Today in history
Today is Saturday, September 29, the 272nd day of 2018. There are 93 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1399 — King Richard II becomes the first English
monarch to abdicate.
1567 — The Second War of Religion begins in France between the Huguenots and King Charles IX.
1789 — Congress votes to create the United States Army, made up of 1000 enlisted men and officers.
1829 — The first regular police patrols appear on the streets of London. The officers are nicknamed ‘‘Bobbies’’ after the Home Secretary, Sir Robert Peel, who sponsored the Bill establishing the force.
1862 — Dunedin’s Royal Princess Theatre hosts the English Opera Troupe, along with a number of local performers, who perform New Zealand’s first fully staged professional opera production, The Daughter of the Regiment.
1878 — Continuous rain and melting snow cause the Clutha River to flood, washing away the Clyde, Bannockburn, Bendigo (Rocky Point) and Roxburgh bridges.
1911 — Italy declares war on Turkey, eventually
conquering Libya.
1918 — New Zealand troops begin to help break through the Hindenburg Line, the main German defence system on the Western Front. The operation ends in success on October 5.
1923 — Britain begins ruling Palestine under a
League of Nations mandate.
1941 — Over two days, the Germans kill 33,771 Jewish men, women and children in the Babi Yar massacre at a ravine near Kiev in World War 2.
1942 — Opposition members of Parliament resign from the New Zealand War Cabinet in protest at the Government’s handling of the coalminers’ strike.
1950 — General Douglas MacArthur hands over Seoul to President Syngman Rhee of South Korea.
1957 — Almost 300 people are killed when an express train hits a parked oil train in West Pakistan.
1960 — Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev heckles, and thumps his desk during a speech by British prime minister Harold Macmillan to the UN General Assembly.
1961 — Syria secedes from the United Arab Republic and forms the independent Syrian Arab Republic.
1979 — Pope John Paul II arrives in Ireland for the
first papal visit to the country.
1988 — In the first space mission since the explosion of the shuttle Challenger in January 1986, the shuttle Discovery is launched.
1992 — Brazilian lawmakers impeach President Fernando Collor de Mello.
1996 — Nine bishops of New Zealand sign a decision to cease training Catholic priests at Holy Cross College in Mosgiel; Bosnia’s first postwar elections are watched by international groups that certify victories by nationalist parties and the new president, Alija Izetbegovic.
1998 — Parliament overwhelmingly approves a $170million Treaty of Waitangi settlement for Ngai Tahu. The settlement also included an apology from the Crown, and Mt Cook being returned to the tribe and renamed
Aoraki/Mt Cook. West Coast pounamu resources were also returned.
2004 — The trial begins on Pitcairn Island of seven men charged with historical sexual offences. Six of the seven are convicted.
2005 — British prime minister Tony Blair apologises to an elderly activist who was ejected from the governing Labour Party’s conference for heckling a cabinet minister over the Iraq war. The 82yearold man was questioned by police under antiterrorism powers.
Today’s birthdays:
Horatio Nelson, English admiral (17581805); Reginal Stanley Judson, New Zealand recipient of the Victoria Cross in World War 1 (18811972); Jerry Lee Lewis, US musician (1935); Lech Walesa, Polish leader and 1983 Nobel Peace Prize winner (1943); Neil Cherry, New Zealand environmental scientist (19462003); Adrian Elrick, New Zealand football international (1949);
Jenny Morris, New Zealandborn singersongwriter (1956); Sebastian Coe, British athlete/politician (1956); Tom Sizemore, US actor (1961);
Megan Alatini, New Zealand singeractress (1976); James Te Huna, New Zealand professional mixed martial artist (1981); Shane Smeltz, New Zealand football international (1981); Vicki Ormond, New Zealand football international (1982).
Thought for today:
Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in our own sunshine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson, American essayist and poet (18031882).
ODT and agencies