Today in history
Today is Saturday, March 2, the 61st day of 2019. There are 304 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1776 — United States marines fight their first battle, capturing a British fort in the Bahamas during the Revolutionary War.
1836 — Texas declares its independence from
Mexico.
1840 — Flooding at Petone (then named Britannia) raises questions over the suitability of the location of the settlement.
1855 — Death of Nicholas I, Tsar of Russia, whose reign of autocracy and militarism ended in defeat in the Crimean War.
1882 — William Spotswood Green, Emil Boss and Ulrich Kaufmann attempt the first ascent of Aoraki/Mt Cook but are forced back just minutes from the summit; Roderick Maclean makes an unsuccessful attempt to assassinate Queen Victoria at Windsor. He was later declared insane.
1894 — Grace Neill is appointed New Zealand’s
first female factory inspector.
1908 — Dunedinborn Daniel Joseph Tohill is charged with allegedly stealing a bicycle and a fur necklet in Napier, prompting the police to take a mugshot. The photograph becomes an internet sensation in 2012, capturing the imagination of people around the world; the Devonport No1 troop of boy scouts is formed. It is the first troop in New Zealand.
1917 — According to the oldstyle Russian
calendar, this is the date that Tsar Nicholas II abdicates and a provisional government under Georgy Lvov formed. Under the new calendar the date is March 15.
1923 — Time magazine makes its debut.
1933 — The motion picture King Kong, starring Fay
Wray, has its world premiere in New York.
1939 — Roman Catholic cardinal Eugenio Pacelli is
elected pope, taking the name Pius XII.
1949 — Captain James Gallagher completes the first nonstop roundtheworld flight. He completed the 37,742km flight in 94hr 1min in a B50 Superfortress aircraft.
1957 — The Mornington cable car runs for the final time. While hundreds lined High St to witness the final run, four pipers from the Dunedin Ladies Pipe Band preceded it, playing a lament.
1958 — Dr Vivian Fuchs completes the first
crossing of the Antarctic by land.
1969 — The supersonic aircraft Concorde makes its maiden flight, from Bristol to Fairford in England.
1971 — Following a twoweek trial, Arthur Allan Thomas is convicted of the murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe, at Pukekawa in 1970. Thomas was pardoned 10 years later.
1987 — Two townships are evacuated when an earthquake measuring 6.5 strikes the Bay of Plenty. Edgecumbe, Whakatane and Kawerau all suffer serious damage, the Matahina Dam is affected and 35 people are injured.
1995 — Healthcare Otago’s Clutha district manager, Ashley Broad, announces the closure of Tapanui Hospital to take effect on April 28 and coincide with the closure of Roxburgh Hospital. Tapanui Hospital was demolished in 2010.
1997 — In Lueneburg, Germany, hundreds of farmers riding flowerdecorated tractors join about 10,000 people demonstrating against the storage of nuclear waste.
1998 — The film Titanic becomes the first to earn
$US1 billion.
2000 — New Zealand becomes just the second
country in 150 years to defend yachting’s America’s Cup when it completes a 5nil clean sweep over the Italian syndicate Prada, in waters off Auckland.
2003 — Swiss yacht Alinghi, skippered by New Zealander Russell Coutts, wins the final race for the America’s Cup in Auckland, claiming a 5nil whitewash over holder Team New Zealand.
Today’s birthdays
Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr Seuss), US children’s author (190491); Bill CrawfordCrompton, New Zealandborn pilot/air ace in WW2 (19151988); Don (Bloke) Taylor, former New Zealand cricketer (19231980); Mikhail Gorbachev, former Soviet leader (1931); Jay Osmond, US musician (1955); John Cowsill, US musician (1956); Stuart Gillespie, former New Zealand cricketer (1957); Jon Bon Jovi, US musician (1962); Susan Brady, New Zealand actress (1966); Daniel Craig, English actor (1968); Scott Harding, New Zealand actor (1971); Daryl Gibson, All Black (1975); Chris Martin, English singer/musician (1977); Dan Wootton, New Zealandborn journalist and broadcaster (1983).
Thought for today
Everyone can master a grief but he that has it. — William Shakespeare (15641616), Much Ado About Nothing.