Today in History

1531 – Pope Clement VII introduces the Inquisition to Portugal.

1773 – Ten men serving on the Adventure, sister ship to James Cook’s Resolution, are killed in Wharehunga Bay, Queen Charlotte Sound, at the hands of Nga¯ti Kuia and Rangita¯ne.

1777 – France formally recognises the United States.

1889 – A wooden replica of the Eiffel Tower opens in Dunedin, as part of the New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition, which attracts 625,000 visitors over the summer.

1903 – Wilbur and Orville Wright make the first successful flight in a self-propelled, heavier-than-air aircraft in North Carolina. It stayed aloft for 12 seconds.

1939 – German battleship Graf Spee is scuttled off Uruguay to prevent it from falling into British hands.

1967 – Australian Prime Minister

Harold Holt, left, disappears while swimming at Cheviot Beach,

Victoria. His body is never found.

1986 – Davina Thompson becomes the first patient to have a heart, lung and liver transplant, at Papworth Hospital in Cambridge, England. She lives till 1998.

1991 – Russian Federation President Boris Yeltsin announces the Soviet Union will officially cease to exist by the year’s end.

2003 – Return of the King, last of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy, opens in US cinemas, making US$72 million on its opening weekend. 2011 – North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il dies, to be succeeded by his youngest son, Kim Jong Un.

Birthdays

Sir Humphry Davy, UK inventor (1778-1829); Pope Francis (1936-); Kerry Packer, Australian businessman (1937-2005); Peter Snell, NZ athlete (1938-2019); Bernard Hill, UK actor (1944-); Julie Anne Genter, NZ politician (1979-); Dynamo (Steven Frayne), UK magician (1982-); Chelsea Manning, US whistleblower (1987-).