Today in History

1790 – Second Fleet sails from England with 1006 convicts aboard for new settlement at Sydney Cove.

1845 – Māori chief Hōne Heke chops down the British flagstaff above Kororāreka for the third time, in protest at European colonisation – his actions eventually leading to war in the Far North.

1853 – Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il trovatore premieres in Rome.

1883 – First electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service.

1960 – United States and Japan sign treaty of mutual security.

1966 – Indira Gandhi becomes prime minister of India, assuming the office first held by her father, Jawaharlal Nehru.

1967 – Nineteen people die in the Strongman Mine explosion at Runanga, near Greymouth. An inquiry finds safety regulations were not followed.

1990 – Washington DC mayor Marion Barry, left, is charged with crack cocaine possession.

1998 – Rock ’n’ roll pioneer Carl Perkins, whose hit song Blue Suede

Shoes helped lift Elvis Presley to stardom, dies aged 65.

2000 - Film star Hedy Lamarr, 86, found dead in her Florida home.

2012 – File-sharing computer service Megaupload is shut down by the US government after several people including founder Kim Dotcom are charged with violating antipiracy laws.

2013 – Calcium deposits are discovered on Mars by Nasa’s exploration vehicle, Curiosity Rover.

Birthdays

James Watt, Scottish inventor (1736-1819); Robert E Lee, US Civil War confederate general (1807-70); Edgar Allen Poe, US writer (1809-49); Paul Cezanne, French painter (1839-1906); Sir Arthur Coningham, NZ air warfare pioneer (1895-1948); Robin Hyde, NZ writer (1906-39); Ray Henwood, Welshborn NZ actor (1937-2019); Janis Joplin, US singer (1943-70); Dolly Parton, US singer/writer (1946-);