Today in History

1535 – Henry VIII declares himself head of the Church in England.

1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned in Westminster Abbey.

1649 – French court leaves Paris at outbreak of Fronde Rebellion.

1759 – The British Museum, in London, opens to the public.

1777 – New Connecticut declares its independence. The tiny republic later becomes Vermont.

1797 – First top hat worn by John Etherington of London.

1892 – The rules of basketball are published for the first time, in Springfield, Massachusetts, where the game originates.

1919 – German revolutionaries Karl Liebknecht and Rosa Luxembourg are murdered during a failed uprising.

1922 – The Irish Free State is established as a dominion of the British Commonwealth of Nations.

1967 – The first Super Bowl, in which the Green Bay Packers beat the Kansas City Chiefs in Los Angeles.

1970 – Start of a three-day visit to NZ by US vice-president Spiro Agnew, sparking violent anti-Vietnam War protests; Biafran rebels in Nigeria surrender after a two-year war.

2001 – Open-source internet encyclopaedia Wikipedia is launched.

2009 – US Airways pilot Captain Chesley Sullenberger safely lands his passenger plane on New York City’s Hudson River after a bird strike causes its engines to fail. There were no deaths among the 155 passengers and crew on board.

2018 – US Olympic gymnast Simone

Biles says she is one of more than 130 women sexually abused by former team doctor Larry Nassar.

2021 – The World Health Organisation announces that the global death toll from Covid-19 has passed 2 million.

Birthdays

Jean Baptiste Moliere, French dramatist (1622-73); Mary MacKillop, Australian nun (1842-1909); Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud, first king of Saudi Arabia (1875-1953); George Lowe, NZ mountaineer (1924-2013); Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egyptian leader (1918-70); Martin Luther King Jr, US civil rights leader (1929-68); Sir David Gascoigne, NZ lawyer (1940-); James Nesbitt, UK actor (1965-); Mary Pierce, French tennis player (1975-).