TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Friday, October 2, the 276th day of 2020. There are 90 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1187 — Besieged Crusader forces in Jerusalem capitulate to Muslim commander Saladin.
1263 — The Battle of Largs, an indecisive engagement between the kingdoms of Norway and Scotland, is fought on the Firth of Clyde near Largs, Scotland. The battle of Largs has since been romanticised by later historians as a great Scottish victory.
1492 — England’s King Henry VII invades France, concerned over the power of Charles VIII following union with Brittany.
1518 — Cardinal Wolsey devises the Peace of London between England, France, Emperor Maximilian I, Spain and the papacy.
1608 — GermanDutch spectaclemaker Hans Lippershey applies to the States General of the Netherlands for a patent for the first telescope.
1656 — The English North American colony of Connecticut passes a law against the Quaker religion. 1823 — Spain’s King Ferdinand VII, restored by the French, who crushed a Spanish rebellion, issues a decree for the execution of his enemies.
1839 — Scotsman Kirkpatrick MacMillan invents what is described as the world’s first successful bicycle.
1852 — William H. Cutten takes sole ownership of the Otago Witness, a paper he helped launch in 1851. In 1861, in partnership with Julius Vogel, he launches the Otago
Daily Times. 1870 — Rome is made the capital of Italy. 1885 — Electric lighting is installed at Mosgiel Woollen Mills.
1893 — The Alcoholic Liquors Sale Control Act becomes law, giving the New Zealand public a chance to restrict the availability of alcohol. The first poll is held within a year.
1904 — Thomas Ellison, who captained the first official New Zealand rugby team in 1893, dies. One of his great contributions to New Zealand rugby was his proposal that the national team wear a black jersey with a silver fern emblem. He is buried at Otakou.
1915 — The New Zealand Flying School starts training pupils at Auckland. Licensed pilots joined the Royal Flying Corps in Great Britain.
1919 — US president Woodrow Wilson suffers a stroke that leaves him partially paralysed.
1924 — The League of Nations adopts the Geneva Protocol for the peaceful settlement of international disputes.
1941 — When the engine of his Spitfire stalled over the Scottish mining village of Cowie, New Zealand Spitfire pilot Carlyle Everiss heroically sacrificed his life to save the village from serious damage, when he diverts the craft away from the village to crash into railway sidings. On May 19, 2007, a memorial commemorating the young pilot’s sacrifice was unveiled in Cowie.
1944 — Nazi troops crush the twomonthold Warsaw Uprising, during which 250,000 people were killed.
1950 — The comic strip Peanuts, created by Charles M. Schulz, is first published.
1964 — The Gladesville Bridge in Sydney opens. At the time it was the world’s longest singlespan concretearch bridge (302m). 1986 — Written for the movie Footrot
Flats: The Dog’s Tale, based on an iconic New Zealand cartoon series, Dave Dobbyn’s
Slice of Heaven hits No 1 and continues to top the charts for eight weeks.
1998 — JeanPaul Akayesu, a former Rwandan mayor convicted of genocide and crimes against humanity, is sentenced to three life terms in prison.
2000 — Truck and taxi drivers block roads and bridges throughout Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), opening a protest designed to drive President Slobodan Milosevic from office.
Today’s birthdays:
George Malcolm Thomson, New Zealand naturalist/politician/zoologist/biologist (18481933); Mohandas K. (Mahatma) Gandhi, Indian statesman/reformer (18691948); Rona Marjory Hurley, New Zealand tobacco grower/buyer (18871985); Teuane Tibbo, New Zealand artist (18951984); Mike Minogue, New Zealand politician (19232008); Bruce Purchase, New Zealandborn actor (19382008); Bill Robinson, New Zealand scientist/seismic engineer (19382011); Don McLean, American folk singer
(1945); Graham Lowe, New Zealand rugby league coach/administrator (1946); Robert Anderson, New Zealand cricketer (1948); George Skudder, All Black (1948); Emlyn Crowther, New Zealand musician (1949); Annie Leibovitz, American photographer (1949); Sting (Gordon Sumner), British singer (1951); Lorraine Bracco, US actress (1954); Ceri Evans, New Zealand footballer (1963); David Coventry, New Zealandborn author/ musician (1969); Joanne Henry, New Zealand heptathlete (1971); Mark (Didley) Porter, New Zealand V8 supercar driver (19742006); Camilla Belle, US actress (1986); Anita McLaren (nee Punt), New Zealand field hockey player (1987).
Quote from history:
‘‘I must say I find television very educational. The minute somebody turns it on, I go to the library and read a good book.’’ — Groucho Marx, US comedian, who was born on this day in 1890. He died in 1977, aged 86.