Today in history
Today is Wednesday, July 11, the 192nd day of 2018. There are 173 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1533 — Pope Clement VII excommunicates
England’s King Henry VIII.
1690 — During Britain’s Glorious Revolution, King William III defeats the mostly Roman Catholic English, Irish and French Jacobite forces under James II at the Battle of the Boyne.
1821 — Hongi Hika returns from a trip to Britain, bringing with him a suit of armour presented to him by King George IV and around 500 muskets, which initiates an arms race among northern tribes.
1845 — Almost three weeks after they began their assault, British forces enter Ohaeawai Pa. Their commander, Lieutenantcolonel Henry Despard, claims a great victory despite defenders abandoning the pa the previous night.
1877 — Kate Edger receives a bachelor of arts degree at the Choral Hall, Auckland, becoming the first woman in the British Empire to achieve a BA.
1889 — The Dunedin Tailoresses Union, New Zealand’s first women’s union, is formed. Clergyman Rutherford Waddell is elected its president.
1892 — The United States Patent Office decides that English inventor Joseph Swan, not Thomas Edison, is the inventor of the electric light carbon for the incandescent lamp.
1929 — Firemen in Gillingham, England, plan to
show off their abilities by rescuing nine boys and six firemen from a house. Instead of using smoke bombs, they set fire to the structure. All 15 die.
1935 — Death of French army officer Alfred
Dreyfus, whose conviction on a false charge of treason in 1894 became the centre of a controversy that divided French society for decades.
1975 — China’s great Terracotta Army is uncovered
near the ancient capital of Xian.
1977 — Eight senior executives of the failed finance and investment company JBL are convicted of fraud. It has taken five years for thousands of New Zealand small investors who lost their money to see any sort of justice; the US Medal of Freedom is awarded posthumously to the Rev Martin Luther King jun in a White House ceremony.
1979 — The abandoned US space station Skylab
makes a spectacular return to Earth.
1983 — In the US, Lorraine Downes (19) becomes the first New Zealander to win the Miss Universe contest. 1986 — The Homosexual Law Reform Bill is signed into law by New Zealand GovernorGeneral Sir David Beattie.
1987 — The United Nations proclaims a newborn boy (Matej Gaspar, in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, now Croatia) as the world’s fivebillionth inhabitant.
1991 — An aircraft carrying Nigerian pilgrims crashes in flames in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, killing all 261 people on board.
1997 — Severe flooding in Poland and the Czech
Republic leaves at least 49 people dead.
1999 — A heatwave and a violent storm sweep across central and eastern Europe, killing more than a dozen people, flooding farms and blocking rail and road links. Hailstones, some as big as eggs, kill hundreds of farm animals and destroy cars and roofs.
2000 — A damaged petrol pipeline explodes in southern Nigeria, killing 200 people and injuring dozens of others; in Japan, the Nachi Fujikoshi company says it will pay up to 40million yen to Korean plaintiffs for forced labour during World War 2 in the first settlement brokered by Japan’s Supreme Court.
2002 — South Korean president Kim Daejung appoints the country’s first female prime minister, Chang Sang.
2008 — Sergeant Derek Wootton is struck by a carjacked vehicle while laying road spikes at Titahi Bay, north of Porirua, and dies at the scene.
Today’s birthdays
Robert I (the Bruce), Scottish king (12741329); Dr Richard Dell, New Zealand malacologist (19202002); Yul Brynner, Russianborn actor (19201985); Jack Alabaster, New Zealand cricketer (1930); Giorgio Armani, Italian fashion designer (1934); Leon Spinks, former world heavyweight boxing champion (1953); Richie Sambora, rock guitarist (1959); Suzanne Vega, US singer (1959); Debbe Dunning, US actress (1966); Martin Akers, New Zealand football international (1968); Steven Richards, New Zealand V8 Supercar driver (1972); Paula Griffin, New Zealand netball international (1988).
Thought for today
‘‘You come into the world alone and you go out of the world alone, yet it seems to me, you are more alone while living, than even going and coming’’. — Emily Carr, Canadian artist/author (18711945).
ODT and agencies