Today in history
Today is Tuesday, December 11, the 345th day of 2018. There are 20 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1282 — Llewelyn, the last nativeborn Prince of Wales, is killed in a battle with the English near Aberedw.
1877 — The first train runs from Dunedin to
Blueskin Bay.
1895 — George Whitehouse, a British civil engineer, arrives in Mombasa, in what is now Kenya, to begin the construction of a railroad to Lake Victoria. The line was dubbed ‘‘The Lunatic Express’’ by British legislators because they couldn’t foresee how it could ever pay its way.
1901 — The first transatlantic radio signal is sent by Italian Guglielmo Marconi from Poldhu in Cornwall and received by Percy Wright Paget in St John’s, Newfoundland.
1907 — All of New Zealand’s Parliament Buildings
except the library are destroyed by fire.
1908 — In Invercargill, New Zealand’s last horse
tram service ceases to operate.
1928 — Police in Buenos Aires, Argentina, thwart an attempt on the life of United States presidentelect Herbert Hoover.
1929 — New Zealand’s first health stamps are
issued.
1930 — The Bank of the United States in New York
fails and closes all its 60 branches.
1931 — New Zealand is established as an autonomous community within the British Commonwealth. The legislation was not ratified until 1947. 1936 — George VI becomes King of England
following the abdication of Edward VIII.
1941 — The US declares war on Germany and Italy
in World War 2.
1946 — The United Nations International Children’s
Emergency Fund (Unicef) is established.
1951 — Despite an intensive search, the wreckage of an RNZAF Airspeed Consul which crashed on Mt Ruapehu is not found for five days.
1967 — The prototype of the AngloFrench supersonic aircraft Concorde is shown for the first time in Toulouse, France.
1972 — Compulsory military training ends in New Zealand; Norman Kirk’s new government also issues instructions to bring home the last of New Zealand’s troops from the Vietnam War, in which 37 New Zealanders died.
1973 — West German chancellor Willy Brandt and Czech prime minister Lubomir Strougal formally sign a treaty nullifying the 1938 Munich pact, which sanctioned Hitler’s seizure of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.
— Hydroelectric development in the Upper Waitaki concludes, ending development work that started with the in 1928.
1986 — The mixed member proportional representation system (MMP) in general elections is recommended to be used in New Zealand by a royal commission.
1997 — More than 150 countries agree at a global warming conference in Kyoto, Japan, to control Earth’s greenhouse gases; Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams becomes the first political ally of the IRA to meet a British leader in 76 years as he confers with Prime Minister Tony Blair in London.
2004 — Arthur Lydiard, New Zealand marathon representative and worldacclaimed athletics coach, dies aged 87.
2013 — Hundreds of Dunedin motorists are caught in an hourlong traffic jam caused by botched roadworks at Ravensbourne. The usual 10min trip for many into the city instead saw them stranded in a queue stretching from Ravensbourne to St Leonards.
— The Kyle Lockwooddesigned black, white and blue flag incorporating the silver fern and stars of the Southern Cross wins the first flag referendum by a narrow margin. It progressed to a final referendum in March, where New Zealanders rejected it in favour of the current flag.
Today’s birthdays:
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Russian writer and Nobel laureate (19182008); JeanLouis Trintignant, French actor (1930); Anne Heywood, British actress (1932); Donna Mills, US actress (1943); Brenda Lee, US singer (1944); Lynda Day George, US actress (1944); Teri Garr, US actress (1944); Colin Latimour, New Zealand football international (1946); Christina Onassis, USborn Greek heiress (19501988); Jermaine Jackson, US entertainer (1954); Nikki Sixx, US rock musician (1958); Grant Cooksley, New Zealand jockey (1959); Mark Greatbatch, New Zealand cricketer (1963); Lucy Doolan, New Zealand cricketer (1987);
Tim Southee, New Zealand cricketer (1988); Elizabeth Milne, New Zealand football international (1990).
Thought for today: