Today in history
Today is Monday, January 14, the 14th day of 2019. There are 351 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1742 — Death of English astronomer Edmond Halley. He predicted the return of the comet named after him.
1784 — The United States ratifies a peace treaty with England, formally ending the American War of Independence.
1809 — England and Spain form an alliance
against Napoleon Bonaparte.
1814 — Denmark cedes Norway to Sweden in
the Treaty of Kiel.
1866 — In what is their last significant engagement in New Zealand, British troops secure Otapawa pa.
1867 — Peru declares war on Spain.
1878 — The first private connection by telephone in Great Britain is made on the Isle of Wight when Queen Victoria speaks to Thomas Biddulph.
1882 — The City of Cashmere is wrecked off
Washdyke Lagoon, three miles north of Timaru.
1891 — New Zealand boxer Bob Fitzsimmons wins the world middleweight championship, when he knocks out John Edward Kelly (known as Jack ‘‘Nonpareil’’ Dempsey) in their bout in New Orleans. Fitzsimmons successfully retained the title for seven years.
1898 — Death of Charles Dodgson, better known as Lewis Carroll, British author of
Alice in Wonderland.
1909 — The last known sighting of the brig Rio Loge, which disappeared en route from Kaipara to Dunedin with 12 crew aboard.
1938 — Premiere of the first Disney cartoon feature film, Snow White and the Seven
Dwarfs, in the US.
1943 — US president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill open a wartime conference in Casablanca.
1953 — Josip Tito is elected president of
Yugoslavia by Parliament.
1958 — Qantas begins a roundworld service
with two Super Constellation aircraft.
1965 — The prime ministers of Northern Ireland
and Ireland meet for the first time in 43 years.
1977 — Death of Australian actor Peter Finch,
who won a posthumous Oscar for Network.
1994 — In postCold War breakthroughs, US president Bill Clinton and Russian president
Boris Yeltsin sign accords in the Kremlin to stop aiming missiles at each other and to dismantle the nuclear arsenal of Ukraine.
1995 — The British army ends 25 years of daylight patrols in Belfast, reflecting a winddown of the guerrilla conflict which engulfed Northern Ireland.
1998 — An international treaty comes into effect protecting the entire continent of Antarctica as a global wilderness preserve.
2000 — A massive demonstration is held in Havana demanding the return from the US of Elian Gonzalez, the boy rescued when a boat carrying illegal migrants sank.
2003 — The US Food and Drug Administration suspends 27 US genetherapy trials after a second child in four months develops leukaemialike symptoms in a French trial that used a similar technique.
2004 — In a new signal that Libya is serious about renouncing its weapons of mass destruction, the North African country ratifies the nuclear test ban treaty, despite the fact that its nuclear programme is far from producing a weapon; President George W. Bush outlines a dramatic shift in US space policy, targeting a return to the moon and an eventual manned mission to Mars.
2010 — Squadron Leader Nick Cree (32) dies when his CT4 Airtrainer crashes near the Raumai weapons range, west of Bulls, on a training flight with four other Red Checkers aircraft.
Today’s birthdays:
Benedict Arnold, US general (17411801); Thomas Hocken, New Zealand collector, bibliographer and researcher (18361910); Albert Schweitzer, French missionarydoctormusician, Nobel Peace Prize laureate (18751965); Sir Cecil Beaton, English photographer and stagedesigner (19041980); Donald (Don) Beard, New Zealand cricketer (19201982); Clarence Carter, US blues singer (1936); Faye Dunaway, US actress (1941); Lawrence Kasdan, US film writerdirector (1949); Rob Hall, New Zealand mountaineer (19611996), Steven Soderbergh, US film writerdirector (1963); Emily Watson, British actress (1967).
Thought for today: