Today in History

1421 – A storm in the North Sea batters the European coastline. About 10,000 people in what is now the Netherlands die in the resulting floods.

1558 – Elizabeth I becomes Queen of England on the death of her half-sister Mary I.

1603 – Sir Walter Raleigh’s trial for treason begins. He is convicted, but James I spares his life.

1734 – John Peter Zenger, publisher of the New York Weekly Journal, is arrested for libel. He is acquitted, establishing the precedent that truth, however defamatory, is a defence against libel charges.

1800 – US Congress holds its first session in the partially completed Capitol building in Washington DC.

1869 – Suez Canal opens, linking the Mediterranean and Red Sea.

1917 – French sculptor Auguste Rodin dies in Meudon, aged 77.

1925 – New Zealand and South Seas International Exhibition opens in Dunedin. More than 3.2 million people visit in the 24 weeks it is open.

1973 – US President Richard Nixon, left, tells an editors’ meeting in Florida, that ‘‘people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook. Well, I’m not a crook’’.

1999 – The UN urges Rwanda to cooperate with an international tribunal, after the release of genocide suspect Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza, a top Hutu official, on procedural grounds.

2003 – Actor and former bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger is sworn in as governor of California.

2018 – Ireland beat the All Blacks 16-9 in Dublin to record their first home win against New Zealand.

Birthdays

Bernard Montgomery, UK field marshal (1887-1976); Bert Sutcliffe, NZ cricketer (1923-2001); Rock Hudson, US actor (1925-85); Peter Cook, UK actor/writer (1937-95); Martin Scorsese, US director (1942-); Danny DeVito, US actor (1944-); Cyril Ramaphosa, South African politician (1952-); RuPaul, US entertainer (1960-); Zoe Bell, NZ stuntwoman/actor (1978-); Hollie Smith, NZ musician (1982-).