TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Saturday, November 14, the 319th day of 2020. There are 47 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1851 — Herman Melville’s novel Moby Dick is first published in the United States.
1868 — Te Kooti overruns Oweta pa and executes six chiefs. Despite being in complete control of the Poverty Bay area, he has made many enemies and begins to withdraw through the Bay of Plenty five days later.
1889 — Inspired by Jules Verne, New York
World reporter Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) sets out to travel around the world in less than 80 days. She succeeds, making the trip in 72 days.
1922 — The BBC begins a domestic radio service.
1924 — Once the largest in New Zealand, the woolshed at Teviot Station is destroyed by fire.
1964 — Dunedin’s Moana Pool opens, having cost £450,000 to build. A learners’ pool was completed a year later and a restaurant followed.
1990 — After German reunification, the Federal Republic of Germany and Poland sign a treaty confirming the OderNeisse line as the border between the two countries.
1991 — Prince Norodom Sihanouk returns to Cambodia after 20 years.
1994 — The first farepaying passengers on the new rail service travel through the Channel Tunnel linking England and France.
1999 — The United Nations imposes sanctions on Afghanistan and demands the arrest of suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden.
2000 — Israeli troops impose a siege on Palestinian communities, paralysing life in the
West Bank and Gaza Strip, in retaliation for deadly shooting ambushes that signalled an escalation in seven weeks of fighting.
2006 — The first of the icebergs expected to drift past the Otago coast are seen from the fishing boat Thomas Harrison.
2008 — A lunar probe from India lands successfully on the moon.
2016 — A magnitude 7.8 earthquake centred 20km southeast of Hanmer Springs, at a depth of 16km, causes widespread damage, particularly to Kaikoura and Wellington. Two people lost their lives in what was one of the largest earthquakes in New Zealand history. The event cut power and phone coverage, closed road and rail links north and south of Kaikoura, cut water and sewerage services and isolated rural communities in the Hurunui district. Public transport in Wellington was cancelled and the innercity area closed due to damaged buildings. University and secondaryschool exams in the affected areas were also called off.
Today’s birthdays:
Joseph Hawdon, New Zealand pioneer/politician (18131871); Henry Coutts, New Zealand military serviceman (18661944); George Cannon McMurtry, New Zealand scientist/ mining manager/orchardist (18671918);
George Spafford Richardson, New Zealand military leader/administrator (18681938); Phil Connolly, New Zealand politician (18991970); Bernice Shackleton, New Zealand journalist/ writer (19011998); Astrid Lindgren, Swedish writer (19072002); Friedrich Eisenhofer, New Zealand architect (1926); Prince Charles (1948); Jerry Mateparae, New Zealand’s 20th GovernorGeneral (1954); Condoleezza Rice, US diplomat (1954); Patrick Warburton, US actor (1964); Nic Dalton, Australian musician (1964); David Moscow, US actor (1974); Michala Banas, New Zealand actress (1978); Vanessa Bayer, US actress/comedian
(1981).
Quote of the day:
‘‘Down the mine I dreamed of cricket; I bowled imaginary balls in the dark; I sent the stumps spinning and heard them rattling in the tunnels. No mishap was going to stop me from bowling in the real game, especially this one.’’ English cricketer Harold Larwood, who began working in the mines at the age of 14, was born on this day in 1904. He died in 1995, aged 90.
ODT and agencies