New Zealand School History

july

Today in History

On the 7th July 1868 HauHaus attacked the redoubt at Turuturu-Mokai. On the 8th July 1844 Hone Heke (pictured with Patuone) cut down the flagstaff at Kororareka.

July

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1st

1862 The first telegraph in NZ was opened between Christchurch and Lyttleton.

1863 The Battle of Gettysburgh began in the American Civil War.

1866 Over 3,000 people attended the funeral of four men killed by the Levy gang near Nelson.

1898 The New Territories were added, by means of a 99 year lease, to the British colony of Hong Kong.

1910 The eUnion of South Africa became a British dominion

1916 The Battle of the Somme began with a Brirish attack on German positions and ended with the highest casualty rates the British Army had ever suffered in one day.

1921 Communist revolutionaries met in China to start the Communist Party of China.

1946 The USA exploded a 20-kiloton atomic bomb near Bikini Atoll (see pic).

1994 Yasser Arafat ended his exile of 27 years and returned to Palestine.

1988 The government announced that it had agreed to the Bastion Point land in Auckland be returned to Ngati Whatua ownership.

1997 Hong Kong starts its first day as a part of China.

1999 Queen Elizabeth II opened Scotland's first parliament for nearly 300 years to the sound of an 18th century ballard being sung instead of 'God Save the Queen'.

2nd

1644 The first major defeat of the Royalist army, in the English Civil Wr, occurred at the battle of Marston Moor near York.

1860 The Russians founded the city of Vladivostok near the Korean border.

1918 The Factory Act was passed in Britain prohibiting child exploitation.

1890 The International Brussels Act was signed to eradicate African slave and liquor trade with indigenous peoples.

1938 New Electric trains came to Wellington

1940 The Liner Arandora Star was torpedoed by a German submarine killing 750 prisoners and crew on their way to Canada (see pic).

1954 France evacuated the southern area of the Red River delta in Indochina.

1964 The Civil Rights Act against racial discrimination was signed by US President L. B. Johnson.

1966 France exploded an atomic bomb in the Pacific which was the first of a series of six in the Pacific test.

1976 North and South Vietnam were reunified after they were separated in 1954.

1985 Andrei Gromyko became president of the USSR.

3rd

321 Roman emperor Constantine declared Sunday a day of rest and religious observance.

1583 Russia's Ivan the terrible kills his son during a rage.

1827 Over 10, 000 slaves were freed when slavery was abolished in New York

1863 The three day battle at Gettysburg ended with a Northern victory but 37,000 dead.

1940 British ships sink the French fleet, and over 100 French sailors died, at Oran and Mers-el-Kebir in Algeria to prevent them falling into enemy hands.

1944 Soviet forces win Minsk from the Germans and captured 100,000 troops.

1963 A DC-3 plane crashed in the Kaimai Ranges

1954 Rationing ended in Britain, nine years after the end of WW2 (see pic).

1972 North and south Korea both agree on principles to peacefully reunify the Koreas without external influence and renounce the use of force.

1987 Former Gestapo senior officer, Klaus barbie, was convicted of crimes against humanity and sentenced to life in prison.

2007 The Japanese Defence Minister, Fumio Kyuma, resigned after saying that the atomic bombing of Japanese cites during WW2 "couldn't be helped".

4th

1776 The American declaration of Independence was approved by the Continental Congress in Philadelphia.

1848 Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published 'The Communist Manifesto' (see pic).

1865 Dunedin was the first town in NZ to be constituted a borough.

1868 Maori prisoners at the Chatham Islands under the leadership of Te Kooti seize the schooner "Rifleman" and escape in it to Gisborne.

1976 Israeli commandos rescued 103 hostages from a hijacked airliner in Entebbe, Uganda.

5th

321 The Christian Roman Emperor Constatine proclaimed Sunday a day for religious observance and a day of rest.

1583 Russia's Ivan the Terrible killed his son Ivan during a fit of rage.

1861 Defeat of the Stafford Ministry by one vote in a vote of confidence.

1863 The Battle of Gettysburg ended after three days in a victory for the Unionist side in the American Civil War with about 37,000 casualties on both sides.

