Today in history
Today is Thursday, March 30, the 89th day of 2017. There are 276 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1406 — On his way to France, James I of Scotland is captured at Flamborough Head and imprisoned by King Henry IV of England.
1806 — Joseph Bonaparte becomes king of Naples. 1820 — The Duc de Richelieu reestablishes censorship of the French press.
1822 — Florida becomes a United States territory. 1842 — Ether is reputedly used as an anaesthetic for the first time, by Dr Crawford Long in the US. 1855 — End of the Taiping rebellion in China.
1856 — The Treaty of Paris is signed, ending the Crimean War and guaranteeing the integrity of Ottoman Turkey.
1863 — Denmark incorporates Schleswig; Poland is divided into provinces by Russia.
1867 — US Secretary of State William Seward reaches agreement with Russia to purchase the territory of Alaska for $US7.2 million, a deal ridiculed in the US as Seward’s Folly.
1870 — The 15th amendment to the US Constitution, giving black men the right to vote, is ratified; the US Congress readmits Texas to the Union after it had seceded in 1861 to join the Confederate States.
1874 — Nelson becomes New Zealand’s fifth city. 1885 — The Russian occupation of Penjdeh, Afghanistan, provokes a crisis in AngloRussian relations.
1903 — Dunedin inventor Robert Miller demonstrates his method of generating power from wave movement near St Clair.
1912 — The Sultan of Morocco signs a treaty making Morocco a French protectorate.
1949 — Syrian General Hosni alZaim seizes power in a CIAbacked coup.
1957 — Following the demise of Dunedin’s tram service five cable cars and five trailer bodies are sold by public auction at the Mornington tram sheds.
1966 — Lebanese Prime Minister Rashid Karami resigns because of protests that he was the only member of the Government in Parliament.
1967 — The North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) formally closes its military headquarters in France.
1972 — The Northern Ireland (Temporary Provisions) Act comes into force, decreeing direct rule from London. The prime minister of Northern Ireland, Brian Faulkner, resigns.
1974 — A Chinese jetliner arrives in New York in what is described as the first civilian flight from the Chinese mainland to the US.
1978 — Two lions which escaped from Carlos’ Circus while in Lawrence are shot because of safety concerns after a 6yearold boy was clawed.
1981 — US President Ronald Reagan and his press secretary James Brady are shot and wounded outside the Washington Hilton.
1987 — Sunflowers, by Vincent van Gogh is sold at auction in London for £24.75 million.
1989 — Rebel inmates agree to end their fiveday mutiny in Guatemala’s largest prison.
1991 — Albania’s communist leaders free more than 250 political prisoners on the eve of multiparty elections.
1998 — RollsRoyce is purchased by German carmaker BMW in a $US570 million deal.
1999 — A jury in Portland, Oregon, orders Philip Morris to pay $US81 million to the family of a man who died of lung cancer after smoking Marlboros for four decades.
2008 — A fire deliberately set in the basement of the Stavely Building on the corner of Bond and Jetty Sts, home to the Dunedin School of Ballet, causes substantial damage to the 130yearold central Dunedin building.
2013 — The chief executive of telecommunications company 2 degrees, Eric Hertz (58) and his wife, are killed when the light aircraft he was flying crashes into the sea off the Waikato coast.
Today’s birthdays: Francisco Goya, Spanish artist (17461828); Vincent van Gogh, Dutch artist (18531890); Jack Cowie, New Zealand cricketer (19121994); Frankie Laine, US singer (19132007); Warren Beatty, US actor (1937); Tane Norton, All Black captain (1942); Eric Clapton, English musician (1945); Robbie Coltrane, Scottish actor (1950); Paul Reiser, US actor (1957); MC Hammer, US rapper (1963); Tracy Chapman, US singer (1964); Ian Ziering, US actor (1964); Celine Dion, Canadian singer (1968).
Thought for today: All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are moveable, and those that move. — Arab proverb.