Today in history
Today is Saturday, May 26, the 146th day of
2018. There are 219 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1521 — Martin Luther is shunned by the Edict of
Worms (a German city) for his religious beliefs.
1849 — A large public meeting in Dunedin voices protest against the proposed transportation of convicts to the area.
1854 — Charles Clifford is elected unopposed as New Zealand’s first speaker of the House of Representatives.
1865 — The surrender of the Confederate army at Shreveport, Louisiana, ends the Civil War in the United States.
1868 — US president Andrew Johnson is acquitted of charges of ‘‘high crimes and misdemeanours’’.
1875 — Building is completed on Dunedin’s
Hillside Railway Workshops.
1879 — Under instruction from Te Whiti, Maori plough up the land of European settlers at Oakura in an attempt to regain lost Maori land through civil disobedience.
1903 — The Automobile Association is formed in Auckland with hopes of improving public attitudes towards motorised transport and to lobby for the building of roads.
1923 — The Le Mans 24hour motor race is held
for the first time.
1924 — US president Calvin Coolidge signs a Bill limiting immigration into the country and completely excluding Japanese. 1940 — The evacuation of British troops from France in the face of a German invasion begins at Dunkirk.
1954 — The funeral ship of Pharaoh Cheops is
discovered in Egypt.
1969 — astronauts return to Earth after a successful eightday dress rehearsal for the first manned moon landing.
1970 — A petition containing more than 250,000 signatures for the Save Manapouri campaign is presented to Parliament.
1974 — A large crowd attends a onenight revival of Joe Brown’s Town Hall Dance in Dunedin as part of a film documentary honouring the entrepreneur, who ran the Town Hall Dances from 1936 to 1968 and inaugurated the Miss New Zealand Show.
1977 — George H. Willig scales the outside of the South Tower of the World Trade Centre. He was arrested at the top of the 110storey building.
1991 — An Austrian airliner bound for Vienna explodes and crashes into jungle in Thailand, killing all 223 people on board.
— Jane Furlong disappears in suspicious circumstances from Karangahape Rd, Auckland. Her remains are not found until 19 years later at Port Waikato’s Sunset Beach.
1998 — Japan’s Emperor Akihito expresses sorrow in London for the wartime suffering of British prisoners of war after hundreds of survivors boo and whistle him.
1999 — In Mangakino, Constable Lester Murray Stretch responds to reports of a burglary at a local store. After a pursuit from the store he catches up with Carlos Namana at the entrance to the local hospital, but is overpowered and beaten, dying at the scene. Namana is later arrested. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with a minimum nonparole period of 16 years.
2001 — The African Union replaces the
38yearold Organisation of African Unity.
2014 — There is a sting in the tail of a storm that hit Dunedin and coastal areas of the South Island two days earlier when snow blankets Dunedin and central areas of the South Island, causing widespread disruption.
Today’s birthdays:
Robert (Bob) Fitzsimmons, Britishborn New Zealand professional boxer (18631917); John Wayne (born Marion Mitchell Morrison), US actor (19071979); Eric Halstead, New Zealand politician (19121991); Frank Bethwaite, New Zealand boat designer, author and Olympic meteorologist (19202012); Frank Mooney, New Zealand cricketer (19212004); Fraser Bergensen, New Zealand plant biologist (19292011); Glenn Turner, New Zealand cricketer (1947); Stevie Nicks, American singer (1948); Hank Williams jun (born Randall Hank Williams), US country singer (1949); Pam Grier, US actress (1949); Doug Hutchison, US actor (1960); Lenny Kravitz, US singer (1964); Grant Bradburn, New Zealand cricketer (1966); Helena Bonham Carter, UK actress (1966); Michael Utting, New Zealand football representative (1970); Chris Donaldson, New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games sprinter (1975); Elisabeth Harnois, US actress (1979).
Thought for today:
Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad. — Euripides, Greek poet (480BC406BC).
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