TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Tuesday, April 23, the 114th day of 2024. There are 252 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
303 — Death of St George, patron saint of England.
1014 — The high king of Ireland, Brian Boru, is killed while repelling Viking invaders at the battle of Clontarf.
1348 — The Order of the Garter founded by Edward III.
1516 — Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria endorses ‘‘The German Beer Purity Law’’ (Reinheitsgebot), which stated that only barley, hops, and water could be used to brew beer. This regulation (with the addition of yeast to the list in modern versions) remained in force until it was abolished as a binding obligation in 1986 by PanEuropean regulations of the European Union.
1661 — Charles II is crowned king of England.
1848 — French voters, with universal male suffrage for the first time, go to the polls to elect a national assembly.
1849 — The first regatta is held at Port Chalmers.
1896 — The Vitascope system for projecting movies onto a screen is exhibited for the first time at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York. Although poorly marketed, Thomas Edison and Thomas Armat profited greatly from the device.
1920 — The new Turkish Government in Angora (Ankara), led by Kemal Ataturk, denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI, which had just signed away the last remnants of the Ottoman Empire to Britain and France as spoils of war. Mehmed VI was the last Ottoman sultan.
1940 — About 200 people die in a dancehall fire in Natchez, Mississippi.
1969 — Sirhan Sirhan is sentenced to death for the assassination of US senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sentence later reduced to life imprisonment.
1970 — The fishing vessel Tuatea is engulfed by fire while under tow by the Anna Dee 23km off Taieri Mouth. The five crew members aboard jump for their lives and are rescued unharmed.
1975 — South Vietnam’s cabinet resigns as panic grips Saigon and US president Gerald Ford declares the Vietnam War over.
1979 — New Zealandborn teacher
Blair Peach is beaten to death by members of the Police Special Patrol Group at an antifascism rally in Southall, London. No public inquiry is held and no officer is held accountable, but Peach becomes a symbol of unjustified police violence around the world.
1980 — Saudi Arabia expels the British ambassador following the showing on British television of Death of a Princess, which depicts the life and death of a Saudi Arabian princess.
1982 — The Sinclair ZX Spectrum personal home computer is released
1983 — Prince William is photographed with a Buzzy Bee toy on the lawn at Government House, Auckland. The picture of the prince crawling across a rug was the first colour image transmitted digitally from New Zealand to the rest of the world.
1989 — Wine merchant William Sokolin breaks a bottle of 1787 Chateau Margaux that is thought to have belonged to
Thomas Jefferson, and be worth $500,000, at the Four Seasons restaurant in New York.
1994 — The Clyde Dam is officially opened by Prime Minister Jim Bolger.
1996 — Fire races through deserted villages around the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, sending radioactive particles skyward, 10 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident.
1998 — Queenstown becomes the first resort in New Zealand to be granted licences for two casinos, Otago Casino’s $4.5million boutique casino on Steamer Wharf and Queenstown Casino’s $14million development in Beach St.
2012 — Some 38,000 London Marathon entrants have their home and email contacts published in a data protection breach.
2013 — West Indian cricketer Chris Gayle smashes the fastest century in cricket history (30 balls) in the IPL (Indian Premier League).
2020 — US President Donald Trump suggests at a White House press briefing Covid19 might be treated by injecting disinfectant or UV lights into a human body. Government officials and disinfectant companies quickly state doing so is not only extremely dangerous but potentially deadly.
Today’s birthdays
William Shakespeare, English poet/ playwright (15641616); J. M. W. Turner, British artist (17751851); Sir Frederick Whitaker, Englishborn New Zealand politician and attorneygeneral (181291); George Gillett, Original All Black and rugby league international (18771956); Sergei Prokofiev, Russian composer (18911953); Dame Edith (Ngaio) Marsh, New Zealand crime writer and theatre director (18951982); Colin Horsley, New Zealand classical pianist (19202012); Shirley Temple, US actress/ambassador (19282014); Roy Orbison, US singer (193688); Lee Majors, US actor (1939); Dame Gillian Whitehead, New Zealand composer (1941); Michael Moore, US director (1954); Olsen Filipaina, New Zealand rugby league player (19572022); Brendan Cole, New Zealand ballroom dancer (1976); David Kidwell, New Zealand rugby league international
(1977); John Oliver, British comedian (1977); Luke Ronchi, Australian and New Zealand cricket international (1981); Prince Louis of Cambridge (2018).
Quote of the day
‘‘It’s not possible to say what New Zealand music is, although some foreigners think it has to do with our perception of space, but I believe our sounds really are different from the sounds of Germany, of New York, of Britain, of Australia, of China.’’ — Dame Gillian Whitehead, NZ composer, who was born on this day in 1941.
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