TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Tuesday, November 17, the 322nd day of 2020. There are 44 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1838 — One of the oldest sports clubs in Australia, the Melbourne Cricket Club (MCC), plays its first cricket match, against a military team at the Old Mint site, at the corner of William and Latrobe Sts.
1855 — Scottish explorer David Livingstone discovers Victoria Falls in Africa.
1862 — The Christchurch Gas Company is formed. 1869 — The Suez Canal opens in Egypt, linking the Mediterranean Sea and the Red Sea.
1878 — The New Zealand Press Association is formed in the Otago Daily Times office by George Fenwick, G.M. Reed and W. Reeves.
1902 — Auckland becomes the first New Zealand city to provide a full electric tram service. Dunedin’s service begins in 1903.
1921 — University of Otago physics professor Robert Jack broadcasts New Zealand’s first radio programme.
1925 — A second New Zealand and South Seas Exhibition opens on reclaimed land at Logan Park, Dunedin. It attracted 45,786 people on opening day and hosted more than 3 million visitors over a 24week period. More than 80,000 people attended the closing celebrations.
1941 — Less than a month before Pearl Harbour, Japanese Prime Minister General Hideki Tojo outlines a threepoint plan he said was aimed at peace in East Asia; Ernst Udet, head of the German Luftwaffe Ordnance Department, commits suicide after disagreements with the Nazi leadership.
1947 — American scientists John Bardeen and Walter Houser Brattain observe the basic principles of the transistor, a key element for the electronics revolution of the 20th century.
1963 — The army in Iraq revolts and sets up a new revolutionary government headed by Abdel Salam Arif.
1967 — The Skyline Gondola in Queenstown opens; acting on optimistic reports that he had been given in regard to the Vietnam War four days earlier, US President Lyndon Johnson addresses the nation and reassures it that, while much remained to be done, ‘‘We are inflicting greater losses than we’re taking . . . We are making progress’’.
1968 — Television viewers of the Raiders v Jets football game in the eastern US are denied the opportunity to watch its exciting finish when NBC broadcasts Heidi instead, prompting changes to sports broadcasting in the country.
1969 — Negotiators from the Soviet Union and the US meet in Helsinki, Finland, to begin the Salt 1 negotiations aimed at limiting the number of strategic weapons on both sides.
1970 — During the Vietnam War, Lieutenant William Calley goes on trial for the My Lai Massacre in 1968.
1971 — Vemij Thanon Kittikachorn seizes power in Thailand, abolishes Parliament, dismisses the Cabinet and suspends the nation’s constitution.
1972 — Former Argentine dictator Juan Peron returns to his homeland after 17 years in exile.
1973 — In Orlando, Florida, US president Richard Nixon tells 400 Associated Press managing editors ‘‘I am not a crook’’, when questioned in relation to the Watergate scandal; the Athens Polytechnic uprising against the military regime ends in a bloodshed in the Greek capital.
1974 — The first general election in Greece for more than 10 years ends in a decisive victory for the New Democracy Party of Constantine Karamanlis.
1977 — Egypt’s President Anwar Sadat formally accepts an invitation to visit Israel, ignoring an uproar among Arab nations and his own government.
1979 — Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini orders the release of 13 female and black American hostages being held at the US embassy in Teheran.
1989 — The Velvet Revolution begins in Czechoslovakia when a student demonstration in Prague is quelled by riot police. This sparks an uprising aimed at overthrowing the communist government that succeeded six weeks later.
1991 — Son Sen, a leader of the Khmer Rouge, responsible for the deaths of from 1.2 million to
2.8 million Cambodians in the 1970s, returns to Phnom Penh to take part in a powersharing administration.
1993 — South African leaders endorse a new constitution to end apartheid.
1999 — Much of Central Otago and Southland are declared disaster zones following some of the worst flooding in 120 years, and a civil emergency is declared in Alexandra.
2012 — An estimated 25mm of rain falls in a very short period of time about 1.30pm, causing widespread flooding in the Mosgiel retail area, affecting shops in Gordon Rd between Cargill St and Factory Rd. Recent street beautification is blamed for the poor drainage that caused the flooding.
2019 — The first known case of Covid19 is traced to a 55yearold man who had visited a market in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.
Today’s birthdays:
William Clayton, New Zealand architect (182377); Samuel Henry Drew, New Zealand naturalist (18441901); Percy Reginald Dix, New Zealand vaudeville company manager (18661917); Kathleen Hawkins, New Zealand poet affectionately known as ‘‘The Pioneer Poet’’ (18831981); Jack Massey, New Zealand politician (18851964); Cyril Harker, New Zealand soldier/politician (18901970); Robert William Lowry, New Zealand printer/publisher (191263); George Silk, New Zealand photojournalist (19162004); Bert Sutcliffe, New Zealand cricketer (19232001); Chic Littlewood, New Zealand entertainer/actor (19302015); Winifred Griffin, New Zealand swimmer (19322018); Gordon Lightfoot, Canadian singer (1938); David Warbeck, New Zealand actor (194197); Lauren Hutton, US actressmodel (1943); Danny DeVito, US actor (1944); Frank van Hattum, New Zealand footballer (1958); Jeff Buckley, US singersongwriter (196697); Sophie Marceau, French actress (1966); Scott Wastney, New Zealand chess FIDE Master (1970); Brandon Call, US actor (1976); Zoe Bell, New Zealand stuntwoman/actress (1978); Anna Azerli, New Zealandborn Italian opera singer (1980); Hollie Smith, New Zealand singer/songwriter (1982); Jonathan (Jock) Paget, New Zealand equestrian rider (1983); BeauJames Wells, New Zealand freestyle skier (1995); Courtney McGregor, New Zealand artistic gymnast (1998).
Quote of the day:
‘‘There must be people who remember World War 2 and the Holocaust who can help us get out of this rut’’. — Martin Scorsese, US film director, who was born on this day in 1942.