1881 A poll tax was imposed on Chinese immigrants in NZ

1940 During World War II, the Vichy government in France severed diplomatic relations with Britain.

1943 The Battle of Kursk signalled the start of the German offensive against the Soviets during WW2.

1944 The Soviets captured Minsk from the Germans and 100,000 troops were taken prisoner.

1945 Winston Churchill was defeated in an attempt to be re-elected as Prime Minister of Great Britain (see pic).

1950 US and North Koreans clashed for the first time in the Korean War.

1963 Lord Bernard Freyburg a former NZ Governor-General, died.

1967 Israel annexed the Gaza strip.

1975 American Arthur Ashe became the first black man to win Wimbledon singles.

1994 PLO leader, Yasser Arafat, was greeted by thousands of Palestinians upon his return to the West Bank after an absence of 27 yeras and swore in the self-rule government.

6th

1861 The Treasurer of the Otago Province was removed from office for allowing the Superintendent to use public money for private purposes.

1871 Inauguration of the University of Otago.

1875 The NZ government resigned with Vogel being absent in England and a new ministry established under the Premiership of Hon. Dr. Pollen.

1917 Lawrence of Arabia led Arab horsemen to victory in capturing the Turkish fort at Aqaba.

1923 The USSR was formed (see pic).

1923 early in the morning the express train crashed into a landslip at Ongarue in the King Country with 17 deaths.

1942 Diarist Anne Frank and her family sought refuge from the Germans in an attic in Amsterdam.

7th

1753 Jews in England were naturalised by an Act of Parliament.

1807 France and Russia divide Europe between them in the first Treaty of Tilsit.

1868 Hauhaus attacked Turuturu-Mokai Redoubt (see pic).

1910 The NZ Cross was awarded for the 23rd and last time to Ensign Henry Northcroft of the Patea Rangers for bravery in the NZ Wars 44 years before.

1913 Britain's House of Commons passed the Irish Home Rule Bill.

1916 The NZ Labour Party was formed in Wellington.

1925 The colour-bar bill was rejected by South Africa's Senate.

1937 The Peel Report in Britain recommended there be separate Arab and Jewish states.

1937 Chinese and Japanese troops clash near Marco Polo Bridge, Beijing in an incident that led to the sino-Japanese War.

8th

1844 Hone Heke cut down the flag pole at Maiki Hill, Kororareka now Russell in the Bay of Islands (see pic).

1858 The Bristish claimed victory in the Indian Mutiny after a year of intense fighting.

1940 After 62 days of fighting the Nazis in Norway, the Norwegian government moved to Britain.

1943 A hero of the French Resistence, Jean Moulin, died in enemy hands while being moved to a concentration camp.

1944 Japanese held Guam came under heavy attack from allied naval vessels.

1950 US General Douglas MacArthur was named the commander-in chief of all UN forces in Korea.

1967 Fighting erupted between Egypt and Israel after the end of the six-day war, along the Suez Canal.

1997 The former communist nations of Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic were invited to join Nato.

9th

1540 Heny VIII's marriage to Anne of Cleves was annulled after only 6 months.

1791 The third fleet arrived in Australia from England bringing the first Irish convicts to be deported.

1874 The 'Clutha Leader' was established.

1875 The cutter 'Dante' disappeared off the Waikato Heads.

1915 Louis Botha, commanding South African forces captured the German forces in South West Africa.

1986 The Homosexual Law Reform Bill passed which removed criminal sanctions against consensual male homosexual practice

1991 The International Olympic committee decided to readmit South Africa after 30 years.

1993 British scientists used DNA to identify the bones of Tsar Nicholas II and family (see pic).

1995 The French Navy fired teargas at a Greenpeace ship before storming it after the ship entered French waters near the nuclear testing stite in the Pacific.

10th

138 Roman emperor Hadrian, famous for the wall separating the Picts from teh rest of Britain, died.

1040 Legend has it that lady Godiva rode naked on a horse through Coventry in protest at her husband's taxes on the town.

1559 Mary, Queen of Scots, claimed the throne of England against the future Elizabeth I.

1584 William of Orange, the Dutchindependence leader, was assassinated at the instigation of Spain.

1645 The army of Oliver Cromwell defeated Charles I's Royalists at teh battles of Naseby and Langport.

1855 The Canterbury Provincial Council in NZ took over all the assets and liabilities of the Canterbury Association.

1872 A tender of 167, 484 pounds was accepted for building the Newmarket to Mercer railway.

1889 Dunedin tailoresses form the first women'sunion in NZ in protest against sweatshop labour.

1940 The Battle of Britain started with Germany attacking southern England by air.

1943 Allied forces landed at Sicily during WW2

1967 NZ adopted decimal currency replacing the inherited British system of pounds, shillings and pence

1985 French sabateurs bomb the Greenpeace ship 'Rainbow Warrior' in Auckland's Harbour and a crew member died (see pic).

1991 Boris Yeltsin took the oath of office for President of Russia.

2002 Late US president JF Kennedy's PT-109 torpedo boat was found off the Solomon Islands where it had sunk during WW2.

11th

1533 England's King Henry VIII (see pic) was excommunicated by Pope Clement VII .

1690 King William III defeated the Catholic Jacobite forces of Irish, English and French under James II at the Battle of Boyne.

