Today in history
Today is Thursday, February 22, the 53rd day of 2018. There are 312 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1371 — Robert II succeeds his uncle, David II ,as king of Scotland, inaugurating the Stewart dynasty.
1720 — The Treaty of Stockholm between Sweden
and Russia for mutual assistance is signed.
1759 — The French abandon the siege of Madras,
India, upon the arrival of the British fleet.
1819 — Spain cedes Florida to the United States. 1879 — Frank Winfield Woolworth opens a
fivecent store in Utica, New York.
1886 — The Times becomes the first British newspaper to institute a personal column on its classified page.
1892 — The Oscar Wilde play Lady Windermere’s Fan is first performed, at London’s St James Theatre.
1902 —A cable tram service in Wellington begins operating, transporting passengers between Lambton Quay and Kelburn.
1913 — The Mexican military assassinates revolutionary president Francisco Madero and vicepresident Pino Suarez.
1927 — The Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) arrive on HMS Renown at Auckland.
1941 — Sir Cyril Newall assumes office as New Zealand GovernorGeneral. He holds the post until April 1946, and is best remembered for his controversial reference in a speech to the ‘‘men of the navy, men of the army and gentlemen of the air force’’.
1942 — Gold bullion worth £2,397,000 is recovered from the sunken liner RMS Niagara; General Douglas MacArthur is ordered to leave the Philippines, and makes his way to Australia, from where he directed much of the war against Japan. His famous promise that ‘‘I shall return’’ was kept when United States forces returned to the Philippines in 1944.
1966 — Ugandan prime minister Milton Obote orders five cabinet members arrested and assumes full power.
1967 — Indonesia’s President Sukarno surrenders power to premier General Suharto, remaining president in name only.
1972 — Qatar’s heir apparent, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, overthrows the oil state’s emir, Sheikh Ahmed, in a bloodless coup.
1980 — The Israeli Government introduces a new currency, the shekel, which replaces the Israeli pound.
1985 — Labour prime minister David Lange in a speech says New Zealand’s policy is ‘‘neither antiAmerican, nor antialliance (Anzus). It is simply antinuclear’’.
1991 — US president George Bush demands that Saddam Hussein begin unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait by noon of the following day or risk a ground war with allied forces.
1997 — French celebrities and common citizens march in tens of thousands through Paris, protesting what they say is a dangerous new turn in the Government’s immigration laws.
2011 — A magnitude6.3 earthquake centred 5km below the surface near Lyttelton strikes Christchurch at 12.51pm, leaving the central business district and Lyttelton township in ruins. The Christchurch Cathedral and a number of other historic buildings are destroyed. The Canterbury TV and Pyne Gould Corporation buildings collapse and become the focus of rescue attempts. An estimated 182 people lose their lives around the city and it takes many months for the last bodies to be identified. Prime Minister John Key described it as ‘‘New Zealand’s darkest day’’ in declaring a national state of emergency. The earthquake triggered a spectacular glacier calving at the Tasman Glacier Terminal Lake, with a 30milliontonne iceberg thrusting the terminal face of the glacier 60m above lake level.
Today’s birthdays:
George Washington, first US president (17321799); British army officer and founder of the Boy Scout movement, Lord (Robert)
Baden Powell (18571941);
Frank Worsley, New Zealand sailor and explorer (18721943);
Don Merton, New Zealand conservationist (19392011); Fleur Beale, New Zealand fiction writer (1945); Michael Chang , US tennis player (1962); Steve Irwin, Australian naturalist (19622006); Vijay Singh, Fijian golfer (1963); Brad McGann, New Zealand film director and screenwriter (19642007); Drew Barrymore, US actress (1975); James Blunt, British singer (1977); Hamish Bennett, New Zealand cricketer (1987).
Quote from history:
‘‘In the future everyone will be famous for 15 minutes.’’ — US pop artist Andy Warhol, who died on February 22, 1987.