Today in History

1555 – Anglican bishop Nicholas Ridley, after whom Christchurch’s Cathedral Square was first named, is sentenced to death as a heretic. 1791 – Mozart’s Die Zauberfloete (The Magic Flute) premieres in Vienna.

1868 – The first volume of Little Women ,by Louisa May Alcott, right, is published.

1878 – The ‘‘Great Flood’’ hits the lower South Island. Homes and bridges near the Clutha River were swept away, and thousands of animals drowned or starved. Three people are thought to have died.

1938 – The Munich Pact is signed by Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, French Premier Edouard Daladier, and British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain, effectively handing Czechoslovakia to Germany.

1946 – The Nuremberg trials find 22 Nazi leaders, including Joachim von Ribbentrop and Hermann Goering, guilty of war crimes.

1954 – The USS Nautilus, the world’s first nuclear submarine, is commissioned by the US Navy.

1955 – Actor James Dean is killed in a two-car collision in California. 1982 – Cheers premieres on American television.

1985 – Death of Charles Richter, US seismologist whose name is given to the scale for measuring earthquake size.

1996 – Martin Bryant pleads not guilty to 72 charges from the Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania.

2005 – Controversial drawings of the prophet Muhammad are printed in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten.

2020 – The Spanish government orders a lockdown in Madrid after a rapid rise in Covid-19 cases.

Birthdays Hans Geiger, German physicist (1882-1945); Truman Capote, US author (1924-84); Elie Wiesel, Hungarian-born author (1928-2016); Marc Bolan, UK musician (1947-77); Marion Cotillard, French actor (1975-); Martina Hingis, Swiss tennis player (1980-); Martin Guptill, NZ cricketer (1986-).