1877 Kate Edgar, graduating with a BA from Auckland University, became the first woman in the British Empire to gain a university degree.

1940 Marshal Henri Petain was declared the head of the French state after Nazi Germany defeated President Lebrun.

1945 American forces used napalm on Japanese troops in the Phillipines.

1963 Walter Sisulu and other ANC leaders were arrestd by South African police after being captured at a farmhouse north of Johannesburg.

1967 Mobs led by communists increase terrorist activities in Hong Kong and public transport was stopped by British authorities as a safety measure.

1990 Hundreds of thousands of miners in the Ukraine held a one-day strike as a protest against Soviet policies.

2003 India and Pakistan reopened a cross-border bus route between New Delhi and Lahore less than a year after both countries came close to war.

12th

1543 King Henry VIII married his sixth and last wife, Catherine Parr at Hampton Court Palace.

1776 Captain James Cook set sail in the 'Resolution' to search for the North West sea passage through the Arctic.

1772 A French expedition claims that it buried a bottle at Moturoa Island in the Bay of Islands claiming NZ for France but the bottle has never been found.

1863 British forces, under Lieutenant-General Cameron's force crossed the Mangatawhiri River and invaded the Waikato

1868 Maori attacked the redoubt at Turuturu-Mokai but were driven off by a force under Major von Tempsky (see pic von Tempsky and soldiers memorial near Hawera).

1861 The Fox Ministry was appointed in NZ.

1967 Chinese communist rioters attack government buildings and police during four days of anti-British unrest in Hong Kong.

1994 For the first time since the end of WWII, German forces were cleared for military operations outside the country's borders by Germany's highest court.

1997 The Cuban government confirmed that the remains found in Bolivia are those of revolutionary Che Guevara.

13th

1822 The Greeks defeated the Turk at Thermopylae.

1861 The report on the Tuapeka Goldfields with the first escort carrying 500 ounces of gold.

1863 1000 people are killed in three days of anti conscription rioting in New York.

1867 The first Hansom was seen in NZ, in Christchurch.

1916 The First New Zealander to obtain an aviator's certificate at the Walsh brothers New Zealand Flying School at Kohimarama

1943 the NZ cruiser Leander was torpedoed at the Solomons and 28 died (see pic).

1992 US President, George Bush, announced the end of production of weopan grade plutonium and highly enriched uranium.

14th

1789 Parisian citizens trigger the French revolution by capturing the Bastille and releasing prisoners.

1798 The US Congress passed the Sedition Act making it illegal to publish false or malicious writing about the government.

1867 Alfred Nobel first demonstrated dynamite in a quarrey in Surrey.

1918 The French troopship Djemnah was sunk by a German submarine and 442 people died.

1933 All German political parties except for the Nazi Party were suppressed and a law was passed allowing for the forced sterilisation of over 2 million people deemed unfit to reproduce (see pic).

1940 The USSR annexed Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

1942 Two battallions of number 2 NZ Division were over run by German tanks in the Western desert while waiting for British reinforcements.

1950 The death of Sir Apirana Ngata who contributed greatly to the revival of the Maori people in the early 20th century

1967 The UN adopted a resolution that requested Israel to cease its aleterations of Jerusalem city.

1984 In NZ Labour led by David Lange swept to victory over National's Robert Muldoon, in a snap election.

1990 Nicholas Ridley, British Trade Secretary, resigned after calling the French obedient poodles to the Germans who he in turn accused of trying to take over Europe.

2000 A Miami jury ordered America's biggest cigarette manufacturers responsible for injuring smokers and ordered punitive damages of US$145 billion.

15th

1099 The Christian army stormed Jerusalem and slaughtered its Muslim occupants, three years after the first Crusade set out for the Holy Land.

1685 The Duke of Monmouth was beheaded in England for his part in a rebellion and the executioner took eight strokes to sever his head.

1789 The French King Louis XVI was woken in the night and informed that the Bastille had fallen and the King's rule was over.

