Today in history
Today is Monday, April 27, the 118th day of 2020. There are 248 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1124 — David I becomes King of Scots.
1296 — The Scots are defeated by Edward I of
England at the Battle of Dunbar.
1509 — Pope Julius II excommunicates the Italian
state of Venice.
1521 — Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan
is killed by natives in the Philippines.
1667 — Blind and impoverished, John Milton sells
the copyright of Paradise Lost for £10.
1806 — Moehanga of Ngapuhi becomes the first recorded Maori visitor to England when the whaler Ferret berths in London. He will return to New Zealand in March 1807, with extraordinary claims that during his sixweek stay, he performed a haka for the king and queen and conceived a child with a woman called Nancy.
1828 — London Zoo opens in Regent’s Park.
1830 — Simon Bolivar, the former revolutionary fighter who helped end Spain’s domination of South America, abdicates as president of Colombia.
1865 — The steamboat Sultana explodes on the Mississippi River near Memphis, Tennessee, killing more than 1400 Union prisoners of war. 1867 — Charles Gounod’s opera Romeo et Juliette
is first performed in Paris.
1893 — New Zealand premier John Ballance dies of cancer. He had served a little over two years and is replaced on May 1 by Richard John Seddon. 1927 — New Zealand’s last steamtram service ceases operation. The route, on Auckland’s North Shore, is to be serviced by buses.
1941 — Athens falls to German invaders after 180
days of Greek resistance in World War 2.
1942 — Sugar rationing of 12oz (one and ahalf
cups) per week begins in New Zealand.
1945 — The Allies reject peace offers by German SS chief Heinrich Himmler, insisting on unconditional surrender; Austrian statehood is proclaimed under Allied occupation; Italian partisans capture Benito Mussolini at Dongo (Lake Como).
1956 — Rocky Marciano retires undefeated as
world heavyweight boxing champion.
1972 — The ketch Vega, later renamed Greenpeace III, leaves New Zealand to protest French nuclear testing around Moruroa Atoll.
1981 — The full report of a royal commission of inquiry into the Erebus air crash is released. Justice Peter Mahon clears the crew of blame and accuses Air New Zealand of a coverup, stating the airline was responsible for an ‘‘orchestrated litany of lies’’.
1982 — The trial of John Hinckley jun, who shot four people, including United States president Ronald Reagan, begins in Washington. Hinckley is acquitted by reason of insanity.
1983 — The Prince and Princess of Wales meet thousands of admirers, who braved cool drizzly weather to see them on their Dunedin visit.
1997 — Hong Kong officially opens the world’s longest roadrail suspension bridge, linking the colony to its new offshore airport.
2000 — Palaeontologists unveil the most complete apeman skull yet to be excavated, a 2millionyearold skull of a female Paranthropus robustus, a cousin of early man. The fossil was found in South Africa.
2002 — South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth arrives at the International Space Station for an eightday sevennight stay that cost him $US20 million.
2005 — The superjumbo jet aircraft Airbus A380
makes its first flight from Toulouse, France.
2010 — Ratings agency Standard & Poor’s pushes Greece to the brink of a financial abyss and downgrades Portugal’s debt also, fuelling fears of a continentwide debt meltdown in Europe.
2011 — Two pilots are killed when their helicopter crashes in Mt Aspiring National Park at the head of the Arawhata River, south of Bow Peak.
Today’s birthdays:
Ulysses S. Grant, US president and general (18221885); Anouk Aimee, French actress (1932); Kate Pierson, US singer (1948); Paul (Ace) Frehley, US musician (1951); Sheena Easton, Scottish singer (1959); Kerrin Harrison, New Zealand badminton player (1964); Tess Daly, English actress/model (1969); Jenna Coleman, English actress (1986); Hamish Rutherford, New Zealand cricketer (1989); Martha Hunt, US model (1989); Nick Kyrgios, Australian tennis player (1995).
Quote of the day: