Today in history
Today is Thursday, May 14, the 135th day of 2020. There are 231 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1610 — Francois Ravaillac, a fanatical Roman
Catholic, assassinates French king Henry IV.
1643 — Louis XIV accedes to the French throne at the age of 4 on the death of his father, Louis XIII. His mother, Anne of Austria, becomes regent.
1796 — English physician Edward Jenner performs the first successful vaccination, inoculating an 8yearold boy against smallpox and laying the foundation for modern immunology.
1804 — Meriwether Lewis and William Clark’s expedition, commissioned by Thomas Jefferson, sets out from St Louis for the Pacific Coast.
1840 — Te Rauparaha agrees to sign the Treaty of Waitangi at Kapiti, believing it will guarantee him possession of all the territories he has won in battle. At the insistence of Major Thomas Bunbury, he signs another copy of the treaty on June 19.
1866 — The ship General Grant, carrying a cargo of gold and with 83 people on board, founders near Auckland Island. The 10 survivors were not rescued for 18 months.
1870 — Although Christ’s College pupils had played a form of the sport since 1853, a rugby match between Nelson College and Nelson Rugby Club becomes the first officially documented rugby match in New Zealand.
1882 — In heavy swells the Benvenue breaks loose from its moorings in Caroline Bay, just outside Timaru’s breakwater, and drifting towards shore becomes grounded, turns broadside and capsizes. The crew make for the nearby City of Perth, which is also drifting ashore, becoming grounded alongside the
Benvenue, with the loss of three lives. A rescue party rows towards the City of Perth to offer assistance, all three boats capsizing, leaving 40 struggling in the mountainous seas, six of whom perished.
1888 — Dunedin’s Joe Scott begins the first day of competition in a 72hour world championship walking match at the Royal Agricultural Hall, London.
1897 — An innovative ‘‘Pigeongram’’ postal service begins whereby pigeons carry messages attached to their legs on the 90km journey between Great Barrier Island and Auckland.
1907 — The Society for the Promotion of the Health of Women and Children (Plunket Society) is formed in Dunedin. Frederic Truby King addressed the first meeting of the organisation nine days later. 1925 — Sir Francis Henry Dillon Bell (Reform) takes office as prime minister after leading the country since William Massey became ill the previous year. Although his term lasted just 16 days, he is the first New Zealandborn prime minister.
1941 — Five crew members die when the mine
sweeper Puriri is wrecked in the Hauraki Gulf.
1948 — The British mandate in Palestine ends, and David BenGurion, the head of the Jewish Agency, proclaims the establishment of the state of Israel.
1964 — Egyptian president Gamal Abdel Nasser, Russian leader Nikita Khrushchev and two more heads of state set off an explosion which diverts the River Nile at a ceremony during the construction of the Aswan High Dam. The dam was designed by the Moscowbased Hydroproject Institute.
1965 — The Queen unveils a memorial to the late US president John Kennedy on a field at Runnymede, the site west of London where the Magna Carta was signed in 1215. 1976 — New Zealand Railways announces that
Dunedin’s railcar service will no longer operate. 1987 — Armed troops under Lieutenantcolonel Sitiveni Rabuka storm the Fijian Parliament and declare a military government after kidnapping Prime Minister Dr Timoci Bavadra and his Cabinet in the South Pacific’s first coup.
2011 — The pilot of a gyrocopter is killed and his passenger seriously injured when the aircraft crashes at Awanui, north of Kaitaia.
Today’s birthdays
Charlie (Bronco) Seeling, original All Black (18831956); Lawrence Carthage Weathers, New Zealandborn Australian serviceman and recipient of Victoria Cross in WW1 (18901918); Stewart Bell Maclennan, New Zealand artist (190373); George Lucas, US film director/producer (1944);
Frank Nobilo, New Zealand golfer (1960); Tim Roth, US actor (1961); Cate Blanchett, Australian actress (1969); Natalie Appleton, British singer (1973);
Sally Martin, New Zealand actress (1984);
Mark Zuckerberg, US internet entrepreneur (1984).
Quote of the day:
‘‘I learned long ago, never to wrestle with a pig. You get dirty, and besides, the pig likes it.’’ — George Bernard Shaw, Irish playwright (18561950).
ODT and agencies