Today in history
Today is Tuesday, April 17, the 107th day of 2018. There are 258 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1492 — Christopher Columbus receives a commission from Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.
1879 — Sir Hercules George Robert Robinson assumes office as New Zealand governor. Previously the governor of Hong Kong, Ceylon and New South Wales, his service to New Zealand lasts just 17 months.
1895 — China and Japan, by the Treaty of Shimonoseki, recognise the independence of Korea.
1961 — An attempt to invade Cuba by 1500
CIAtrained Cuban exiles fails at the Bay of Pigs. 1964 — American Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to complete a solo flight around the world; the Ford Motor Company unveils its new Mustang model.
1966 — The Queen Mother visits Dunedin.
1967 — Dave McKenzie, from Runanga on the South Island’s West Coast, wins the Boston Marathon. His victory was inspired by the memory of his brother Hector and 18 others who died in the Strongman Mine disaster three months earlier. But the race is better remembered for the actions of an official attempting to eject female runner Kathrine Switzer from what was deemed a maleonly event.
1969 — Sirhan B. Sirhan is found guilty of the first degree murder of Robert F. Kennedy, who was shot while campaigning in California in June 1968.
1970 — The astronauts of Apollo 13 splash down safely in the Pacific, four days after a ruptured oxygen tank crippled their spacecraft.
1977 — Women vote in the European state of
Liechtenstein for the first time.
1983 — The Prince and Princess of Wales arrive in
New Zealand with infant son Prince William.
1986 — The professional Cavaliers rugby team arrives in South Africa for a ‘‘private’’ tour that is not sanctioned by the New Zealand Rugby Football Union. Coach Colin Meads will be removed as an All Blacks selector as a result of his involvement, while rebel players are suspended for just two games.
1993 — A federal jury in Los Angeles convicts two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten black motorist Rodney King; two other officers are acquitted.
2002 — Xanana Gusmao, a former guerrilla leader, is declared the landslide winner of East Timor’s first presidential election. It became the world’s newest nation on May 20.
2008 — Dunedin suffers a double blow with the announcement whiteware manufacturer Fisher and Paykel Appliances will close its Mosgiel plant with the loss of 430 jobs between December and May 2009, and Tamahine Knitwear announcing that it too will close, in July, with the loss of 50 jobs.
2013 — The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill is passed in Parliament by 77 votes to 44, clearing the way for samesex and transgender marriages. The Bill also allows those in a samesex relationship to be recognised as a parent of an adopted child and for religious ministers to choose who they marry and to criticise gay marriage from the pulpit without breaching human rights. A Labour Party Bill to move Anzac Day and Waitangi Day to a Monday for the purpose of a public holiday is passed by 61 votes to 60.