1857 The second massacre of Cawnpore took place in the Indian Mutiny in which 197 English women and children died.

1867 The 'Southland News' declared the acclimatisation of rabbits to be a success.

1918 The second Battle of the Marne began during WWI.

1933 Jack Lovelock broke the world mile record at Princeton University.

1942 Kiwi soldier Keith Elliot won a VC at the Battle of Ruweisat Ridge in the Western Desert.

1945 Italy declared war on its former Axis partner, Japan.

1948 The UN Security Council ordered peace in Palestine.

1951 the NZ Waterfront lockout ended after 151 days (see pic).

1965 US Spacecraft Mariner IV sent the first close up photos of Mars to Earth.

1975 US spacecrafft Apollo and the Soviet Soyez blasted off to rendezvous in space.

16th

622 The generally accpted date of the start of the Islamic era when Mohammed fled from Mecca to Medina.

1557 Anne of Cleaves, the 4th Wife of Henry VIII, died.

1864 The start of the Manukau-Waikato steamer service.

1917 Trotsky was arrested and Lenin escaped into hiding after a failed Bolshevik uprising in Petrograd.

1918 Nicholas II, the last Tsar of Russia , and his family were murdered by the Bolsheviks at Ekaterinburg.

1940 Hitler gave the order to prepare to invade Britain.

1942 Nearly 14,000 Jewish people were arrested in Paris during WWII.

1945 The first atomic bomb developed by Robert Oppenheimer and his team was tested in New Mexico.

1965 The NZ 161 artillery Battery, stationed at Bien Hoa air base near Saigon, NZ opened fire on a Viet Cong position in support of the American 173rd Airborne Brigade (see pic).

1969 US Apollo 11 was launched to start the landing of men on the moon.

1979 Saddam Hussein became president of Iraq

17th

1861 The Christchurch to Ferrymeade railway was started with the turning of a sod.

1863 Skirmishing at Koheroa signalled start of the Waikato Wars with Cameron having his first significant encounter with Maori (see pic).

1917 The British royal family changed its name from House of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to House of Windsor.

1945 The Potsdam Conference of the Allied leaders began.

18th

64 The great fire of Rome began and raged for nine days.

1536 In England, the authority of the Pope was declared void.

1818 Nelson Mandela was born.

1855 New Zealand's first postage stamps go on sale portraying a full-face likeness of Queen Victoria in her coronation robes.

1872 The secret ballot form of voting was introduced in Britain.

1884 Death of Austrian-born geologist Ferdinand von Hochstetter who was the first to describe the features of New Zealand geology.

1925 A book on Hitler's political views, Mein Kampf, was published

1936 The Spanish Civil War began when General Franco led an army revolt against the republican government.

1940 President Roosevelt was nominated for an unprecedented third term in office, by the Democratic National Assembly.

1966 South Africa declared that it would continue to control South-West Africa after the World Court dismissed the law suit brought by black-ruled African states.

19th

1545 The 'Mary Rose', Henry VIII's flag ship rolled over and sank in the Solent with a loss of 700 lives (see pic).

1851 the formation of the Settlers' Association in Dunedin.

1862 The first show and ploughing match was held in Dunedin.

1864 The first tree was planted in Hagley Park, Christchurch.

1949 Laos gained independence.

1982 Privy Council ruling granted New Zealand citizenship to Western Samoans born after 1924.

1991 A political scandal erupted in South Africa when it was revealed that the government had made a pact with the Zulu based Inkatha Freedom Party.

20th

1866 The goldmining town of Lawrence (NZ) was proclaimed a municipality (see pic).

1919 Edmund Hillary was born in NZ.

1944 A German staff officer, Col von Stauffenburg attempted to assassinate Adolph Hitler.

1954 An armistice was signed for Indo-China and Vietnam was divided into North and South.

1969 US Astronauts from Apollo 11, Neil Armstrong and 'Buzz' Aldrin walk on the moon.

1982 An IRA bomb kills ten soldiers in explosions in Hyde Park and Regent Park.

1988 South Africa, Angola and Cuba formally agree on the independence of South-West Africa (Namibia) and the withdrawal of foreign troops from Angola.

1999 The newly elected prime minister of Israel, Ehud Barak assured Yasser Arafat of his intentions to withdraw from part of the West Bank while at the same time pursue a Middle East settlement.

2001 Germans honour the officers that tried to assassinate Hitler by laying wreaths on the anniversary of the failed attempt.

