TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Thursday, October 15, the 289th day of 2020. There are 77 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1581 — Commissioned by Catherine de Medici, the ballet Comique de la Reine is staged in Paris. A spectacle of dancing, this is often considered to be the first major ballet.
1583 — The Gregorian calendar goes into effect in the Papal States by decree of Pope Gregory XIII. It is soon adopted in other countries. The day’s date was October 5 in the Julian calendar.
1769 — Some Maori try to kidnap
Tupaia, a Tahitian interpreter/navigator on
Endeavour. Captain Cook names the area Cape Kidnappers.
1852 — Charles Ring makes New Zealand’s first authenticated discovery of gold, at Driving Creek on the Coromandel Peninsula. The news initiates New Zealand’s first gold rush.
1866 — The first section of the southern railway link from Christchurch is opened.
1913 — The New Zealand PGA is formed in Dunedin. Fred Hood is the first chairman.
1917 — Germany’s famed woman spy Mata Hari is executed in Paris during World War 1.
1928 — The German dirigible Graf
Zeppelin makes the first commercial flight across the Atlantic Ocean, landing at Lakehurst, New Jersey, in the United States.
1941 — Captain Charles Upham, of Christchurch, and Dunedinborn Sergeant Alfred Clive Hulme, of Nelson, are awarded the Victoria Cross; work starts in Dunedin to dig trenches to provide shelters in the event of the city being bombed. The first area targeted for such shelters is the Octagon, with other areas around the city to follow.
1942 — Seventeen New Zealand coast watchers and five civilians captured in the Gilbert Islands (now Kiribati) during World War 2 are beheaded by Japanese forces at Betio, Tarawa.
1993 — Speed cameras begin operating in New Zealand.
1997 — British Royal Air Force pilot
Andy Green twice drives a jetpowered car in Black Rock Desert, Nevada, faster than the speed of sound, officially shattering the world’s landspeed record when he drives at 763.035mph (1227.986kmh).
1999 — Pakistan’s army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, declares a state of emergency and names himself chief executive of the country, just two days after he ousted the democratically elected government in a bloodless coup.
2000 — New Zealand wins its first international cricket tournament when it defeats India by four wickets in the final of the ICC knockout 50over tournament in Kenya. Chris Cairns scores 102 not out and is named player of the match.
2007 — After hunters report coming across an armed group wearing military camouflage uniforms in the Urewera Ranges, 17 people are arrested in antiterrorist raids in Whakatane, Ruatoki, Hamilton, Rotorua, Wellington and Auckland. Among those arrested are Tuhoe activist Tame Iti.
2011 — In a protest rallying against social and economic inequality that began with an occupation of Wall St, New York, on September 17, 100 protesters pitch 30 tents to occupy the upper part of Dunedin’s Octagon.
2012 — A controlled burnoff gets out of control, destroying 100ha of farmland and threatening conservation land at Roys Peak, near Wanaka.
2013 — Wild weather that sweeps up the country, causing widespread damage, activates a civil defence emergency in Whanganui. More than 100 homes are evacuated because of the rising river level; New Zealand singer/songwriter Lorde caps off a successful month when she wins the coveted Apra Silver Scroll Award, along with her cowriter and producer Joel Little, for her international hit song
Royals.