Today in History

1356 – English forces under Edward the Black Prince defeat the French at the Battle of Poitiers during the Hundred Years War.

1881 – United States President James Garfield dies 80 days after being shot by a disgruntled and possibly insane man.

1893 – A new Electoral Act is signed into law, making New Zealand the first self-governing country in the world in which women had the right to vote in parliamentary elections.

1952 – The United States bars actor Charlie Chaplin from re-entering the country after a trip to England. 1954 – Death of Australian author

Miles Franklin, left, writer of My

Brilliant Career.

1955 – Argentine President Juan Peron is deposed in a military coup.

1957 – The US detonates a nuclear weapon in an underground tunnel for the first time.

1959 – Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is incredulous when he

learns he cannot visit Disneyland.

1970 – The first Glastonbury Festival is held in Somerset, southwest England, a day after American guitarist Jimi Hendrix dies.

1985 – An 8.1 earthquake in Mexico City kills an estimated 10,000 and leaves 250,000 homeless.

1989 – An appeals court restores the America’s Cup to the US after the New York Supreme Court awarded it to New Zealand.

2017 – US President Donald Trump addresses the United Nations, vowing to ‘‘totally destroy North Korea’’ if threatens the US.

Birthdays

William Rolleston, NZ politician

(1831-1903); William Golding, UK author (1911-93); Adam West, US actor (1928-2017); David McCallum, UK actor (1933-); Brian Epstein, UK manager of the Beatles (1934-67); Cass Elliot (Mama Cass), US singer

(1941-74); Jeremy Irons, UK actor

(1948-); Twiggy, UK model (1949-); Jimmy Fallon, US television host

(1974-).