Today in History

1718 – English pirate Edward Teach (‘‘Blackbeard’’) is killed during a battle off North Carolina.

1906 – The ‘‘SOS’’ distress signal is adopted at the International Radio Telegraphic Convention in Berlin.

1935 – Flying boat The China Clipper leaves San Francisco on the first trans-Pacific airmail flight.

1939 – World War I hero Bernard Freyberg, right, takes command of NZ Expeditionary Force in WWII. 1963 – US President John F Kennedy is assassinated in Dallas, Texas. Vice-President Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as president.

1977 – Supersonic airliner Concorde begins service out of New York.

1986 – Mike Tyson, aged 20, knocks out Trevor Berbick to become the youngest holder of a heavyweight boxing title.

1988 – Stealth bomber unveiled.

1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, after her defeat by John Major in a ballot for Conservative Party leader, resigns after 11 1⁄2 years in office.

1995 – Release of Toy Story, the first feature-length film created completely using computergenerated imagery.

2005 – Conservative Angela Merkel becomes the first German female chancellor and its first leader to grow up under communism.

2017 – Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic, known as the ‘‘Butcher of Bosnia’’, is jailed for life for genocide and other atrocities.

Birthdays

George Eliot, UK author (1819-80); Charles de Gaulle, French politician (1890-1970); Eric Anson, NZ’s first specialist anaesthetist (1892-1969); Terry Gilliam, US animator/director (1940-); Billie Jean King, US tennis player (1943-); Jamie Lee Curtis, US actor (1958-); Boris Becker, German tennis player (1967-); Mark Ruffalo, US actor (1967-); Todd McClay, NZ politician (1968-); Oliver Driver, NZ broadcaster (1974-); Oscar Pistorius, South African athlete (1986-); Scarlett Johansson, US actor (1984-).