Today in history
Today is Thursday, December 20, the 354th day of 2018. There are 11 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1522 — Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle in Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
1560 — The first General Assembly of the Church
of Scotland takes place.
1582 — The Gregorian calendar is adopted in
France.
1699 — Peter the Great announces a reorganisation of the Russian calendar, decreeing that the new year will begin on January 1 and not September 1.
1803 — The Louisiana Purchase is completed as France formally transfers ownership of the territory to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans.
1820 — The state of Missouri imposes a bachelor tax of $US1 a year on unmarried men between the ages of 21 and 50.
1830 — A London conference of Britain, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia agrees with Belgium on its separation from Holland.
1832 — The first recorded game of cricket in New
Zealand occurs at Paihia.
1860 — South Carolina becomes the first state to
secede from the American Union.
1879 — Thomas Edison privately demonstrates his incandescent light at Menlo Park, New Jersey. 1893 — becomes the first woman mayor in the British Empire when she takes office in Onehunga.
1913 — New Zealand’s United Federation of Labour is forced to call off a waterside workers strike, bringing about its demise.
1929 — The Civic Theatre in Auckland is opened.
1957 — The European Nuclear Energy Agency is
founded.
1963 — The Berlin Wall is opened for the first time to West Berliners, who are allowed oneday visits to relatives in the eastern sector for the holidays.
1976 — One man is killed when floods and landslips hit the Wellington region following heavy rain.
1988 — The New Zealand Government announces its intention to privatise Air New Zealand, while maintaining a majority shareholding; Prime Minister David Lange sacks Minister of Finance Roger Douglas from the Cabinet. But the real news of the day, according to television broadcasts, was that had died.
—The Maori Fisheries Act becomes law. It recognises the fishing rights of Maori under the Treaty of Waitangi; the Reserve Bank of New Zealand Act becomes law, establishing the bank’s role in managing price stability through monetary policy.
1991 — Dunedin’s historic Savoy Restaurant
closes, ending 79 years of trading.
1997 — Two days after winning the presidential election in South Korea, Kim Daejung pardons Chun Doo Hwan and Roh Tae Woo, two former military dictators who had tried to kill him when he was a dissident.
1998 — Nkem Chukwu of Houston, Texas, becomes the first woman to give birth to eight live babies.
2007 — A magnitude6.8 earthquake centred offshore from Gisborne causes widespread destruction, and many buildings in the city’s central business district collapse.
dog, Minstrel, 2011 — Around 100 protesters remove their tents from the upper part of Dunedin’s Octagon after a protest occupation that began on October 15.
Today’s birthdays:
Sir Robert Menzies, Australia’s longestserving prime minister (18941978); John Holland, New Zealand international athlete (19261990); Peter Criss, US rock musician (Kiss) (1945); Uri Geller, Israeli psychic (1946); Alan Parsons, British musician (1948); Paul Swain, New Zealand politician (1951); Jenny Agutter, English actress (1952); Billy Bragg, British folk singer (1957); Robert Cavanah, Scottish actor (1965); Chris Robinson, US rock singer (1966); Nicole de Boer, Canadian actress (1970);
Jonathan Wyatt, New Zealand distance runner and sixtime world mountain running champion (1972); Leo Bertos, New Zealand football international (1981); Jonah Hill, US actor (1983); Leeson Ah Mau, New Zealand rugby league international (1989).
Quote from history:
Grapes of Wrath,