Today in History

1307 - Scottish king Robert the Bruce heavily defeats an English cavalry force at the battle of Loudoun Hill in Ayrshire.

1774 - Louis XVI becomes king of France after Louis XV dies of smallpox.

1857 - The Indian Mutiny, against rule by the British East India Company, begins.

1897 - Ethel Benjamin becomes the first woman admitted as a barrister and solicitor of the Supreme Court of New Zealand.

1925 - NZ prime minister William Ferguson Massey dies in office.

1940 - British prime minister Neville Chamberlain resigns and Winston Churchill forms new government.

1941 - Hitler’s deputy, Rudolf Hess, parachutes into Scotland in an apparent attempt to negotiate a peace; he is arrested and jailed.

1960 - An all-white All Blacks team departs for a tour of South Africa, in the face of widespread opposition.

1963 - The Rolling Stones hold their first recording session.

1981 - Socialist Francois Mitterrand wins presidential election, bringing first leftist government in three decades to power in France.

1996 - Storm hits Mt Everest, killing eight climbers, including New Zealanders Rob Hall and Andy Harris, both guides, in one of the worst disasters since Everest was first conquered in 1953.

2007 - The Privy Council quashes David Bain’s convictions for murdering his family in Dunedin in 1994, and orders a retrial.

Birthdays

Sir Thomas Lipton, UK merchant/ sportsman (1848-1931); Fred Astaire, US dancer-actor (1899-1987); Donovan, UK musician (1946-); Sid Vicious, UK musician (1957-79); Bono, Irish musician (1960-); Blyth Tait, NZ equestrian (1961-); Madeleine Sami, NZ actor (1980-).