TODAY IN HISTORY
Today is Wednesday, January 1, the first day of 2014. There are 364 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1502 - Explorer Amerigo Vespucci sails into Guanabara Bay and calls it Rio de Janeiro. 1808 - The US Congress officially prohibits African slave trade. * 1859 - New Zealand’s first lighthouse is lit, at Pencarrow Head near Wellington. 1863 - US President Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation declaring slaves free. 1905 - The TransSiberian Railway across Russia starts journey. * 1951 - New Zealand abolishes its upper house of parliament, the Legislative Council. 1962 - The Beatles are rejected by Decca Records after an audition because ‘‘ groups of guitars are on the way out’’. 1986 - Portugal is formally admitted to the European Community. 1993 - Czechoslovakia peacefully splits into the Czech Republic and Slovakia. * 1999 - Police launch a fullscale search for a missing Ashburton teenager Kirsty Bentley, whose body is eventually discovered but her murder unsolved. 2002 - 12 countries first use the European Union’s new currency, the euro. Of the EU states, only Britain, Sweden and Denmark retain their own national currencies. 2008 - France’s smoking ban in bars, restaurants, nightclubs and cafes goes into effect. 2011 - Christians clash with Egyptian police in the northern city of Alexandria, furious over an apparent suicide bombing against worshippers leaving a New Year’s Mass at a church that killed at least 21 people. Today’s Birthdays: Paul Revere, US patriot ( 1735- 1818); Hung Siutsuen, Chinese leader of Taiping rebellion ( 1814- 1864); James George Frazer, British anthropologist ( 1854- 1941); Kim Philby, British intelligence officer, Soviet spy ( 1912- 1988); JD Salinger, US author ( 1919- 2010); Grandmaster Flash, US rapper ( 1958-); Anna Burke, Australian Labor MP and former Speaker of the House of Representatives ( 1966-); Verne Troyer, American actor ( 1969-).
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