Today in history
Today is Wednesday, October 17, the 290th day of 2018. There are 75 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1346 — David II of Scotland, in attempting a military diversion to relieve the siege of Calais, is wounded and captured by England’s
Edward III.
1662 — England’s King Charles II, short of money and concerned that Dunkirk was a potential liability for international relations, sells it to France. The purchase price was fivemillion livres (approximately £400,000).
1777 — American rebels capture 5000 British
soldiers at the Second Battle of Saratoga.
1841 — George Selwyn is consecrated as the first Anglican bishop of New Zealand, at Lambeth in London.
1877 — The Treaty of Waitangi is declared ‘‘worthless’’ and ‘‘a simple nullity’’ by New Zealand’s chief justice, Sir James Prendergast.
1902 — The first Cadillac motorcar is made in
Detroit.
1933 — Albert Einstein arrives in the United States
as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
1945 — Colonel Juan Peron stages a coup in Buenos Aires and becomes absolute dictator of Argentina.
1948 — An Auckland judge warns that patrons stealing beer glasses from hotels will face a jail term in future. He made the statement when sentencing a man to a £3 fine and noting that over the previous two months more than 500 glasses had been stolen from one hotel alone. 1956 — Several thousand people gather to witness the first four Operation ‘‘Deepfreeze’’ Dakota aircraft leave from Taieri aerodrome for McMurdo Sound.
1970 — Anwar Sadat is sworn in as president of
Egypt after the death of Gamal Abdel Nasser. 1972 — President Park Chunghee declares martial law in South Korea, saying politicians cannot be trusted with the national task of unification.
1973 — Arab oil producers increase oil prices and cut production in response to US support of Israel in the Yom Kippur war.
1979 — A Porirua to Wellington suburban train rearends a stationary Taita to Wellington suburban unit on the approach to Wellington Railway Station, injuring 44 people; Mother Teresa wins the Nobel Peace Prize for caring for the world’s ‘‘unwanted, unloved’’.
1992 — Twoyearold AmberLee Cruickshank goes missing from her family home in Kingston, beside Lake Wakatipu. Despite numerous nationwide appeals, the case has not officially been solved.
1994 — Jordan and Israel initial an historic peace treaty, cementing an end to their 46year state of war; the Angolan Government and Unita rebels reach an agreement in principle to end nearly 20 years of civil war.
1995 — Frenchwoman Jeanne Calment is declared the oldest living person, with a proven age of 120 years and 238 days. She died in 1997.
1997 — The remains of revolutionary Ernesto ‘‘Che’’ Guevara are laid to rest in his adopted Cuba, 30 years after his execution in Bolivia.
1998 — A pipeline explodes in Nigeria when villagers try to siphon off oil. An estimated 700 die.
2003 — The Taipei 101 office block attains its full height of 508m, unseating Malaysia’s Petronas Towers as the world’s tallest building.
2006 — A Britisheducated civil servant, Latifa Al Gaood, becomes the first female to serve as an elected member of Bahrain’s Parliament.
2010 — Mary MacKillop is recognised as a saint (Australia’s first) in a canonisation ceremony at St Paul’s in Rome.
2011 —The pilot is killed and his two passengers are injured when a Cessna Skyhawk crashes near the eighth hole of The Hills, an Arrowtown golf course.
Today’s birthdays:
Martin Donnelly, New Zealand test cricketer (19171999); C.K. Stead, New Zealand writer (1932); Ian Wedde, New Zealand poet (1946); Margot Kidder (born Margaret Ruth Kidder), Canadianborn US actress (19482018); Guy Henry, English actor (1960); Ziggy Marley, Jamaican singer (1968); Ernie Els, South African golfer (1969); Eminem, US rapper (1972); Wyclef Jean, Haitianborn rapper and producer (1972); Shane Cameron, New Zealand professional boxer (1977); Mark Gillespie, New Zealand cricket international (1979); Michelle Ang, New Zealand actress (1983).
Thought for today:
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. — Bertrand Russell, British author (18721970).