Today in history
Today is Friday, June 1, the 152nd day of 2018. There are 213 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1792 — Kentucky becomes the 15th American state
to join the union.
1880 — The first telephone box for public use goes into service in the United States, at the Connecticut Telephone Co’s office in New Haven.
1882 — The bridge over the Molyneux (Clutha) River
at Alexandra is opened.
1931 — In an attempt to reduce the cost of production and combat economic depression, wages in New Zealand are cut by 10% under a general order issued by the Arbitration Court.
1941 — In World War 2, British forces are
withdrawn from Crete with heavy losses.
1943 — A civilian flight from Lisbon to London is shot down by the Germans during World War 2, killing all aboard, including actor Leslie Howard.
1950 — Petrolrationing in New Zealand ends 11 years after it was introduced, at the beginning of World War 2.
1951 — During the waterfront dispute, in what has become known as Bloody Friday, police break up a peaceful union demonstration in Auckland using batons.
1953 — Gordon Richards, who was British champion jockey a record 26 times and rode 4870 winners, becomes the first rider to be knighted.
1958 — Charles de Gaulle becomes prime minister
of France.
1960 — The first official television broadcast in New
Zealand is transmitted from Shortland St, Auckland, beginning with an episode of The
Adventures of Robin Hood. Local stations in Christchurch, Wellington and Dunedin follow within two years.
1967 — The Beatles release their landmark album
Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
1968 — Death of authorlecturer Helen Keller, who earned a college degree despite being blind and deaf most of her life, in Westport, Connecticut.
1970 — With the state monopoly on radio frequencies broken and following 1111 days at sea as a pirate radio station, Radio Hauraki broadcasts for the final time from outside New Zealand’s threemile limit. During the voyage back to Auckland in preparation for landbased broadcasting, announcer Rick Grant is lost overboard.
1972 — Standing 15.5m tall and rising through four floors of New Zealand House in London, Inia Te Wiata’s carving from the trunk of a 600yearold totara tree, Te Pouihi, is unveiled by the Queen Mother. 1979 — The former British colony of Rhodesia becomes Zimbabwe/Rhodesia. Bishop Abel Muzorewa becomes its first black prime minister, ending 89 years of white rule.
1985 — A campaign to improve the manners of Western Australians is launched by the Western Australian Tourism Industry Association, in an attempt to increase courtesy before the 1987 America’s Cup.
2001 — Nepal’s crown prince Dipendra shoots and kills his parents, King Birendra and Queen Aiswarya, a prince, a princess and four royal family members before shooting himself.
2002 — Four air force Iroquois helicopters arrive in the Maniototo to distribute hay to the Styx Valley and help farmers save an estimated 25,000 sheep and 1500 cattle that have been stranded by snow for more than a week; Queen Elizabeth II opens Buckingham Palace to 12,000 guests for a fourday national party in celebration of her 50 years on the throne; disgraced former South African cricket captain Hansie Cronje is killed when the plane he is travelling in crashes in mountains in Western Cape province.
2003 — Engineers close most of the sluicegates of the Three Gorges Dam on China’s Yangtze River in the central province of Hubei, beginning the process of filling the reservoir behind the dam. Today’s birthdays: Brigham Young, US Mormon leader (18011877); John Masefield, English poet (18781967); Paraire Karake Paikea, New Zealand politician (18941943); Marilyn Monroe, US actress (19261962); Edward Woodward, British actor (19302009); Matt Poore, New Zealand cricketer (1930); Frank Cameron, New Zealand cricketer (1932); Pat Boone, US singer (1934);
Morgan Freeman, US actor (1937); Ron Wood, English musician (1947); Lorraine Moller, former New Zealand international runner (1955);
Jason Donovan, Australian actorsinger (1968); Heidi Klum, German supermodel (1973);
Alanis Morissette, Canadian singer (1974);
Ben Smith, All Black (1986). Thought for today: Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. — Mark Twain (18351910).
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