Quote Originally Posted by Helenej View Post
Let's imagine the situation. You've been off to a faraway island for a month's holiday. There is no TV, newspapers, internet, radio there and you know nothing about the latest events in the world. On the second day of your stay Michael Jackson dies (may he forgive us for that. It was not me who brought up this story). Then, after a month, you come back and I'm meeting you at the airport. The first phrase I say to you is, "Can you imagine? Michael Jackson has died!" Can you claim that my use of the tense would be not correct? That an American would never say that?
I might interject, though, that what someone would more likely say would be, "Can you imagine? Michael Jackson died!". To say "Michael Jackson has died" implies a fairly recent event, say, within a day perhaps.