Today in History

1865 – New Zealand’s Native Land Court is established, making it easier to convert Ma¯ori-owned land from communal title to individual title for sale.

1918 – Representatives of Great Britain and the Ottoman Empire sign an armistice marking the end of Ottoman participation in World War I; Czechoslovakia is proclaimed an independent republic.

1918 – A 240,000-signature petition demanding an end to the manufacture and sale of alcohol in New Zealand gets to Parliament.

1928 – Experimental transmission of still photographs by television begins in Britain.

1938 – US radio play The War of

the Worlds, starring Orson Welles, airs. The live drama panicked listeners who thought its portrayal of a Martian invasion was true.

1944 – Anne Frank, left, is taken from Auschwitz to Belsen.

1973 – The Bosphorus Bridge in Istanbul, Turkey, is completed,

connecting Europe and Asia for the first time.

1974 – Muhammad Ali knocks out George Foreman in Kinshasa, Zaire, to regain his world heavyweight title.

1995 – By a bare majority of 50.6 per cent to 49.4 per cent, citizens of Quebec province vote to remain within the federation of Canada.

1998 – High-profile New Zealand decathlete Simon Poelman is sent to prison for drug smuggling.

2005 – TVNZ chief executive Ian Fraser resigns, blaming political interference over high salaries in the broadcaster’s news division.

2012 – Sandy, the US East Coast’s worst storm in decades, kills at least 182 people and causes $65 billion damage.

Birthdays

John Adams, US president (17351826); Dave Gallaher, All Black

(1873-1917); Ezra Pound, US poet

(1885-1972); Diego Maradona, Argentinian footballer (1960-); Grant Robertson, NZ politician

(1971-).