Today in history
Today is Saturday, February 23, the 54th day of 2019. There are 311 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1573 — An Irish rebellion is crushed effectively with the surrender of James Fitzmaurice; the pacification of Perth ends fighting in Scotland between the Regent and supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots.
1574 — The Fifth War of Religion breaks out in
France.
1766 — The Duchy of Lorraine is incorporated into
France.
1836 — The siege of the Alamo is begun in the United States state of Texas, by Mexican forces loyal to General Santa Anna.
1840 — The first Sunday service of the Presbyterian Church in New Zealand is conducted by John Macfarlane at Petone.
1861 — US presidentelect Abraham Lincoln arrives secretly in Washington to take office, an assassination plot having been foiled in Baltimore.
1898 — In France, novelist Emile Zola is imprisoned for writing his J’accuse letter, accusing the Government of antiSemitism and wrongly jailing Captain Alfred Dreyfus.
1905 — The Rotary Club is founded by lawyer Paul
Percy Harris in Chicago.
1907 — The Brydone memorial cairn on Sebastopol Hill, at Totara Estate, near Oamaru, is unveiled.
1911 — New Zealand pilot Joseph Hammond
carries the first aircraft passenger in Australia. 1919 — The Fascist Party is formed in Italy by
Benito Mussolini.
1933 — Japan begins its occupation of China north
of the Great Wall.
1934 — Coronation of King Leopold III of Belgium.
1938 — The first oil discovery in Kuwait is made.
1940 — Fresh from their success in the Battle of the River Plate, a civic reception is held at Auckland for Captain W.E. Perry and the crew of HMS Achilles, who were welcomed to Auckland by an estimated crowd of 100,000.
1942 — In World War 2, a Master Mutual LandLease Agreement is signed between the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
1944 — Josef Stalin dissolves the Chechen Republic and forces onemillion Chechens into exile, accusing them of collaboration with Nazi Germany.
1945 — US marines on Iwo Jima capture Mt
Suribachi, and raise the American flag.
1948 — Stamps commemorating the Otago
centennial go on sale.
1954 — The first mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
1959 — The first television signals by the New Zealand Broadcasting Service are transmitted by 1YA in Auckland. However, the privately owned Bell Radio and Television had been transmitting a variety of items since 1957, in order to get people to buy its television sets.
1972 — The visitor centre at the albatross colony at Taiaroa Head opens. The centre is opened to the public three days later.
1985 — Cromwell’s new town centre opens.
1986 — Queen Elizabeth II is struck by an egg thrown by a protester at Ellerslie Racecourse, Auckland. A few days later she has bare buttocks flashed at her as a Maori insult.
1990 — Prince Sihanouk returns to Cambodia after
11 years in exile.
2005 — New York authorities end efforts to identify victims of the September 11, 2001, attacks, leaving the remains of nearly half the estimated 2749 people killed in the World Trade Centre unidentified.
2006 — The snowcovered roof of a large Moscow market collapses, killing at least 66 people.
2012 — Heavy rain causes widespread flooding across Dunedin and Otago, with major disruptions at Dunedin Airport.