TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Friday, September 23, the 266th day of 2022. There are 99 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1846 — The planet Neptune is discovered by German astronomer Johann Gottfried Galle.
1862 — Otto von Bismarck is appointed Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Prussia by King Wilhelm I.
1876 — The first iron is produced from iron sand at New Plymouth.
1887 — Te Heuheu Tukino IV agrees to the mountain tops of Tongariro,
Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu being used as part of New Zealand’s first national park.
1889 — Nintendo Koppai (later Nintendo Company, Limited) is founded by Fusajiro Yamauchi to produce and sell handcrafted Hanafuda playing cards.
1912 — Silent film director Mack Sennett’s first Keystone Cops film, Cohen Collects a Debt, is released.
1940 — The George Cross, the highest British civilian award for acts of courage, is instituted.
1954 — The premises of Eadie Bros Ltd, Stewart Bell Ltd and Modern Millinery Ltd in Cumberland St are all destroyed by fire.
1955 — At Kiwi, Nelson, Ruth Page leads a sitin on the railway line to prevent its demolition. The protest continues until the women are arrested the following week.
1957 — US president Dwight Eisenhower orders US troops to support the integration of AfricanAmerican students at Little Rock Central High School in Arkansas.
1969 — An extension to Auckland Harbour Bridge is officially opened by GovernorGeneral Sir Arthur Porritt. It extends the bridge’s capacity from four lanes to eight.
1976 — The CER agreement, a limited freetrade pact with Australia, is extended until the end of 1985, despite Australia selling almost three times as much to New Zealand as it buys.
1982 — Amin Gemayel is sworn in as Lebanon’s president, replacing his brother, Bashir, who was killed in a bomb explosion.
1993 — The South African parliament votes to allow black South Africans a role in governing.
2001 — President George W. Bush returns the American flag to full staff at Camp David, ending a period of mourning after the Twin Towers attacks.
2003 — New Zealand radio and television personality Paul Holmes attracts widespread criticism when he refers to United Nations secretarygeneral Kofi Annan as a ‘‘very cheeky darkie’’.
2019 — 178yearold British travel company Thomas Cook goes into liquidation, stranding 600,000 travellers worldwide and prompting the largest postwar repatriation effort by UK government.