21st

1542 The Roman Inquisition was established by Pope Paul III to fight Protestantism.

1553 Lady Jane Grey was deposed and Mary Tudor was proclaimed the Queen of England.

1586 The Spanish Amarda was sighted of England's cornishcoast.

1683 Lord William Russell was executed for plotting to assassinate the King of England.

1860 A special meeting of the Otago Provincial Council fixed land at 20 shillings an acre.

1864 The first daily black newspaper in the USA called the New Orleans Tribune, began publication in both French and English.

1865 Governor George Grey led a small force that 'took' the Pai Marire (Hauhau) pa at Weraroa, even though the occupants had indicated that they would surrender (see pic).

1870 France declared war on Prussia starting the Franco-Prussian War.

1918 German armies began the retreat across the Marne River after being defeated in their last great French offensive.

1941 Winston Churchill first initiated his 'V' for victory campaign.

1944 The US Marines captured the island of Guam in the South Pacific, from the Japanese, during the Second World War.

1969 Astronauts Armstrong and Aldrin took their first steps on the Moon after their lunar module Apollo II had landed.

1973 France exploded a nuclear device in the South pacific.

1985 South Africa declared a state of emergency, following rioting in 36 towns, giving police new broad powers.

1990 A large scale rock concert, attended by more than 150,000 people was staged in Berlin to celebrate the dismantling of the Berlin Wall.

22nd

1298 William Wallace used extra long spears against mounted soldiers at the Battle of Falkirk during the Scottish uprising against the English.

1620 English pilgrims in exile set out from Holland on the 'Speedwell', bound for the New World. They transfer to the 'Mayflower' after landing at Plymouth, England.

1865 The first Mayor of Dunedin (NZ), Mr. W. Mason, was elected (see pic).

1917 Alexander Kerensky became the prime minister of Russia.

1943 Allied forces commanded by General Patton captured Palermo in Sicily.

1946 Bread rationing started in Britain.

1946 Part of he King David Hotel in Jerusalem was blown up by Jewish extremists and 90 people were killed.

2003 Former Iraqi President Hussein's sons Uday and Qusay were killed after US forces attacked a home in Mosul.

23rd

1588 The English army assembled at Tilbury to await the Spanish Armada.

1595 The Spanish land at Cornwall and burn Penzance and Mousehole before returning to their ships.

1846 Te Rauparaha was captured at Porirua and then detained for a year on board a ship of war.

1853 J. E. Fitzgerald was elected the first Superintendent of Canterbury, NZ (see pic).

1914 Austria and Hungary issued an ultimatum to Serbia after the assassination of Arch Duke Ferdinand.

1921 The first meeting of the Chinese Communist Party was held in Shanghai between thirteen delegates representing fifty members.

1940 Winston Churchill renamed the Local Defence Volunteers the 'Home Guard'.

1952 Egyptian King Farouk I was overthrown by army officers led by Gamel Nasser.

1967 Riots broke out in Detroit after a black-owned night club was closed, and 43 people died.

1986 Two French agents jailed for bombing the Rainbow Warrior, in Auckland, were transferred from NZ prisons to French custody on an island in the South Pacific.

1991 The draft of a new platform for the Soviet Communist party was published and called for private property, economic integration into the world market and freedom of religion.

1997 The Swiss banks publish lists of WW2 era depositers.

24th

1567 James VI, barely a year old and the future King James I of England, was crowned king of Scotland after his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, was defeated and forced to abdicate by Scottish Lords.

1857 The foundation stone of Christ's College in Christchurch, was laid.

1871 Bean rock lighthouse in Auckland was officially opened (see pic).

1943 Operation 'Gomorrah' began with the concentrated Allied bombing of Hamburg.

1946 The US conducted its first underwater test of an Atomic bomb, off Bikini Atoll.

1974 The US Supreme Court forced President Nixon to give up his White House tape recordings and hand them over to the Washington District Court which was conducting hearings on teh Watergate burglary.

1990 A nun and three policemen were killed by an IRA landmine in County Armagh.

1997 The British government offers the Scots power to legislate after 290 years of union.

2000 Private Leonard Manning became New Zealand's first combat death since the Vietnam War, when he was killed in Timor-Leste.

25th

1863 The first steamer entered the Waikato River.

1864 The first meeting of the Blenheim Town Board.

1917 Mata Hari, the Dutch spy was sentenced to death for spying for Germany during WWI (see pic).

1948 Bread rationing in Britain ended.

1981 350 anti-tour demonstrators invaded the rugby pitch at Hamilton, forcing the Springboks-Waikato match to be abandoned.

