Today in history
Today is Wednesday, April 22, the 113th day of 2020. There are 253 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1500 — Portuguese navigator Pedro Alvares
Cabral is the first European to discover Brazil, putting ashore near what Cabral christened the Monte Pascoal (‘‘Easter Mount’’, it being the week of Easter). The spot is on the northeast coast of presentday Brazil.
1659 — Lord Protector Richard Cromwell
dissolves the English Parliament, leading to the Rump Parliament being recalled two weeks later.
1806 — Following his flogging for a number of transgressions, George Bruce deserts the Lady
Nelson, anchored in the Far North. He will later marry Te Atahoe, the daughter of Te Pahi, and become one of New Zealand’s bestknown ‘‘Pakeha Maori’’.
1823 — R. J. Tyers patents rollerskates.
1838 — The British steamship Sirius becomes the first vessel to cross the Atlantic from Britain to New York on steam power. Departing from Cork in Ireland and crossing to New York, the journey took 18 days 10 hours.
1843 — The Southern Cross newspaper begins publication in Auckland.
1864 — The phrase ‘‘In God We Trust’’ begins appearing on United States coins.
1915 — The German army uses poison gas for the first time on the Western Front in World War 1, as the second battle of Ypres begins.
1916 — Chief of Staff of the Irish Volunteers Eoin
MacNeill issues the countermanding order in
Dublin to try to stop what would become the Easter Rising; Karl Spindler scuttles the Aud near Daunt’s Rock, to prevent its cargo of 20,000 rifles, destined for Irish republicans, falling into enemy hands.
1936 — The Ratana movement begins its close association with the New Zealand Labour Party following a meeting between its leader,
T.W. Ratana, and Prime Minister Michael Joseph Savage. By 1943, Ratana representatives held all four Maori seats in Parliament.
1952 — An atomic test conducted in Nevada becomes the first nuclear explosion shown on live network television.
1956 — China appoints the Dalai Lama chairman of a committee to prepare Tibet for regional autonomy within the Chinese People’s Republic.
1969 — British lone yachtsman Robin KnoxJohnston arrives at Falmouth after completing the first solo nonstop circumnavigation of the earth in 312 days.
1975 — The first Vietnamese refugees arrive on the west coast of the US while South Vietnam is falling to the communists; Honduran president General Osvaldo Lopez Arellano is overthrown in a bloodless coup and replaced by General Juan Alberto Melgar Castro.
1990 — American Robert Polhill, held captive since January 24, 1987, is released by a proIranian Shi’ite group in Beirut.
1992 — The filling of Lake Dunstan begins, 25 years after planning began and 15 years after the start of construction; petrol leaking from a nearby refinery explodes in the sewer system of Guadalajara, Mexico, ripping open streets and killing 194 people.
1994 — The Serious Fraud Office begins investigating collapsed South Island meat company Fortex.
2000 — US immigration agents seize Cuban boat boy Elian Gonzalez from his relatives’ home in Miami and reunite him with his father at Andrews Air Force Base near Washington.
2002 — Former Sotheby’s chairman Alfred
Taubman is sentenced to a year and a day in prison for fixing commission fees with rival Christie’s; actor Robert Blake is charged with the murder of his wife, Bonny Lee Bakley. He is later found not guilty.
2016 — The Paris Agreement on Climate Change is signed in New York, binding 195 nations to an increase in the global average temperature to less than 2degC above preindustrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the increase to 1.5degC.
Today’s birthdays:
Vladimir Lenin, Russian statesman (18701924); Robert Oppenheimer, US nuclear scientist (19041967); Dick ‘‘Red’’ Conway, All Black (1935); Jack Nicholson, US actor (1937); Denis Lill, New Zealandborn British actor (1942); John Waters, US film director (1946); Peter Frampton, British singer/guitarist (1950); David Loveridge, All Black captain (1952); Carmel Clark, New Zealand Olympic swimmer (1965); Clarke Dermody, All Black (1980).
Quote of the day:
‘‘As far as I’m concerned, I don’t really care any more what people think about me. I’m just gonna be me.’’ — Machine Gun Kelly, US rapper/actor, who was born on this day in 1990.