Today in history
Today is Saturday, July 29, the 210th day of 2017. There are 155 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1030 — King Olaf, patron saint of Norway, is killed in the Battle of Stiklestad. His remains were enshrined in Nidaros Cathedral, built over his burial site.
1565 — Mary Queen of Scots marries Henry,
Lord Darnley, in Edinburgh.
1833 — Death of William Wilberforce, who campaigned successfully for the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.
1841 — A group of Maori chiefs sells approximately 1214ha around Waitemata Harbour, the present site of Auckland, to the New Zealand Government.
1856 — Death of Robert Schumann, German composer and critic.
1861 — The Bank of New Zealand is incorporated. 1890 — Vincent van Gogh, Dutch postimpressionist painter, dies two days after shooting himself.
1897 — The steamer Tasmania is wrecked on Mahia Peninsula, northeast of Hawkes Bay, with the loss of 11 lives.
1900 — Italy’s King Humbert I is assassinated by an anarchist.
1911 — New Zealand’s Richard Arnst wins the world sculling championship on Sydney’s Parramatta River.
1914 — Transcontinental telephone service begins in the United States with the first phone conversation between New York and San Francisco.
1921 — The allIndia Congress decides to boycott the Prince of Wales’ visit to India.
1930 — The airship R100 sets out on its first passengercarrying flight from England to Canada.
1937 — Crown Prince Farouk (18) is crowned king of Egypt.
1940 — Germany’s allout blitz against Britain begins in World War 2.
1941 — The Finnish sailing ship Pamir arrives in Wellington and is seized as a war prize, as Finland is deemed to be an enemy power. It sails under a New Zealand flag until 1949; Vichy France and Japan sign an agreement for ‘‘joint protection’’ of Indochina. It allows France to continue administering colonies, but Japan sends in troops.
1957 — The International Atomic Energy Agency is established.
1958 — US president Dwight Eisenhower signs the National Aeronautics and Space Act, which creates Nasa.
1973 — Voters in Greece endorse decisions by their leaders to abolish the Greek monarchy and install George Papadopoulos as president.
1975 — A bloodless coup in Nigeria ousts General Yakubu Gowon during an African leaders’ summit.
1981 — As protests against a South African rugby tour gather momentum, antitour protesters march on the South African consulate in Wellington but are halted by police with batons; New Zealand diva Kiri Te Kanawa sings at the wedding of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer in St Paul’s Cathedral, London.
1985 — In a landmark decision, the Shop Trading Hours Commission grants retailers in Queenstown, Arrowtown, Frankton, Cardrona and Glenorchy permission to trade 24 hours a day every day except Christmas Day and Good Friday, and on Anzac Day before 1pm.
1994 — Two people, including a doctor wearing a bulletproof vest, are shot and killed outside an abortion clinic by an antiabortion protester in Florida; former Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi is sentenced to 81⁄2 years in jail after being found guilty of fraud.
1997 — Once a worldwide symbol of industrial pollution, Minamata Bay, Japan, is declared free of mercury decades after contaminated fish are blamed for birth defects and deaths.