Today in History

1829 – Robert Peel’s Metropolitan Police Act establishing a unified police force for London gains royal assent.

1862 – United States Congress prohibits slavery in US territories.

1865 – Union general Gordon Granger declares slaves are free in Texas. The date is now celebrated across the US as Freedom Day, or ‘‘Juneteenth’’.

1940 – The trans-Pacific liner

Niagara is sunk by German mines off the Northland coast. All 349 people on board escape safely.

1953 – Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, convicted of nuclear espionage for the Soviet Union, are executed in the US.

1978 – The first comic strip of Garfield, by Jim Davis, is published.

1984 – Michael Jordan, left, is selected by the Chicago Bulls basketball team, beginning a glittering career.

1991 – Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar surrenders to police. 2000 – Reports emerge of 58 bodies found in a truck container at the English port of Dover. Eight men are later convicted in the deaths of the Chinese migrants, who suffocated during the trip from Belgium.

2005 – New Zealand golfer Michael Campbell wins the US Open.

2013 – James Gandolfini, who played Tony Soprano in TV series The Sopranos, dies aged 51.

2014 – Felipe VI becomes king of Spain, on the abdication of his father, Juan Carlos I.

Birthdays

James I, UK monarch (1566-1625); Suzanne Aubert, French-born NZ nun (1835-1926); Wallis Simpson, USborn duchess (1896-1986); Aung San Suu Kyi, Myanmar politician (1945-); Salman Rushdie, AngloIndian writer (1947-); Kathleen Turner, US actor (1954-); Paula Abdul, US singer (1962-); Boris Johnson, UK politician (1964-); Richard Ussher, NZ multisport athlete (1976-); Moss Burmester, NZ swimmer (1981-); Casey Kopua, NZ netball player (1985-).