Today in history
Today is Thursday, August 23, the 235th day of 2018. There are 130 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1305 — Scottish rebel leader William Wallace is
hung, drawn and quartered for treason in London. 1775 — England’s King George III proclaims the existence of an open rebellion in the American colonies.
1813 — The French are defeated by a German army under Friedrich von Bulow, preventing a march on Berlin.
1851 — The first meeting of the Chamber of
Commerce in Dunedin is held.
1913 — Copenhagen’s famous landmark the
Little Mermaid is unveiled at the entrance of its harbour.
1938 — England’s threeday batting marathon in the fifth Ashes test at the Oval comes to an end when it declares at 903 for the loss of seven wickets. Len Hutton scored 364, but when asked by a woman afterwards why he didn’t score one more run to make it one for every day of the year, he quipped to teammate Denis Compton: ‘‘Denis, tell me, can you ever satisfy a woman?’’ Australia replied with scores of 201 and 123 runs to lose by 579 runs.
1939 — Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union sign a
10year nonaggression pact.
1942 — Thirteen Japanese planes are shot down in
the 24th raid on Darwin in World War 2.
1944 — Romania breaks its alliance with Hitler’s
Germany and joins the Allies.
1948 — The World Council of Churches is founded.
1962 — Brian BarrattBoyes performs New Zealand’s first aortic homograft replacement operation at Greenlane Hospital, Auckland; the United States Telstar satellite relays the first live television programme between the US and Europe.
1971 — After more than a century of publication, the final issue of the Auckland Weekly News rolls off the presses.
1973 — Four people are taken hostage by a robber in a Stockholm bank. During a sixday drama, the captor and captives develop a friendship later described and studied as ‘‘the Stockholm syndrome’’.
1982 — Lebanon’s parliament elects Christian militia leader Bashir Gemayel president; he was assassinated three weeks later.
1986 — Captained by halfback David Kirk, who scored his first test try, the All Blacks escape with a 1312 victory over Australia at Carisbrook, mainly due to the referee controversially ruling out a try late in the game to Australia’s No 8, Steve Tuynman. 1990 — The Smokefree Environments Bill is passed by Parliament. The Bill bans tobacco advertising and sponsorship and makes smokefree areas mandatory in workplaces and restaurants. It also bans smoking in aircraft; the Soviet Republic of Armenia declares independence.
1991 — Following a failed coup by hardliners in the Soviet Union, Mikhail Gorbachev and Boris Yeltsin act to strip the Communist Party of its power and take control of the army and KGB.
1999 — Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder starts work in Berlin, the first time Germany had been governed from its traditional capital since World War 2.
2001 — Thierry Devaux, a Frenchman using a motordriven parachute, is arrested after becoming snagged on the Statue of Liberty in New York Harbour.
2006 — A British pilot breaks a landspeed record for driving a dieselengined vehicle, racing across the Bonneville Salt Flats at more than 523kmh.
2013 — The Haast Highway on the West Coast is closed by a rockfall 5km west of the Gates of Haast. Some rocks are the size of a house and weigh 200300 tonnes; a 56year wait for the Otago rugby team to win the prized Ranfurly Shield ends, when it beats Waikato 2619 in Hamilton. In the 20,418 days since it last held the shield in 1957, Otago teams had mounted 22 unsuccessful challenges. The tenure was shortlived, as Otago lost to Hawkes Bay the following week.