Today in history
Today is Monday, August 6, the 218th day of 2018. There are 147 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1661 — The Portuguese and Dutch sign a treaty whereby the Portuguese retain Brazil and the Dutch keep Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).
1825 — Bolivia is proclaimed an independent
republic after nearly 300 years of Spanish rule. 1840 — Louis Napoleon attempts an uprising at Boulogne in France, but it fails and he is later sentenced to life imprisonment.
1849 — The Peace of Milan ends a war between
Sardinia and Austria.
1850 — Hone Heke dies at Kaikohe from tuberculosis, having made peace with the Government and presented his mere to Governor in Chief Sir George Grey in 1848.
1862 — Alfred Domett takes office as New Zealand’s fourth premier, serving until October 1863.
1888 — The woman thought to have been Jack the Ripper’s first victim, 35yearold prostitute Martha Turner, is stabbed to death in Whitechapel in London’s East End.
1890 — Convicted murderer William Kemmler becomes the first human put to death in an electric chair, at Auburn Prison, New York.
1904 — The Ranfurly Shield is contested for the first time in a rugby match at Auckland’s Alexandra Park when Wellington defeats Auckland 63.
1906 — Joseph George Ward (Liberal) replaces William HallJones as New Zealand’s 17th prime minister, serving until March 1912.
1914 — Serbia and Montenegro declare war on
Germany.
1915 — In World War 1, fresh Allied landings of 25,000 men at Suvla Bay on the Gallipoli Peninsula fail.
1918 — The Marne Offensive, the last major
German attack of World War 1, ends in failure.
1926 — The first movies with sound premiere in New York; American Gertrude Ederle becomes the first woman to swim the English Channel.
1936 — Jack Lovelock wins the 1500m gold medal at the Berlin Olympic Games in a worldrecord time of 3min 47.8sec.
1945 — In the first use of a nuclear weapon in warfare, a United States plane drops an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, near the end of World War 2, killing at least 117,000 people.
1962 — Jamaica achieves independence after 300
years of British rule.
1966 — Abu Dhabi’s eccentric Sheikh Shakhbut is deposed in a bloodless coup by his brother, Sheikh Zayed.
1990 — Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto is ousted by the military after 20 months as prime minister; the UN Security Council imposes an economic embargo on Iraq for invading Kuwait.
1991 — A meeting of Yugoslavia’s collective presidency proclaims an unconditional ceasefire in Croatia.
1996 — US scientists claim to have found evidence of ancient life on Mars in remnants of a meteorite discovered in Antarctica.
1998 — Former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spends nearly nine hours testifying before a US grand jury about her relationship with President Bill Clinton.
1999 — In Canton, Texas, a 36yearold woman who faces lifelong heart problems she blames on the diet drug combination fenphen is awarded $US23.3 million in the first such lawsuit to reach a jury.
2011 — The final representative game of rugby is played on Carisbrook. Southland defeats Otago 1912; the curtainraiser was the club premier final played between Taieri and Harbour. Taieri won its first banner since 1955, defeating
Harbour 126.
2012 — Mt Tongariro erupts for the first time in 100 years. The steampowered eruption sends a plume 7000m into the night sky and creates three new vents near the Te Mari craters.
Today’s birthdays
Alfred, Lord Tennyson, English poet (18091892); Sir Alexander Fleming, British discoverer of penicillin (18811955); Lucille Ball, US actresscomedienne (19111989); Andy Warhol, US artist (19281987); Peter (Pole) Whiting, All Black (1946); Catherine Hicks, US actress (1951); Stepfanie Kramer, US actress (1956); Simon Doull, New Zealand cricketer (1969); Geri Halliwell, British singer (1972); Jesse Ryder, New Zealand cricketer (1984); Sarah Gregorius, New Zealand football international (1987); Nick Wilson, New Zealand field hockey international (1990).
Thought for today
There are philosophies which are unendurable not because men are cowards, but because they are men. — Ludwig Lewisohn, Germanborn novelistcritic (18831955).