Today in History

1282 – Llewelyn, the last Welshborn Prince of Wales, is killed in a battle with the English.

1907 – Fire destroys much of NZ’s Parliament buildings, although the parliamentary library survives.

1931 – Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to NZ and other ex-British colonies.

1936 – King Edward VIII announces his abdication in a radio broadcast.

1941 – Germany declares war on the United States.

1946 – UN International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) created. 1964 – US singer Sam Cooke, left, dies from gunshot wounds in a Los Angeles motel.

1967 – Prototype of supersonic aircraft Concorde shown for the first time at Toulouse, France.

1978 – Robbers raid Lufthansa Airlines cargo building at JFK Airport in New York, stealing $5m in cash and $1m in jewellery.

1989 – Celebrations replace threatened general strike in

Czechoslovakia as Gustav Husak, the last Communist president, is driven from office.

1990 – Albania announces it will allow formation of independent political parties.

2003 – Presidential panel concludes France should ban headscarves in public schools.

2006 – Former Fijian military leader and prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka is found not guilty of two charges of inciting a 2000 mutiny.

2008 – Financier Bernie Madoff is arrested and charged with masterminding US$65b Ponzi scheme. 2011 – Delegates from 150 nations at a UN climate conference in Kyoto, Japan, agree to control heattrapping greenhouse gases.

Birthdays

Hector Berlioz, French composer (1803-69); Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian author (1918-2008); John Kerry, US politician (1943-); Teri Garr, US actor (1944-); Marco Pierre White, UK chef (1961-); Mark Greatbatch, NZ cricketer/coach (1963-); Tim Southee, NZ cricketer (1988-).