Today in history
Today is Friday, March 8, the 67th day of 2019. There are 298 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1702 — Queen Anne ascends the British throne
upon the death of King William III.
1765 — Britain’s House of Lords passes the Stamp
Act to tax the American colonies.
1865 — The construction of a canal is started in the Netherlands to connect Amsterdam with the North Sea.
1880 — A large group of unemployed men gather at Dunedin’s Southern Market Reserve in protest at the scarcity of work.
1910 — The Royal Aero Club issues the first British pilot’s licence to John MooreBrabazon, and Elise Raymonde de Laroche becomes the first woman in the world to receive a pilot’s licence when the Aero Club of France issues hers on the same day.
1917 — Riots and strikes break out in St
Petersburg, marking the start of the Russian Revolution (old calendar: February 23).
1921 — Following Germany’s failure to pay reparations from World War 1, French troops occupy Duesseldorf and other towns in the Ruhr; Spanish prime minister Eduardo Dato is assassinated by anarchists near his home in Madrid.
1929 — The first pictures with sound seen in New Zealand are shown in a series of short films prior to the feature film Street Angel, a silent film, at the Paramount Theatre, Wellington.
1930 — Mohandas (Mahatma) K. Gandhi begins his campaign of civil disobedience against British rule in India.
1939 — New Zealand pilot Alan Pritchard takes his public works supervisor for a flight over Ninety Mile Beach, during which the pair devise a plan for what becomes the aerial topdressing industry.
1950 — Marshal Kliment Voroshilov announces
Soviet possession of an atomic bomb.
1952 — Edgar Faure’s ministry falls in France, and
Antoine Pinay forms a new cabinet.
1956 — In a move to protect Opo the dolphin, which has become a household name in New Zealand over the summer months, a special fisheries regulation is enacted making it an offence to take or molest any dolphin in Hokianga Harbour.
1961 — The Commonwealth leaders’ conference opens in London, and South Africa announces it will leave the Commonwealth on May 31.
1970 — Cyprus president Archbishop Makarios escapes assassination when terrorist snipers shoot down his helicopter. 1971 — Billed as The Fight of the Century,
Muhammad Ali suffers his first defeat as a professional boxer, beaten by Joe Frazier by a unanimous decision at Madison Square Garden in New York; death of Harold Lloyd, United States silent film comedian best remembered for the scene in which he was seen dangling from a skyscraper with nothing to hold on to but the hand of a clock.
1987 — An earthquake centred on Pegasus Bay strikes the Canterbury region, causing minor damage.
1994 — An Indian jetliner crashes into a parked Russian plane in New Delhi, killing seven people; 64 people are killed and 370 injured when a train packed with commuters is derailed near Durban, South Africa.
2013 — Otago’s Hamish Rutherford becomes the ninth New Zealander to score a century on test debut. His 171, scored in the first test against England at Dunedin’s University Oval, is the seventhhighest score on debut and the second highest by a New Zealander; a German tourist is rescued from Explorer Glacier on the South Island’s West Coast after spending the night trapped after falling into a crevasse about 18 hours earlier.
Today’s birthdays:
Richard Howe, English admiral (172699);
Sir Thomas Clifton Webb, New Zealand politician/diplomat (18891962); Ronnie Moore, former New Zealand speedway rider (1933); Prince Tui Teka, New Zealand entertainer (193785); Mickey Dolenz, US singer/actor/ director (1945); Peter McCauley, New Zealandborn actor (1950); Ervin McSweeney, former New Zealand cricketer (1957); Gary Numan, British singer (1958); Aidan Quinn, IrishAmerican actor (1959); James van der Beek, US actor (1977); Ross Taylor, New Zealand cricketer (1984).
Quote from history:
‘‘A ball player’s got to be kept hungry to become a big leaguer. That’s why no boy from a rich family ever made the big leagues.’’ — New York Yankees baseball legend Joe DiMaggio. DiMaggio, who was briefly married to Marilyn Monroe, died on March 8, 1999.