TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Wednesday, July 15, the 197th day of 2020. There are 169 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1099 — Three years after the First Crusade set out, the Christian army storms Jerusalem and puts its Muslim inhabitants to the sword.
1685 — The Duke of Monmouth is beheaded in England for his part in a rebellion. It takes the inexperienced executioner eight blows of the axe to sever his head.
1795 — La Marseillaise is officially adopted as the French national anthem.
1864 — Albert Hunt discovers gold at Greenstone Creek on the South Island’s West Coast.
1869 — Margarine is patented in France by Hippolyte MegeMouries.
1892 — A second women’s suffrage petition, containing 20,000 signatures, is presented to Parliament by members of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. The first petition, containing 9000 signatures, had been presented a year earlier.
1912 — Malcolm Champion becomes the first New Zealander to win an Olympic gold medal, as a member of the Australasian team in the 4x200m swimming relay in Stockholm. The time was a world record.
1915 — New Zealanders get their first taste of the horrors of war, when a solemn crowd watches in silence the first wounded from Gallipoli being disembarked from TS Willochra at the Wellington docks.
1916 — Boeing Co, originally known as Pacific Aero Products, is founded in Seattle, Washington, by William Boeing.
1933 — Jack Lovelock breaks the world mile record by almost 2sec at an international track and field meeting at Princeton University. In what was termed the greatest mile of all time, Lovelock ran a time of 4min 7.6sec. The previous record was 4min 9.1sec, set in 1931 by Frenchman Jules Ladoumeque.
1936 — King’s High School in Dunedin is officially opened.
1951 — The Waterside Workers’ Union admits defeat following a 151day strike. Union members are advised to reapply for jobs, but many are refused and never employed in New Zealand ports again.
1964 — Anastas Mikoyan succeeds Leonid Brezhnev as chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet, while Brezhnev goes on to lead the Soviet Union from October 1964 until his death in November 1982 as General Secretary of the Communist Party.
1965 — The United States Congress passes legislation requiring health warning labels on cigarette packets.
1987 — Taiwan ends 38 years of martial law to pave the way for multiparty elections.
1989 — All Black captain Buck Shelford and fullback John Gallagher, who scored three tries, feature in the All Blacks’ 609 victory over Argentina at Carisbrook.
1995 — Dunedin’s indoor lawn bowls stadium is opened by Mayor Richard Walls.
2000 — Zimbabwe launches the resettlement of black peasants on farms seized from whites in all its eight provinces.
Today’s birthdays:
Rembrandt (Rembrandt Harmes van Rijn), Dutch artist (16061669); George Douglas Hamilton, New Zealand runholder and station manager (18351911); Henry Fish, New
Zealand politician (18381897); Thomas Broun, New Zealand soldier, farmer, teacher and entomologist (18381919); Ellen Anne Hewett, New Zealand writer (18431926); Marie Tempest, English actress (18641942); James Crichton, New Zealand soldier awarded the Victoria Cross WW1 (18791961); Terry (TP) McLean, sports journalist and author (19132004); Paddy Bassett, New Zealand agricultural scientist (19182019); Iris Murdoch, Irishborn writer (19191999); Ian Athfield, New Zealand architect (19402015); Linda Ronstadt, US singer (1946); Jesse Ventura, US actor/ wrestler turned politician (1951); Willie Aames, US actor (1960); Forest Whitaker, US actordirector (1961); Lolita Davidovich, US actress (1961); Scott Foley, US actor (1972); Brian Austin Green, US actor (1973).
Quote of the day:
‘‘I never thought about being the highest paid. I just wanted to be someone that people cared about watching, and I feel I'm a good actor.’’ —
JanMichael Vincent, US actor, who was born on this day in 1944. He died in 2019, aged 74. ODT and agencies