Today in history
Today is Friday, April 24, the 115th day of 2020.
There are 251 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1792 — The French national anthem, La Marseillaise,
is composed by ClaudeJoseph Rouget de Lisle.
1807 — Deserter George Bruce and his wife, Te Atahoe, employed as New Zealand guides for the ship the General Wellesley, are abducted. Bruce is left stranded in Malacca and Te Atahoe is taken to Penang and sold as a slave.
1871 — Auckland becomes New Zealand’s fourth
city.
1887 — Dunedin’s Robert Burns statue is unveiled by
Sir George Grey.
1888 — Eastman Kodak is founded by George
Eastman.
1898 — Spain declares war on the United States after receiving an ultimatum to withdraw from Cuba.
1908 — Jacob M. Murdock packs his family into a 1908 Packard ‘‘Thirty’’ touring car, leaves Los Angeles and arrives in New York on May 26, becoming the first to travel across the United States by motor vehicle. Resting only on Sundays and covering 3693.8 miles, the trip took 32 days, 5hr 25min.
1913 — The Woolworth Building in New York is opened. At the time it was the world’s tallest building.
1916 — Some 1600 Irish nationalists launch the Easter Uprising by seizing several key sites in Dublin. The rising is put down by British forces several days later. 1920 — The Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII) arrives in Auckland to thank New Zealand for its support during the war.
1922 — New Zealand’s first poppy day is held. A total of 245,059 small poppies and 15,157 larger versions were sold, earning £13,166. Of that amount, £3695 was sent to help warravaged areas of northern France; the remainder went to unemployed returned soldiers and their families.
1941 — Just before sunset, seven German Stuka divebombers attacked the Greek yacht Hellas at the port of Piraeus, near Athens, during the hurried evacuation of Allied forces from Greece. Up to 500 civilians and Commonwealth troops, including New Zealanders, were killed in the attack.
1951 — Second Lieutenant Dennis Fielden becomes the first New Zealand serviceman to be killed in battle during the Korean War. In all, about 4700 men served with Kayforce and a further 1300 in Royal New Zealand Navy frigates during the seven years of New Zealand’s involvement in Korea. Fortyfive men lost their lives in this period, 33 of them during the war (two of which were RNZN personnel).
1953 — British statesman Winston Churchill is knighted by Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace.
1962 — The Massachusetts Institute of Technology achieves the first satellite relay of a television signal, between Camp Parks, California, and Westford, Massachusetts.
1970 — China launches its first satellite.
1971 — Soviet cosmonauts link up with an unmanned satellite prior to an attempt to build the world’s first orbiting space laboratory.
1989 — Replacing school committees and PTAs, the first school boardoftrustee elections are held. Reforms to New Zealand’s education system as outlined in the Tomorrow’s Schools policy document of August 1988, are intended to increase community and parent involvement in the running of schools.
1990 — The US space shuttle Discovery takes the
Hubble Space Telescope into orbit. 2000 — A Cessna aircraft whose passengers had been attending the Warbirds Over Wanaka airshow crashes into the side of a hill in Central Otago, killing the pilot and five others.
2012 — Sam Johnson becomes the first nonmilitary person to be honoured with the RSA’s Anzac of the Year award. Johnson marshalled an army of 9000 students who volunteered their services following the Christchurch earthquake in February 2011.
Today’s birthdays:
St Vincent de Paul, French priest and founder of charity orders (15761600); Shirley MacLaine, US actress (1934); Fergie McCormick, All Black (19392018); John Williams, Australian classical guitarist (1941); Barbra Streisand, US singer/actress (1942); JeanPaul Gaultier, Frech fashion designer (1952); Bill Osborne, All Black (1955); Matthew Randall, New Zealand cyclist (1978); Kelly Clarkson, US singer (1982); Jack Quaid, US actor (1992);
Lydia Ko, New Zealand golfer (1997). Quote of the day: ‘‘Politics move as fast as Twitter, and for everyone to think that in four years America was going to be perfect is ridiculous.’’ — Cedric the Entertainer, US actor/comedian, who was born on this day in 1964.
ODT and agencies