26th

1847 Liberia became the first African colony to gain independence.

1859 The township of Carterton, named after a prominent settler Chas. Carter, was proclaimed.

1865 Parliament sat for the first time in Wellington after the capital moved from Auckland.

1941 General Douglas MacArthur was appointed commander of US forces in the Far East, by President Roosevelt.

1941 US President Roosevelt froze all Japanese assets in the US.

1942 RAF launch heavy air raid on Hamburg.

1945 Allies demanded Japan's unconditional surrender as terms for peace during WWII.

1945 Winston Churchill resigned as Britain's PM and was succeeded by Clement Attlee.

1952 Egypt's King Farouk abdicated in favour of his infant son folowing a military coup led by Gamal Nasser.

1953 Fidel Castro led an unsuccessful attack on army barracks at Satiago in Cuba.

1956 Egypt's President Nasser nationalised the Suez Canal which led to confrontation with Britain, France and Israel.

1991 Communist leaders overwhelmingly approved Mikhail Gorbachev's new party position of abandoning Marxist dogma.

1997 The first of India's 'untouchables', K. R. Narayanan, took the oath of presidency (see pic).

27th

1540 Thomas Cromwell, the principal advisor to Henry VIII was executed for treason (see pic).

1563 Soldiers returing from the stricken garrison at Le Havre, France introduce the plague to England.

1694 The Bank of England was founded.

1839 Chinese authorities seize and burn British opium cargoes sparking the Opium War.

1870 Telegraph communication established with Thames.

1942 The Battle of El Alamein ended after 17 days and the Allies prevented the Germans advance into Egypt.

1953 The Korean armistice was signed at Panmunjom.

1954 Britain and Egypt agree on terms for ending 72 years of British control of Suez Canal.

1965 US planes conducted their first attackes against anti-aircraft targets in North Vietnam.

1974 The House Judiciary Committee voted 27-11 to recommend that President Richard Nixon be impeached.

28th

1586 Sir Thomas Harriot brought the first potato to Britain, from Colombia.

1643 Oliver Cromwell's parliamentary force won the day at Gainsborough during the English Civil War.

1794 Maximillien Robespierre, a French Revolutionary leader, was gullotined along with 22 of his supporters before a noisy crowd at Paris.

1862 The defeat of the Fox ministry by the casting vote of the Speaker.

1868 The US 14th Amendment to the Constitution was ratified and dealt with the rights of all races.

1893 An extensive Women's suffrage petition signed by nearly 32,000 women, was presented to the NZ parliament.

1914 Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia triggering the start of WWI (see pic).

1937 The Japanese captured Peking.

1940 British forces repelled a German attack on Malta and the islands were later awarded the George Cross for bravery.

1945 A US bomber crashed into the Empire State Building in New York, killing 13 people.

1965 US President Lyndon Johnson announced an increase in the number of US troops serving in Vietnam from 75,000 to 125,000.

1973 The Skylab-2 was launched carrying 3 astronauts who returned to earth 59 days later.

2005 The IRA formally announced an end to its armed campaign in Northern Ireland.

29th

1565 Mary Queen of Scots married Henry, Lord Darnley, in Edinburgh (see pic).

1588 The English fleet defeated the Spanish Armada of about 125 ships, off Plymouth.

1833 William Wilberforce, who successfully campaigned for the abolition of British slavery, died.

1841 Maori chiefs sold 1214 ha around the Waitemata Harbour to the Government for the establishment of Auckland.

1861 The Bank of New Zealand at Auckland was incorporated.

1872 The Parnell Hill was pierced by a tunnel.

1873 The first donkey in harness was seen on the strets of Dunedin.

1883 Benito Mussolini was born

1921 The All-India Congress decided to boycott the Prince of Wales' visit to India.

1937 Japanese forces seized Tianjin in China.

1937 Crown prince Farouk was crowned as King of Egypt at only 18 years old.

1940 Germany commenced an air blitz against London.

1941 The French Vichy and Japan signed an agreement of 'joint protection' of Indochina which allowed France to continue to administer the colonies but Japan sent in troops.

1948 The first Olympic games were held since the end of WWII, in Wembley Stadium, London.

1981 Up to 2000 anti-Springbok tour protestors were confronted by police wielding batons in an attempt to stop them marching to the home of South Africa's Consul to New Zealand.

1986 South Africa's Botha rejected Britain's plea for unconditional release of Nelson Mandela.

1992 The former East German leader, Erich Honecker left Russia to face justice in Germany.

1996 China held a nuclear test then promised a moratorium.