Today in history
Today is Tuesday, October 9, the 282nd day of 2018. There are 83 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1470 — Henry VI is restored to the English throne
after being deposed in 1461.
1701 — The Collegiate School of Connecticut, later
Yale University, is founded in New Haven.
1842 — The first wave of settlers arrives at Auckland. Most of the 500 or so arrivals wade through mud to reach shore, where a desolate scene awaits them.
1888 — The Washington Monument ,in
Washington, opens to the public.
1930 — Laura Ingalls becomes the first woman to fly across the United States as she completes a ninestop journey from Roosevelt Field in New York to Glendale, California. In 1942 she was imprisoned as a Nazi agent.
1934 — King Aleksander I of Yugoslavia and French foreign minister Jean Louis Barthou are assassinated in Marseilles, France, by an agent of Croat nationalists.
1936 — A southbound Wairarapaclass railcar is blown off the rails at Featherston during a
130kmh northwest gale. Eight people are injured.
1941 — Stanley Graham returns to his home at Kowhitirangi, and kills two home guardsmen before making his escape back into the bush. Hundreds of police, military personnel and volunteers launch a manhunt.
1943 — New Zealand troops arrive in Italy. The 2nd New Zealand Division helps clear Italy of German troops.
1962 — Uganda becomes independent after nearly 70 years of British rule.
1963 — A massive landslip near Belluno, Italy, fills the narrow reservoir behind the Vajont Dam, causing water to overtop the dam, leading to a 250mhigh wave in the Piave Valley destroying the villages of Longarone, Pirago, Rivalta, Villanova and Fae. Casualty estimates range from 1900 to 2500 people. The dam was largely undamaged. This disaster was one reason there was so much work stabilising potential slips in the Cromwell Gorge when the Clyde Dam was built; Mutesa II, the kabaka (ruler) of Buganda, becomes the first president of Uganda.
1967 — Latin American guerrilla leader Che
Guevara is executed for attempting to incite revolution in Bolivia; British police begin using the first portable Breathalyser, a device used for measuring breathalcohol levels in order to estimate bloodalcohol levels.
1976 — Otago offspin bowler Peter Petherick
becomes an international cricketing sensation after becoming just the second player, from any country, to take a hattrick in his international debut. He took the wickets of Pakistan’s Javed Miandad, Wasim Raja and Intikhab Alam, at Lahore. New Zealand went on to lose the match. Petherick had match figures of five wickets for 129 runs.
1985 — The hijackers of the Achille Lauro cruise liner
surrender after the ship arrives in Port Said, Egypt.
2000 — Davo Karnicar (38), a Slovenian ski instructor, becomes the first person to ski nonstop down the slopes of Mount Everest in Kathmandu.
2001 — The trial of South Africanborn Colin Bouwer (51), the head of psychiatric medicine for Healthcare Otago, for the fatal poisoning of his wife begins in the High Court at Christchurch.
2011 — Just as Christchurch residents were beginning to think the period of large earthquakes in the district had ended, the city was struck by a magnitude5.5 jolt centred off the coast at Sumner, at a depth of 12km.
Today’s birthdays
Sir Walter Buller, New Zealand lawyer and naturalist (18381906); Kendrick Smithyman, New Zealand poet (19221995); Sir Ronald (Ron) Trotter, New Zealand business leader (19272010); John Lennon, British musician/singer (19401980); John Entwistle, English rock musician (19442002); Jackson Browne , US singer (1948); Richard Chaves, US actor (1951); Sharon Osbourne, music manager and television personality (1952); Scott Bakula, US actor (1954); Shona Laing, New Zealand singer/musician (1955); Steve Ovett, English athlete (1955); Paul Radisich, New Zealand racing car driver (1962);
Steve McQueen, English filmmaker (1969);
Kieren Hutchison, New Zealand actor (1974); Juliane Bray, New Zealand snowboarder (1975); Sean Lennon, US musician (1975); Greg Henderson, New Zealand international road cyclist (1976);
Nicky Byrne, Irish singer (1978); Russell Packer, New Zealand rugby league international (1989).
Quote from history
‘‘Both now and for always, I intend to hold fast to my belief in the hidden strength of the human spirit.’’ — Andrei Sakharov, Soviet dissident and human rights campaigner. He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize on October 9, 1975.