computer Act.

1996 – Typhoon Sally kills more than 130 people in Guangdong, China’s most developed province.

1999 – Israel begins releasing Palestinian prisoners as part of a new peace deal.

2003 – Edward Teller, pioneer in molecular physics dubbed the father of the H-bomb, dies aged 95.

2010 – NSW Parliament passes a bill giving same-sex couples the right to adopt.

2015 – Elizabeth II becomes Britain’s longest-reigning monarch at 63 years and seven months, beating the record set by her greatgreat-grandmother, Queen Victoria.

2016 – North Korea says it has tested a nuclear warhead launched from a missile, which was recorded as a 5.3 magnitude earthquake by monitors in US, Europe, China and Japan.

Birthdays

Cardinal Richelieu, French statesman (1585-1642); Leo Tolstoy, Russian author (1828-1910); Charles Fleming, NZ environmentalist

(1916-87); Otis Redding, US singer

(1941-67); Keith Murdoch, All Black

(1943-2018); Hugh Grant, UK actor

(1960-); Adam Sandler, US actor

(1966-); Rachel Hunter, NZ model

(1969-); Michael Buble, Canadian singer (1975-).