Today in History

1552 – St Francis Xavier, the Roman Catholic missionary who founded the Jesuits order, dies of fever off the coast of China.

1818 – Illinois is admitted as the 21st state of the United States.

1828 – Andrew Jackson is elected 7th president of the United States.

1854 – More than 20 goldminers at the Eureka Stockade in Ballarat, Victoria, are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.

1863 – NZ Parliament passes a law allowing the confiscation of Māori land, affecting tribes deemed to have rebelled against the Crown.

1894 – Scottish essayist, poet and author