Today in History
1243 – Sinibaldo Cardinal Fieschi was elected pope, taking the name Innocent IV.
1678 – Venetian Elena Cornaro Piscopia becomes the first woman to be awarded a PhD. 1860 – Death of the first Māori King, Pōtatau Te Wherowhero.
1876 – Sioux warriors rout the US 7th Cavalry, led by George Custer, at Little Bighorn.
1903 – Marie Curie defends her thesis on radioactive substances, and is the first woman in France to be awarded a PhD.
1910 – The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky and Michel Fokine premieres at the Paris Opera. 1942 – Major General Dwight Eisenhower is appointed commander of US forces in Europe. 1947 – The first version of Anne Frank’s diary is published in The Netherlands.
1950 – Korean War begins with North Korea’s invasion of South Korea.
1975 – Mozambique becomes independent and Samora Machel is sworn in as president after 477 years of Portuguese rule.
1978 – First version of the rainbow flag, which represents LGBTQ pride, is flown during the San Francisco Gay Freedom Day parade.
1984 – Prince, left, releases the album Purple Rain, which has since sold more than 25 million copies.
1993 – Canadian politician Kim Campbell is sworn in as the country’s prime minister, becoming the first woman to hold the post; she served for less than five months.
1998 – Elections to the new Northern Ireland assembly are held. Supporters of the Good Friday peace deal win a majority.
2003 – New Zealand’s Parliament votes to decriminalise prostitution, with the Prostitution Reform Act passing by one vote.
2009 – US pop singer Michael Jackson dies, aged 50: US actress Farrah Fawcett, right, who first gained fame for an iconic pinup poster and later with the television series Charlie’s Angels, dies, aged 62.
2020 – Qantas announces it is cutting 6000 jobs, a fifth of its workforce, because of Covid19; US band The Dixie Chicks change their name to The Chicks, to remove Confederate connotations.
Birthdays Antoni Gaudi, Spanish architect (1852-1926); George Orwell, UK author (1903-50); Alistair Te Ariki Campbell, NZ poet (1925-2009); Dame Margaret Sparrow, NZ doctor, reproductive rights advocate (1935-); Carly Simon, US musician (1945-); Tim Finn, NZ musician (1952-); Anthony Bourdain, chef/author (1956-2018); Ricky Gervais, UK comedian (1961-); George Michael, UK musician (1963-2016).