Today in history
Today is Wednesday, March 6, the 65th day of
2019. There are 300 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1830 — Up to 30 are killed when fighting breaks out in the ‘‘Girls War’’ between Ngapuhi tribes at Kororareka (now known as Russell), then one of the largest European settlements in New Zealand. A largescale war was narrowly avoided when missionaries arranged a peace meeting two weeks later.
1836 — The Alamo, a mission in San Antonio, Texas, falls to the Mexican army after a 13day siege in which Davy Crockett and 186 other defenders die.
1857 — The United States Supreme Court rules that escaped slave Dred Scott cannot sue for his freedom because as a slave he is property, not a citizen.
1899 — Felix Hoffman patents his formula for
acetylsalicylic acid, which he calls aspirin.
1905 — John Clancy is committed for trial charged with breaking and entering and robbery, in what is the first case to be tried in New Zealand solely based on fingerprint evidence.
1914 — Establishing a distance record of 158km, James William (Will) Scotland pilots his Caudron biplane from Timaru to Christchurch, and makes the first unofficial airmail delivery, dropping a small package from the cockpit while over Temuka.
1930 — Packaged frozen food produced by the company set up by Clarence Birdseye goes on sale for the first time in the US. 1935 — The Johnson quadruplets (a boy and three
girls) are born in Dunedin.
1941 — The first New Zealand units leave
Alexandria for the invasion of Greece.
1947 — The New Zealand National Orchestra gives its first public performance, at the Wellington Town Hall. The orchestra is the predecessor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra.
1953 — Georgy Malenkov succeeds the late
Joseph Stalin as premier of the Soviet Union.
1965 — The US Defense Department announces that 3500 marines are being sent to South Vietnam, the first US ground combat troops committed to fighting against communist guerrillas.
1966 — Hosted by pipesmoking Fred Barnes, the New Zealand television show Country Calendar premieres as a programme of news and information for farmers.
1967 — Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of former Soviet leader Josef Stalin, requests asylum at the US embassy in New Delhi. 1987 — The British ferry Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes off the Belgian port Zeebrugge, drowning 193 people.
1989 — At least 109 people, most of them labourers, die after drinking homemade liquor in the city of Baroda, in India.
1992 — A computer virus called Michelangelo strikes thousands of personal computers around the world.
1997 — Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II launches the
first official royal website.
2006 — Sam Morgan sells his website Trade Me to Fairfax Holdings for $NZ700 million and overnight the 30yearold joins the list of New Zealand’s wealthiest people.
2011 — While aftershocks continue to alarm Christchurch residents, the upper South and lower North Islands are shaken for the third time in a week by a 4.1magnitude earthquake, centred 10km south of Blenheim at a depth of 12km, at 11.02pm.
2013 — Central Districts opening batsman Jamie How blasts his way into cricket record books, when he scores 222 runs from 138 balls in a 50over match against Northern Districts at Seddon Park, Hamilton. How’s score is only bettered in limitedovers matches by Englishman Ali Brown, who scored 268 at the Oval in 2002.
Today’s birthdays:
Elizabeth Barrett Browning, English poet (18061861); Jimmy Hunter, 1905 Original All Black (18791962); Valentina Tereshkova, Russian cosmonaut and first woman in space (1937); Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, New Zealand opera singer (1944); Mary Wilson, US singer (1944); David Gilmour, British musician (1946); Tom Arnold, US actor (1959); Amy Pietz, US actress (1969); Shaquille O’Neal, US basketball player (1972); Gareth Fleming, New Zealand musician (1980); Jimmy Cowan, All Black (1982); Marina Erakovic, New Zealand professional tennis player (1988).
Thought for today:
Le sens commun n’est pas si commun (Common sense is not so common). — Voltaire, French author and philosopher (16941778).