metro cinema
1923 — The Otira Tunnel, connecting Christchurch to Greymouth by rail, is officially opened by Prime Minister William Massey. It runs for 8.5km under the Southern Alps between Otira and Arthurs Pass and, with a gradient of mainly 1 in 33, the Otira end of the tunnel is more than 250m lower than the Arthurs Pass end. Construction commenced in 1907, and at its completion it was the seventhlongest tunnel in the world and the longest in the British Empire.
1936 — Ioannis Metaxas sets up the dictatorial
Fourth of August Regime in Greece.
1944 — Nazi police capture 14yearold Anne Frank and members of her family in hiding places in Amsterdam.
1954 — Britain’s first supersonic fighter plane, the English Electric Lightning P1, makes its maiden flight.
1961 — Death of Sir Sidney Holland, New Zealand
statesman and prime minister from 194957.
1964 — The bodies of missing civil rights workers
Michael H. Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James E. Chaney are found buried in an earthen dam in Mississippi.
1965 — The Cook Islands become selfgoverning but the population remain New Zealand citizens.
1972 — President Idi Amin declares that Uganda will expel 50,000 Asians with British passports to Britain within three months.
1983 — Bettino Craxi is sworn in as Italy’s first
Socialist prime minister.
1991 — The Greek liner MTS Oceanos sinks in heavy seas off South Africa’s southeast coast. All 402 passengers and 179 crew members survive; a bus plunges into a ravine, killing 80 children and seven adults in Zimbabwe’s worst road accident.
1993 — Two Los Angeles police officers are sentenced to twoandahalf years in prison for beating black motorist Rodney King.
1996 — On the final day of the Atlanta Olympics, Josia Thugwane becomes the first black South African to win a gold medal, in the marathon.
1999 — Contents of letters that Russian president
Boris Yeltsin provided to President Clinton are made public, including one written by Jacqueline Kennedy days after her husband John F. Kennedy’s assassination, asking Soviet leaders to maintain peaceful US relations.
2009 —Former Labour MP for Mangere Taito Phillip Field is found guilty in the High Court on charges of bribery and corruption.
Today’s birthdays:
Percy Bysshe Shelley, English poet (17921822); Louis Vuitton, founder of French fashion house (182192); Sir Sydney Smith, New Zealand forensic scientist (18831969); Louis Armstrong, US jazz musician (190171); Frank Vincent, US actor (1939); Martin Jarvis, English actor (1941); David Lange, 32nd prime minister of New Zealand (19422005); Paul East, New Zealand politician (1946); Billy Bob Thornton, US actordirector (1955); Lauren Tom, US actress (1961); Barack Obama, American president (1961); Rob Cieka, US rock musician (1968); Melissa Wileman, New Zealand football international (1972); Iosia Soliola, New Zealand rugby league international (1986).
Thought for today:
I believe in the discipline of silence and can talk for hours about it. — George Bernard Shaw, Irishborn playwright (18561950).