Today in History

1478 – Guiliano de Medici is killed at the cathedral in Florence in an unsuccessful coup attempt by the Pazzi family.

1890 – The poem The Man from Snowy River , by Banjo Paterson, right, 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 Bowes-Lyon 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 Pennsylvania.

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); I.M. Pei, Chinese/US architect (1917-); Melania Trump, US first lady (1970-); Channing Tatum, US actor (1980-).