This Week In History
DECEMBER 12
1950 – Peter Fraser (above), the New Zealand Prime Minister from 1940-49, dies of a heart attack. He was 66.
1977 – The film Saturday Night Fever, starring John Travolta, premieres in New York.
1988 – The movie Rainman, starring Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise, premieres in New York. It won the Oscar in 1989 for Best Picture.
2019 – Runner Peter Snell, a triple Olympic gold medallist who was named New Zealand’s athlete of the 20th century, dies of heart failure. He was 81.
DECEMBER 13
1642 – Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sights the South Island of present-day New Zealand, and becomes the first European to “discover” this country. However, he did not venture on to land after violent encounters on the water with M ori.
1961 – The film The Young Ones, starring Cliff Richard, premieres in London.
1989 – Driving Miss Daisy, starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy, is released. It won the 1990 Oscar for Best Picture.
2008 – John Drake, an All Black prop in the 1987 World-Cup-winning team, dies at his home in Mt Maunganui after collapsing while cleaning his swimming pool. He was 49.
DECEMBER 14
1911 – Norwegian Roald Amunsden leads the first successful expedition to reach the South Pole.
1969 – The single Leaving On A Jet Plane, written by John Denver and sung by Peter, Paul and Mary, hits number one on the US Billboard top 100.
1969 – The Jackson Five appear for the first time on The Ed Sullivan Show.
1993 – Philadelphia, one of the first mainstream movies about Aids, starring
Tom Hanks and Denzel Washington, premieres in Century City, California.
2015 – Star Wars: The Force Awakens, directed by JJ Abrams and starring Daisy Ridley and Harrison Ford, premieres at the TCL Chinese Theatre in Los Angeles.
DECEMBER 15
1939 – The movie Gone With The Wind, starring Clark Gable and Vivien Leigh (below), premieres in Atlanta.
1944 – US band leader Glenn Miller, 40, is presumed dead after a suspected plane crash in the English Channel.
1966 – US animator and producer Walt Disney dies, aged 65, of lung cancer.
1984 – Singer/actress Olivia Newton-John, 36, marries for the first time – to actor Matt Lattanzi, 25.
1990 – New Zealand supermodel Rachel Hunter, 21, weds singer Rod Stewart, 45, in Beverly Hills.
2004 – Million Dollar Baby, directed by Clint Eastwood (above left) and starring Hilary Swank (right) and Morgan Freeman, is released. It won the Oscar in 2005 for Best Picture.
DECEMBER 16
1950 – Former child star Shirley Temple, 22, marries her second husband, naval officer Charles Alden Black, and also announces her retirement from films.
1971 – Don McLean releases his eight-minute-plus version of American Pie.
1975 – The comedy series One Day At A Time, starring Bonnie Franklin, Mackenzie Phillips and Valerie Bertinelli, is first broadcast on CBS.
1985 – The film The Color Purple, directed by Steven Spielberg and starring Whoopi Goldberg and Danny Glover, premieres in New York.
1999 – Actress Linda Hamilton, 43, and director James Cameron, 45, divorce after two years of marriage.
2019 – Mariah Carey’s All I Want For Christmas Is You hits No 1 in the US charts, 25 years after its release.
DECEMBER 17
1903 – The Wright brothers make their first sustained motorised aircraft flight at 10.35am, piloted by Orville Wright, at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1964 – Goldfinger, the third James Bond film, starring Sean Connery (above) and Honor Blackman, premieres in London. Seven years later the seventh Bond film, Diamonds Are Forever, starring Connery and Jill St John, is released worldwide after a debut in Munich.
1989 – The Simpsons premieres on Fox TV as a full animated series.
1994 – Actress Heather Locklear, 33, weds Bon Jovi lead guitarist Richie Sambora, 35, in Paris.
DECEMBER 18
1963 – The Pink Panther film, starring Peter Sellers and David Niven with the theme tune by Henry Mancini, premieres.
1968 – Peter Sellers, 43, and Britt Ekland, 26, divorce after four years of marriage.
1976 – The movie A Star Is Born, featuring Barbra Streisand and Kris Kristofferson, premieres.
2000 – English singer Kirsty MacColl, who sang on The Pogues’ song Fairytale Of New York, dies in a boating accident in Mexico. She was 41.
2009 – James Cameron’s Avatar (below) is released in the US and becomes the highest-grossing film of all time.