Today in History
1074 - Pope Gregory VII declares all married Roman Catholic priests to be excommunicated.
1562 - Kissing in public banned in Naples (punishable by death).
1689 - Thomas Shadwell appointed second English Poet Laureate by William and Mary after John Dryden refuses to swear oaths of allegiance to the new monarchs. 1776 - Philosopher Adam Smith's An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations first published.
1796 – Napoléon Bonaparte marries his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais.
1831 - The French Foreign Legion, whose unofficial motto is “Legio patria nostra” (“The legion is our fatherland”), was founded by King Louis-Philippe as an aid in controlling French colonial possessions in Africa.
1841 – The US Supreme Court rules in the United States v The Amistad case that captive Africans who had seized control of the ship carrying them had been taken into slavery illegally.
1842 – The first documented discovery of gold in California occurs at Rancho San Francisco, six years before the California Gold Rush.
1908 – Inter Milan is founded under the name Football Club Internazionale, following a schism from AC Milan.
1933 – Great Depression: President Franklin D. Roosevelt submits the Emergency Banking Act to Congress, the first of his New Deal policies.
1945 - More than 330 United States bombers attack Tokyo with 120,000 firebombs, killing at least 80,000 people.
1946 – Bolton Wanderers stadium disaster at Burnden Park, Bolton, England, kills 33 and injures hundreds more.
1956 - A dolphin nicknamed Opo, famous for entertaining thousands of beachgoers with its antics near the Hokianga settlement of Opononi, is found dead, caught between rocks near the shore.
1959 - The Barbie doll makes its first appearance at a New York toy fair.
1961 - The first Golden Shears contest opens in Masterton.
1987 – Chrysler announces its acquisition of American Motors Corporation.
1990 - East and West Germany begin reunification talks.
1991 - Yugoslavia deploys tanks in the capital, Belgrade, after bloody clashes between riot police and anti-communist protesters.
2000 - Fire in a locked dormitory at a high school in Tuvalu kills 18 teenage girls and their supervisor.
2002 - Mont Blanc Alpine tunnel reopens to car traffic after a fire in 1999 that killed 39 people.
2020 - Italy announces nationwide Covid-19 lockdown.
Birthdays
Diggeress Te Kanawa, Māori weaver (19202009); Ornette Coleman, US musician (19302015); Yuri Gagarin, cosmonaut (1934-68); Bobby Fischer, US chess player (1943-2008);
Keri Hulme, NZ writer (1947-2021); Chris Lewis, NZ tennis player (1957-); Juliette Binoche, French actress (1964-); Oscar Isaac, Guatemalan-American actor (1979-).