TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Wednesday, April 17, the 108th day of 2024. There are 258 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1492 — Christopher Columbus receives a commission from Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella to seek a westward ocean passage to Asia.
1880 — The Invercargill Garrison Band becomes the inaugural winner of New Zealand’s first intercity brass band contest, which was held in the Christchurch Drill Hall.
1961 — An attempt to invade Cuba by 1500 CIAtrained Cuban exiles fails at the Bay of Pigs.
1964 — American Jerrie Mock becomes the first woman to complete a solo flight around the world; the Ford
Motor Company unveils its new Mustang model.
1966 — The Queen Mother visits Dunedin.
1967 — Dave McKenzie, from Runanga on the South Island’s West Coast, wins the Boston Marathon. His victory was inspired by the memory of his brother, Hector, and 18 others who died in the Strongman Mine disaster three months earlier. But the race is better remembered for the actions of an official attempting to eject female runner Kathrine Switzer from what was deemed a maleonly event.
1969 — Sirhan B. Sirhan is found guilty of the firstdegree murder of Robert F. Kennedy, who was shot while campaigning in California in June 1968.
1970 — The astronauts of Apollo 13 splash down safely in the Pacific, four days after an oxygentank explosion crippled their spacecraft.
1977 — Women vote in the European state of Liechtenstein for the first time.
1983 — The Prince and Princess of Wales arrive in New Zealand with infant son Prince William.
1986 — The professional Cavaliers rugby team arrives in South Africa for a ‘‘private’’ tour that is not sanctioned by the New Zealand Rugby Football Union. Coach Colin Meads will be removed as an All Blacks selector as a result of his involvement, while rebel players are suspended for just two games.
1993 — A federal jury in Los Angeles convicts two former police officers of violating the civil rights of beaten black motorist Rodney King; two other officers are acquitted.
2002 — Xanana Gusmao, a former guerrilla leader, is declared the landslide winner of East Timor’s first presidential election. It became the world’s newest nation on May 20, 2000.
2008 — Dunedin suffers a double blow with the announcement that whiteware manufacturer Fisher and Paykel
Appliances will close its Mosgiel plant with the loss of 430 jobs between December and May 2009, and Tamahine Knitwear announces that it too will close, in July, with the loss of 50 jobs.
2009 — Former New Zealand prime minister Helen Clark becomes the administrator of the United Nations Development Programme.
2013 — The Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill is passed in Parliament by 77 votes to 44, clearing the way for samesex and transgender marriages. The Bill also allows those in a samesex relationship to be recognised as a parent of an adopted child and for religious ministers to choose whom they marry and to criticise gay marriage from the pulpit without breaching human rights; a Labour Party Bill to move Anzac Day and Waitangi Day to a Monday for the purpose of a public holiday is passed by 61 votes to 60.
Today’s birthdays:
Thornton WIlder, US playwright (18971975); Sirimavo Bandaranaike, Sri Lankan politician, first female head of state (19162000); WIlliam Holden, US actor (191881); Ken Mudford, New Zealand Grand Prix motorcycle champion (19232004); Olivia Hussey, British actress (1951); Geoffrey (Noel) Crombie, New Zealand percussionist/drummer (1953); Jaynie Parkhouse, New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games swimming representative (1956); Nick Hornby, British writer (1957); Barry Pickering, New Zealand international footballer (1959); Peter Simonsen, New Zealand international footballer (1959); Sean Bean, English actor (1959); Lela Rochon, US actress (1964); Maynard Keenan, American singer (1964); Liz
Phair, US singer (1967); Ian Jones, All Black (1967); Timothy Gibbs, US actor (1967); Henry Ian Cusick, Peruvianborn Scottish actor (1967); Roger Twose, New Zealand cricketer (1968); Jennifer Garner, US actress (1972); Muttiah Muralitharan, Sri Lankan cricketer (1972); Victoria Beckham, UK singer/fashiondesigner (1974).
Quote of the day:
‘‘Go as far as you can see; when you get there you’ll be able to see farther.’’ — J. P. Morgan, US financier and banker, who was born on this day in 1837. He died in 1913 aged 75.