Today in history
Today is Tuesday, April 10, the 100th day of 2018. There are 265 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1633 — Bananas go on sale in England for the first
time.
1814 — Napoleon’s army is defeated by the British and Spanish at the Battle of Toulouse, leading to his abdication and exile to Elba the next day.
1849 — American Walter Hunt patents the safety pin. Unable to see its possibilities, he sold all rights for $400 to the company W.R. Grace and Co, in order to pay a man he owed $15.
1882 — The New Zealand Exhibition is officially opened in Christchurch. Despite attracting 225,000 visitors, the 14week show runs at a loss.
1910 — While on the run for the second time, Joseph Pawelka attempts a burglary on the home of a local Palmerston North butcher. In the melee that resulted, Police Sergeant John McGuire is wounded by gunfire and dies four days later. 1912 — The luxury liner RMS Titanic sails from Southampton, England, on its illfated maiden voyage.
1916 — Anzac forces leave Alexandria bound for the battlefields of France; the Professional Golfers Association holds its first championship, in Bronxville, New York.
1919 — A majority of New Zealand voters favour prohibition, and only when overseas servicemen’s votes are added to the count is a total ban on alcohol avoided.
1921 — Dr Sun Yatsen is elected president of China by the Canton (Guangzhou) military government, which controls only a tiny portion of China.
1922 — The Genoa Conference opens to discuss
the reconstruction of Europe after World War 1.
1925 — The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, is
first published.
1941 — The siege of Tobruk begins in WW2.
1944 — A British midget submarine secretly enters Bergen Harbour in Norway and sinks the German merchant ship Barenfels.
1963 — The United States atomic submarine Thresher sinks in the Northern Atlantic, killing 129 people, the worst submarine disaster in US history.
1968 — Winds in Wellington reach 270kmh, causing extensive damage and loss of life. The 8948ton interisland ferry Wahine founders when it strikes Barrett Reef at the entrance to Wellington’s Harbour. Of the 610 passengers and 123 crew, 51 die while attempting to make it safely ashore.
1973 — Prime Minister Norman Kirk advises the New Zealand Rugby Union to defer rugby tours with South Africa until Springbok teams are selected purely on merit and not on racial grounds; in Switzerland, 108 people die when a plane crashes while attempting to land at Basel.
1977 — Despite being blown 400km off course, Colin Quincey of Hokianga reaches Queensland in his craft Tasman Trespasser to become the first person known to row across the Tasman Sea. The journey took him 63 days and 7 hours.
1984 — Susan Devoy wins the British Open squash title for the first time. The 20yearold went on to win the world’s premier squash event a further seven times; a rally to demand free presidential elections in Brazil after 20 years of dictatorship draws a million people in Rio de Janeiro.
1986 — The US conducts a nuclear test in the Nevada desert despite growing protests among peace groups and a strong Soviet campaign for a nuclear test ban.
2003 — British Airways and Air France announce
they will mothball their fuelguzzling Concorde fleets at the end of October, ending 27 years of supersonic commercial air travel.
Today’s birthdays:
William Cutten, founder of The Otago Witness and Otago Daily Times (18221883); Lewis (Lew) Wallace, US novelist, soldier and diplomat (18271905); William Booth, English founder of the Salvation Army (18291912); Joseph Pulitzer, US journalist (18471911); Robert Wade, New Zealand and British chess champion (19212008); Liz Sheridan, US actress (1929); Max von Sydow, Swedish actor (1929); Bunny Wailer, Jamaican musician (1947); Steven Seagal, US actor (1952); Brian Setzer, US singer (1959); Ricki Herbert, New Zealand football representative and coach (1961); Jason Richards, New Zealand motorracing driver (19762011);
Sophie EllisBextor, British singer (1979);
Hayley Westenra, New Zealand soprano and Unicef ambassador (1987); Haley Joel Osment, US actor (1988).
Thought for today:
Take from me the hope that I can change the future, and you will send me mad. — Israel Zangwill, English dramatist (18641926).