Today in history
Today is Wednesday, September 11, the 254th day of 2019. There are 111 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1297 — Scottish rebels under William Wallace slaughter a larger English force at the Battle of Stirling Bridge.
1649 — Oliver Cromwell, the leader of the victorious parliamentarians in the English Civil War, besieges Droghedain, Ireland, and massacres most of the inhabitants.
1758 — In the Battle of Saint Cast, France repels a
British invasion during the Seven Years’ War.
1777 — The British defeat the Americans, led by General George Washington, in the Battle of Brandywine Creek in the American War of Independence.
1840 — The British bombard Beirut in an attempt to
force Muhammad Ali Pasha to submit.
1855 — The Siege of Sevastopol, the major operation of the Crimean War, ends when British, French and Piedmontese troops finally capture the main naval base of the Russian Black Sea fleet.
1880 — Three children are killed when a train is
blown from the tracks on the Rimutaka Incline.
1895 — The original FA Cup is stolen in Birmingham.
1922 — The British mandate in Palestine is proclaimed, while Arabs declare a day of mourning.
1928 — Australian Charles Kingsford Smith and the crew of the Southern Cross land at Wigram, marking the first successful transtasman crossing in an aircraft.
1962 — The Soviet Union warns that any US attack on Cuban or Soviet ships bound for Cuba will mean war.
1972 — Future British prime minister (the first woman to hold the role) Margaret Thatcher visits the University of Otago as the United Kingdom’s secretary of state for education and science.
1973 — Chile’s President Salvador Allende is deposed in a military coup. A leftist who leaned towards Marxism, Allende died inside La Moneda presidential palace, while General
Augusto Pinochet was staging a heavyhanded coup. Military officials purported that he committed suicide (with an assault rifle) rather than surrender.
1978 — Bulgarian defector Georgi Markov is stabbed with a poison umbrella in London, dying four days later from ricin poisoning.
1997 — Scotland votes yes in a referendum to set
up a separate Scottish parliament.
1998 — Independent counsel Kenneth Starr’s report on US president Bill Clinton is published, listing 11 potentially impeachable offences.
2001 — Terrorists crash two hijacked airliners into the World Trade Centre in New York City, bringing down the twin 110storey towers, killing almost 3000 people. Another hijacked plane slams into the Pentagon in Washington, killing at least 189 people. A fourth hijacked plane has Aucklandborn Alan Beavan (48) among the 44 on board killed when it crashes into a field near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, during the attacks.
2003 — Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh dies in hospital after being stabbed repeatedly the previous day by an unidentified male attacker while shopping at a department store in Stockholm.
2008 — Sergeant Don Wilkinson is fatally shot while trying to install a tracking device on a vehicle outside a suspected P lab in Mangere.
2013 — Wind gusts wreak havoc in Canterbury, with Waimate being hit by its worst storm in 40 years. Winds reached 107kmh, decimating a pine plantation, and flattening the public grandstand and blowing roofing from the main stand at the town’s racecourse. The storm left Canterbury residents assessing extensive damage: 15,000 properties were without power; SH94 between Knobs Flat and Milford Sound and SH6 between Makarora and Haast were closed due to slips. A major slip at Diana Falls, south of the Gates of Haast bridge, delayed SH6 reopening. The slip is believed responsible for the deaths of two Canadian tourists.
Today’s birthdays:
James Allan (the Taieri Giant), first All Black (18601934); D. H. Lawrence, English author (18851930); Desmond J. Scott, New Zealand fighter pilot in World War 2 (19181997); Brian DePalma, US film director (1940); Mickey Hart, US rock musician (1943); Renee Geyer, Australian singer (1953); Mick Talbot, English musician (1958); Kristy McNichol, US actress (1962); Princess Akishino, Japanese royal (1966); Harry Connick jun, US singer (1967); Aled de Malmanche, All Black (1984); Rebecca Sinclair, New Zealand Winter Olympic snowboarder (1991).
Thought for today:
There is nothing so powerful as the truth, and nothing so strange. — Daniel Webster, US statesman (17821852).