Today in history
Today is Tuesday, September 19, the 262nd day of 2017. There are 103 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1356 — An English army led by Edward, The Black Prince, eldest son of Edward III, defeats King John II of France in the Battle of Poitiers at the end of the first phase of the Hundred Years’ War.
1656 — A British fleet under Robert Blake captures Spanish treasure ships off Cadiz, Spain.
1668 — John II (John Casimir) abdicates as king of Poland.
1788 — Captain William Bligh discovers and names the Bounty Islands, southeast of New Zealand.
1876 — The first carpetsweeper is patented in the United States by inventor Melville Bissell.
1881 — The 20th president of the US, James Garfield, dies of wounds inflicted by an assassin 11 weeks earlier.
1893 — The Electoral Act is signed into law by the Governor, the Earl of Glasgow, and New Zealand becomes the first selfgoverning country to grant women a parliamentary vote.
1898 — Twice New Zealand governor and prime minister from 187779, Sir George Grey dies in London aged 86. He is buried at St Paul’s Cathedral.
1928 — Steamboat Willie, the first animated cartoon talking picture, starring Mickey Mouse, is shown at the Colony Theatre in New York.
1934 — Bruno Richard Hauptmann is arrested in New York and charged with kidnapping the baby of US aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh.
1945 — William Joyce, who broadcast Nazi propaganda to Britain during World War 2 as Lord Haw Haw, is sentenced to death by a British court for treason. He was later hanged.
1949 — The New Zealand currency is devalued in line with the British pound.
1957 — The US conducts its first underground nuclear test, in the Nevada Desert.
1969 — Two miners are killed in a rockfall 800m from the mine entrance and 60m underground, at the Fernhill Coal Company’s mine at Brighton, near Dunedin.
1983 — The Caribbean islands of St KittsNevis become an independent state.
1989 — UTA (Union de Transports Aerens)
Flight 772, a DC10 passenger airliner, blows up over the Tenere Desert in Niger en route to Paris from Brazzaville, the Republic of Congo, killing 171 people. Libya is later blamed for the explosion.
1992 — Otago and Southland electorates follow the national trend to vote overwhelmingly in favour of MMP in a national referendum on electoral reform. A second referendum will be held in association with the general election the following year.
1996 — Russian president Boris Yeltsin agrees to transfer full power to his prime minister while he undergoes heart surgery.
1997 — New Zealand cricket captain
Stephen Fleming completes his fifth catch of Zimbabwe’s first innings in Harare to equal the test record set by Australian Victor Richardson in 193536. Fleming took another two catches in Zimbabwe’s second innings to equal another test record set by Richardson’s grandson Greg Chappell in 197475, of seven catches in a match.
1998 — Susan Barrantes, mother of Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, is killed in a car crash in Argentina.
2012 — The first Olympic gold medal presentation in New Zealand occurs at a ceremony on Auckland’s waterfront when GovernorGeneral Sir Jerry Mateparae presents Valerie Adams with her gold medal for the women’s shot put at the recent Olympic Games in London.