Today in history
Today is Monday, August 19, the 231st day of 2019. There are 134 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1561 — Mary, Queen of Scots, arrives in Scotland to assume the throne after spending 13 years in France.
1587 — Pope Sixtus V proclaims a Catholic Crusade
for an invasion of England.
1812 — The USS Constitution, also known as Old Ironsides, defeats the British frigate Guerriere east of Nova Scotia during the War of 1812.
1863 — The arrival of a coach in Dunedin brings news of a violent storm in the Dunstan area that caused many to lose their lives.
1882 — Sir George Grey presents his library, consisting of vast volumes of Maorilanguage manuscripts, to the city of Auckland.
1891 — The Employers Liability Amendment Act is
passed by the New Zealand Government.
1930 — The two halves of the Sydney Harbour
Bridge are joined together.
1941 — A warehouse fire in Auckland destroys
John Burns and Co.
1942 — Concerns are raised about the short supply of alcohol in Dunedin, particularly for medicinal use.
1945 — The August Revolution against French rule in Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh and the Viet Minh, begins.
1950 — The first aerial topdressing to be carried out in Otago occurs at the Invermay Experimental and Research Station on the Taieri.
1953 — In Iran, the nationalist government of Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh is overthrown in a United Statesbacked military coup; the Soviet Union publicly acknowledges it has tested a hydrogen bomb.
1960 — A tribunal in Moscow convicts American
U2 pilot Francis Gary Powers of espionage.
1961 — The All Blacks beat France 53 in a test match on Athletic Park, Wellington, in a game dominated by winds of more than 100kmh.
1968 — The Soviet Union and other Warsaw Pact nations begin invading Czechoslovakia to crush the ‘‘Prague Spring’’ liberalisation drive of
Alexander Dubcek’s regime.
1973 — George Papadopoulos is sworn in as president of Greece as the monarchy comes to an end.
1976 — New Zealand test cricket wicketkeeper Ken Wadsworth dies as a result of skin cancer at the age of 29. Wadsworth played 33 tests, and made 96 dismissals. He averaged 59 in the fivetest series against the West Indies on the 197172 tour and scored the winning runs in New Zealand’s first test victory against Australia in 1974, played in Christchurch.
1993 — No stranger to controversy, Tim Shadbolt records a landslide victory when elected mayor of Invercargill. His victory, and those subsequently, have given national prominence to New Zealand’s southernmost city.
1999 — Nearly 150,000 demonstrators converge on Belgrade to demand Yugoslav president
Slobodan Milosevic resign.
2002 — An Islamic high court in Katsina State, Nigeria, upholds a sentence of death by stoning for Amina Lawal, who had been convicted of adultery by a village court in March for having a child more than nine months after her divorce.
2013 — Samesex marriage becomes legal in New
Zealand.
2016 — It is ‘‘Glory Friday’’ for New Zealand at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. Lisa Carrington becomes the first New Zealand woman to win two Olympic medals at the same Games, adding a bronze medal in the K1 500m to the K1 200m gold she won earlier in the week; Tom Walsh becomes the first New Zealand man to win an Olympic medal in field events, winning bronze in the shot put; in sailing, Peter Burling and Blair Tuke win a gold medal in the men’s 49ers; Alex Malony and Molly Meech win silver in the women’s 49ers; and in the women’s 470, Jo Aleh and Polly Powries win silver.
Today’s birthdays:
Ron King, All Black (190988); Johnny Nash, US singer (1940); Jill St John, US actress (1940); Diane Marie Jacobs (Dinah Lee), New Zealandborn singer (1943); Sid Going, All Black (1943); Gordon Copeland, New Zealand politician (1943); Bill Clinton, US president (1946); John Deacon, British musician (1951); Adam Arkin, US actor (1956); Chris Riley, New Zealand footballer (1964); Kyra Sedgwick, US actress (1965); Dallas Seymour, All Black (1967); Matthew Perry, US actor (1969); Carl Bulfin, New Zealand cricketer (1973); Tania Nolan, New Zealand actress (1983).
Quote for today:
‘‘I was probably caned more than most kids at school. And deserved it’’. — New Zealand physicist Sir Paul Callaghan, who was born on this day in 1947. He died in 2012, aged 64.