Today in history
Today is Tuesday, April 7, the 98th day of 2020. There are 268 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1348 — Prague University, the first in central Europe, is founded by Charles IV of Bohemia.
1739 — Dick Turpin, the legendary English highwayman, is hanged for murder at York.
1823 — French forces under Louis de Bourbon invade Spain, beginning the FrancoSpanish War.
1856 — Nelson College, the first state secondary school in New Zealand, opens in temporary premises in Trafalgar St with a roll of eight boys. The boys’ school now has a roll of over 1000 and continues to take both boarders and day pupils.
1927— An audience in New York sees an image of commerce secretary Herbert Hoover in Washington in the first successful longdistance demonstration of television.
1933 — A purge of Jews, socialists and democrats in public office begins in Germany, where the
Nazis came to power a month earlier.
1936 — The Cape Parliament passes the Native Representation Bill, permitting natives to elect three Europeans to represent them in the Union Parliament in South Africa.
1948 — The World Health Organisation is founded. 1949 — The Rodgers and Hammerstein musical
South Pacific opens on Broadway.
1954 — At a news conference, United States president Dwight Eisenhower is first to voice fear of a ‘‘domino effect’’ of communism in IndoChina.
1956 — A declaration signed by Morocco and Spain recognises the independence of Morocco. 1962 — Dunedin’s RSA building is badly damaged by
fire.
1963 — Yugoslavia is renamed the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, with Marshal Josip Tito as its president for life.
1966 — A United States hydrogen bomb lost from a bomber is recovered in the Mediterranean Sea off the coast of Spain.
1969 — The publication of the first ‘‘request for comments’’ or RFC documents paves the way for the birth of the internet.
1976 — After unprecedented riots in Beijing, China’s deputy prime minister, Deng Xiaoping, is deposed and Hua Guofeng named prime minister.
1977 — Brian Edwards introduces the first episode
of Fair Go.
1990 — China enters the satellitelaunching business by putting a USmade telecommunications satellite into orbit; former US national security adviser John Poindexter is convicted of conspiracy, obstruction and lying in the IranContra scandal.
— Macedonia, a former republic of Yugoslavia, is allowed to join the United Nations after a compromise with Greece over the name of the country.
1994 — Rampaging troops kill Rwanda’s acting prime minister, Agathe Uwilingiyimana, and 11 Belgian United Nations soldiers.
1998 — The Nationalled Government announces plans to split stateowned electricity generator ECNZ in three, stating erroneously that as a result energy prices could fall by as much as 20%.
2001 — Nasa launches the Mars Odyssey from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, on a $US297 million mission to search for water on Mars.
2008 — A landmark freetrade agreement between New Zealand and China is signed at a ceremony in Beijing’s Great Hall of the People.
2010 — Sculptor Regan Gentry defends his controversial Harbour Mouth Molars sculpture being installed on Portsmouth Dr, after many Dunedin residents thought the $45,000 work was an April Fools’ Day joke. 2014 — The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, Prince William and his wife, Kate, along with 9monthold son George, arrive in Wellington at the start of a royal tour.
Today’s birthdays:
William Wordsworth, English poet (17701850); Sir David Low, New Zealand cartoonist (18911964); Billie Holiday, US blues singer (19151959); MoanaNuiaKiwa Ngarimu, New Zealand recipient of the Victoria Cross in World War 2 (19181943); Lindsay Daen, New Zealandborn scupltor/artist (19232001); Sir Graeme Davies, New Zealand engineer (1937); Francis Ford Coppola, US film director (1939); John Oates, US singer (1948); Janis Ian, US singer (1951); Jackie Chan,
Hong Kong martial artist/actor (1954); Steven Joyce, New Zealand politician (1963); Mark Elrick, New Zealand footballer (1967); Shane Chapman, New Zealand kickboxer (1978); Jack Bauer, New Zealand cyclist (1985).