Today in History

1626 – Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrives in New Netherland (present day Manhattan Island in New York) aboard the See Meeuw.

1772 - French explorer Marion du Fresne's ill-fated expedition arrives in the Bay of Islands.

1738 – The Imperial Theatrical School, now known as Vaganova Academy of Russian Ballet, was founded under the reign of Empress Anna. It is the first ballet school in Russia and second in the world.

1780 - The first Derby horse race is run at Epsom in England over a distance of one and a half miles.

1926 - First British general strike called by the Trades Union Congress begins.

1927 – The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is incorporated in the United States.

1932 - Mobster Al Capone is convicted of income tax evasion and jailed at the federal penitentiary in Atlanta.

1937 - Two workers killed and three seriously injured in second avalanche to hit the Homer tunnel project in Fiordland.

1942 - Start of the Battle of the Coral Sea, in which US fleet turns back Japanese invasion force heading for Port Moresby.

1953 – Writer Ernest Hemingway wins the Pulitzer Prize for his novella The Old Man and the Sea.

1959 - Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Henry Mancini and Frank Sinatra are among the winners at the first Grammy Awards.

1970 - The Ohio National Guard, sent to Kent State University after disturbances in the city of Kent the weekend before, opens fire, killing four unarmed students and wounding nine others. The students were protesting the Cambodian Campaign of the United States and South Vietnam.

1973 – The 108-storey Sears Tower in Chicago is topped out at 1451 feet (442 m) as the world's tallest building of the age.

1989 - Tens of thousands of Chinese students march to Tiananmen Square, calling for freedom and democracy; In the Iran-Contra affair former White House aide Oliver North is convicted of three crimes and acquitted of nine other charges; the convictions are later overturned on appeal.

1994 – Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and Palestine Liberation Organisation leader Yasser Arafat sign a peace accord, granting self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho.

2001 - The United States is voted off the UN Human Rights Commission for the first time in the world body's 54-year existence.

2019 - The inaugural all-female motorsport series, W Series, takes place at Hockenheimring, Germany. The race was won by Jamie Chadwick, who would go on to become the inaugural season's champion.

Birthdays

Archibald McIndoe, NZ plastic surgery pioneer (1900-1960); Hosni Mubarak, Egyptian president (1928-2020); Audrey Hepburn, Belgian-born actress (1929-1993); George Tupou V, King of Tonga (19482012); Phil Twyford, NZ politician (1963-);

Rory McIlroy, Northern Irish golfer (1989-); Otere Black, NZ rugby player (1995-).