TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Saturday, October 3, the 277th day of 2020. There are 89 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1863 — United States president Abraham Lincoln issues a proclamation designating the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day.
1864 — Wellington is chosen as the seat of government in New Zealand.
1866 — Italy and Austria sign a peace treaty in which Austria surrenders Venice and the surrounding region to Italy.
1888 — The New Zealand Native team plays its first game in Great Britain, against Surrey. The privately organised rugby team is the first national team to wear the silver fern. During a tour lasting a little over a year, the team toured New Zealand, Australia and the British Isles, playing 107 games of rugby, eight of Australian Rules and two soccer matches; explorer Fridtjof Nansen and his team complete the first known crossing of the Greenland interior when they arrive in Godthaab.
1908 — McLeod Brothers Soap Works in Cumberland St is extensively damaged by fire.
1918 — Reports emerge in Auckland that a deadly influenza is becoming well established; a German Austrian note is sent to the US via Switzerland calling for an armistice in World War 1.
1922 — The first facsimile photo is sent over city telephone lines, in Washington, DC.
1929 — The name of the SerboCroatSlovene kingdom is changed to Yugoslavia.
1932 — Iraq gains full independence from Britain and joins the League of Nations.
1941 — Germany’s Adolf Hitler announces that the Soviet Union has been defeated in World War 2 and never will rise again; the aerosol can is patented in the US by L.D. Goodhue and W.N. Sullivan.
1948 — Blue Smoke, with vocals by Pixie Williams, is the first New Zealandmade record.
1952 — Britain detonates its first atomic bomb, on board a derelict naval ship off northwest Australia.
1963 — A military coup in Honduras overthrows President Ramon Villeda Morales.
1976 — Bishop Abel Muzorewa returns to Rhodesia after two years in exile in Tanzania.
1977 — Indian former prime minister Indira Gandhi is arrested in New Delhi on two charges of corruption while in office. She is released a day later.
1981 — Irish nationalists at the Maze Prison near Belfast, Northern Ireland, end seven months of hunger strikes, which had claimed 10 lives.
1990 — Reunification of East and West Germany. The West German flag is raised above the Brandenburg Gate on the stroke of midnight.
1995 — The O.J. Simpson trial ends with the former American football star controversially being acquitted of murdering his wife and her male friend. In 1997 he was found guilty in a civil lawsuit.
2005 — Designed for the thousands of New Zealanders who tinker in their sheds or garages, the first issue of The Shed magazine is published. Within the magazine’s first decade, a copy of the first edition fetches $75 at a secondhand sale.
2012 — KiwiRail confirms it will not reopen the Napier to Gisborne line after large portions of the line were destroyed by slips and flooding in March, deeming repairs too costly on a line that is unprofitable.
Today’s birthdays:
Albert Moss, New Zealand cricketer and only player to have taken all 10 wickets in an innings on his firstclass debut (18631945); Margaret Stoddart, New Zealand artist (18651934); Henry Avery, All Black (18851961); Lloyd Mandeno, New Zealand electrical engineer/inventor (18881973); James Stewart, All Black (18901973); Ida Carey, New Zealand artist (18911982); Wiremu Heke, All Black (18941989); Lettie Allen, New Zealand public servant/political activist (190180); Joe Brown, New Zealand entrepreneur, entertainment promoter/racehorse owner (190786); Chubby Checker (born Ernest Evans), US singer (1941); Janice Marriott, New Zealand writer (1946); Bryan Williams, All Black wing (1950); Shane Cotton, New Zealand artist (1964); Clive Owen, English actor (1964); Gwen Stefani, US singer (1969); Tania Dixon (nee Murray), New Zealand high jumper (1970); Neve Campbell, US actress (1973); Lena Headey, English actress (1973); Simon Wills, New Zealand racingcar driver (1976); Seann William Scott, US actor (1976); Shannyn Sossamon, US actress (1978).
Quote from history:
‘‘If the sight of the blue skies fills you with joy, if a blade of grass springing up in the fields has power to move you, if the simple things of nature have a message that you understand, rejoice, for your soul is alive.’’ — Eleonora Duse, Italian actress, who was born on this day in 1859. She died in 1924, aged 65.