Today in History

1536 – Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton and other alleged lovers of Anne Boleyn go on trial in London for treason.

1789 – William Wilberforce makes his first major speech on abolition in the UK House of Commons.

1926 – Norwegian Roald Amundsen, Italian Umberto Nobile and American Lincoln Ellsworth cross the North Pole in an airship.

1932 – The body of aviator Charles Lindbergh’s baby son is found, more than two months after his kidnapping.

1937 – King George VI is crowned at Westminster Abbey.

1943 – Battle of North Africa ends in World War II with German surrender of Cap Bon in Tunisia.

1949 – Soviet Union lifts 11-month blockade against West Berlin.

1965 – West Germany establishes diplomatic relations with Israel, prompting Arab states to break off relations with Bonn government.

1971 – Anti-Vietnam War protests in Auckland disrupt a civic reception for soldiers.

1978 – US stops naming hurricanes exclusively after women.

1988 – World Health Organisation says more than 34,000 Aids cases have been reported worldwide.

2006 – Up to 200 people die in Nigeria when petrol gushing from a ruptured pipeline explodes as villagers scavenge for fuel.

2008 – 7.8 quake in Sichuan, China, kills over 87,000, injures 374,643 and leaves millions homeless.

2010 – A 10-year-old Dutch boy is the lone survivor of an airline crash that kills 103 people in Libya.

Birthdays

Florence Nightingale, UK nurse

(1820-1910); Gabriel Faure, French composer (1845-1924); Katharine Hepburn, US actress (1907-2003); Tony Hancock, UK comedian

(1924-68); Burt Bacharach, US songwriter (1928-); Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor (1950-); Homer Simpson, fictional TV character, left, (1956-); Greg O’Connor, NZ politician (1958-); Emilio Estevez, US actor (1962-); Jonah Lomu, All Black (1975-2015).