Today in history
Today is Saturday, October 5, the 278th day of 2019. There are 87 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1511 — Pope Julius II forms the Holy League between Aragon, Venice and the papacy; its stated aim was to defend church unity and also to oust the French from Italy.
1568 — The Conference at York begins the trial of
Mary Stuart (Mary, Queen of Scots).
1789 — The March on Versailles, one of the earliest and most significant events of the French Revolution, occurs when women from the marketplaces of Paris march, protesting the high price and scarcity of bread. Their demonstrations quickly became intertwined with the activities of revolutionaries.
1795 — Artillery commanded by Napoleon Bonaparte targets rebels marching against the National Convention in Paris, saving the republic. He is later appointed commander of the army of the interior.
1796 — Spain declares war on Britain.
1862 — Work begins on cutting away Dunedin’s Bell Hill area and using the material removed as fill in the reclaimation of 2.5ha of beach into streets and building sites.
1892 — The Dalton Gang, notorious for train and bank robberies, is thwarted in its attempt to rob two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas.
1908 — Australian poet Dorothea Mackellar’s My Country is first published; Ferdinand I declares Bulgaria’s independence from the Ottoman Empire and assumes the title of Tsar of Bulgaria. 1914 — The two crewmen of a German reconnaissance aircraft become the first to be killed in an air battle when their plane is shot down by a French aircraft over France.
1930 — The British airship R101 crashes during its first flight, near Beauvais, France, killing 48 of its 54 passengers.
1931 — Clyde Pangborn and Hugh Herndon complete the first nonstop flight across the
Pacific Ocean, arriving in the American state of Washington 41 hours after taking off from Japan.
1938 — Dr Eduard Benes resigns the presidency of
Czechoslovakia and flees abroad.
1947 — US president Harry Truman delivers the first
televised address from the White House.
1962 — The Beatles’ first hit, Love Me Do ,is
released in the United Kingdom.
1969 — Drilling for oil begins off the Taranaki coast; Monty Python’s Flying Circus makes its debut on BBCTV.
1989 — The Dalai Lama wins the Nobel Peace
Prize. 1991 — Otago beats North Harbour 2610 at Carisbrook to win its first National Provincial Rugby Championship.
2010 — Hungary declares a state of emergency in three counties after a flood of toxic red sludge from an alumina plant engulfs several towns and burns people through their clothes. Four people are killed, six are missing and 120 are injured in what one official calls ‘‘an ecological disaster’’ that may threaten the Danube and other key rivers.
2011 — A ramp from the Esplanade to St Clair Beach is closed after failing for a third time since a new seawall was built in 2004; the 236m container vessel Rena runs aground on Astrolabe Reef, six nautical miles north of Motiti Island, near Tauranga Harbour. The mishap creates an oil slick that endangers an area renowned for its marine life, including whales, dolphins, seals, sharks and rarities such as turtles, sunfish and whale sharks.
2014 — A fire at the Penrose substation in Ellerslie leaves 85,000 consumers in central Auckland without power, forcing the closure of small businesses and the country’s largest shopping mall, at Sylvia Park.
Today’s birthdays
Robert Goddard, US inventor of the modern rocket (18821945); Bert Cooke, All Black and New Zealand rugby league international (19011977); Glynis Johns, South Africanborn actress (1923); Brian Johnson, AC/DC singer (1947); Bob Geldof, Irish musician and humanitarian (1951); David Kirk, All Black captain (1960); Derek Stirling, New Zealand cricket international (1961); Guy Pearce, Australian actor (1967); Cal Wilson, New Zealandborn comedienne (1970); Kate Winslet, British actress (1975);
Olivia Chance, New Zealand football international (1993).