Today in history
Today is Thursday, August 16, the 228th day of 2018. There are 137 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1513 — English and Imperial troops under Henry VIII and Maximilian I repel a body of French cavalry under Jacques de La Palice at Guinegate, in what was called ‘‘The Battle of the Spurs’’.
1819 — The Peterloo Massacre in Manchester, England, occurs when several people are killed and hundreds of others injured as troops disperse a meeting on parliamentary reform.
1829 — The original Siamese twins, Eng and Chang Bunker, arrive in Boston aboard the ship Sachem to be exhibited to the Western world.
1840 — After being informed of the French intent to colonise Akaroa, the English ship Britomart arrives there. Captain Owen Stanley raises the British flag and holds a court at each of the occupied settlements.
1868 — A tidal wave (tsunami) strikes many parts of the New Zealand coastline, with some reporting the sea rising as much as 11ft (3.3m). Reports from Port Chalmers said the harbour water continued to rise and fall in short periods throughout the day.
1884 — Robert Stout takes office as New Zealand premier. The first of Stout’s two terms lasts just 12 days, but when replacement Harry Atkinson lasts only seven days, Stout takes office for a second term, serving until October 1887.
1890 — Canterbury beats Wellington 2nil in New Zealand’s first interprovincial association football match. 1940 — The first Boeing 314 California Clipper arrives at Auckland, following an 8000mile flight from Los Angeles taking 49hr 57min.
1944 — The New Zealand Council of Organisations
for Relief Overseas (Corso) is formed.
1950 — By a margin of seven votes, the Legislative Council decides that New Zealand will be governed by one chamber in the House of Representatives.
1960 — Britain grants independence to the crown colony of Cyprus, with Archbishop Makarios as president.
1970 — The body of Jeannette Crewe is found in the Waikato River during one of New Zealand’s most publicised murder inquiries. The body of her husband, Harvey, is not discovered until
September 18.
1974 — Greek leftwing leader Andreas Papandreou
returns home after six years of selfimposed exile.
1977 — Death of United States singer Elvis Presley at his Graceland mansion in Memphis, Tennessee, aged 42.
1978 — The Auckland Star begins publication of a series of articles on the ‘‘Mr Asia’’ drug ring.
1979 — A servicestation attendant is fatally shot while closing a service station at Turangi. It will be another 34 years before anyone is charged and found guilty of the crime, despite the offender admitting the crime to his estranged wife soon afterwards. At the time, a wife could not testify against her husband.
1990 — Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev restores citizenship to exiled writer
Alexander Solzhenitsyn.
1997 — In a classic game of two halves, the All Blacks beat Australia 3624 at Carisbrook before a crowd of 42,500. The All Blacks score all their points in the first half and Australia all theirs in the second.
1999 — The US opens a new consulate in the former Saigon, nearly 25 years after a dramatic airlift from its old embassy marked the end of the Vietnam War.
2001 — Paul Burrell, butler to Princess Diana for many years, is charged with the theft of hundreds of Royal Family items.
2013 — A magnitude6.6 earthquake centred 10km southeast of Seddon at a depth of 8km causes widespread damage throughout the Marlborough and Wellington areas. More than 10 tremors measuring magnitude 5 or more were recorded in the area in the week leading up to the event.
Today’s birthdays
Sir Carl Berendsen, New Zealand civil servant and diplomat (18901973); Lesley Ann Warren, US actress (1946); James Cameron,
Canadian filmmaker (1955);
Madonna, US singeractress (1958);
Angela Bassett, US actress (1958);
Laura Innes, US actress (1959);
Timothy Hutton, US actor (1960);
Steve Carell, US actorcomedian
(1962); Linda McNabb, New
Zealand children’s author (1963); Emily Robison, US singer (1972); Taika Waititi, New Zealand filmmaker (1975); Matt Duffie, New Zealand rugby league international (1990).
Thought for today
You can accomplish much if you don’t care who gets the credit. — Former US president Ronald Reagan (19112004).