Today in history
Today is Wednesday, November 15, the 319th day of 2017. There are 46 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1492 — Christopher Columbus notes in his journal the use of tobacco among Indians: the first recorded reference to tobacco.
1577 — Francis Drake sets out from Plymouth, England, on a voyage around the world, but bad weather threatened him and his fleet, forcing them to take refuge in Falmouth, Cornwall, from where they returned to Plymouth for repairs, setting sail again on December 13.
1769 — The British colours are raised for the first time in New Zealand by Captain James Cook at Mercury Bay.
1837 — Details of the first practical shorthand system, designed by Isaac Pitman, are published for the first time as ‘‘Stenographic SoundHand’’.
1861 — Published by W. H. Cullen and with future prime minister Julius Vogel as editor, New Zealand’s first daily newspaper, the Otago Daily
Times, begins publication. One of its first reports was on the arrival of the gold escort, guarding 35,100 ounces of gold from the Lawrence and Waitahuna goldfields.
1864 — In the US Civil War, General William Sherman sets out with 60,000 men on his
‘‘March to the Sea’’, more formally known as the Savannah Campaign. From Atlanta to Savannah, they systematically destroyed everything in their path in a move to disrupt the Confederacy’s economy and its transportation networks. 1878 — A massive bush fire at Waimate destroys
70 cottages and five sawmills. 1889 — Brazil’s King Pedro II abdicates; Brazil is proclaimed a republic.
1958 — Wairakei begins New Zealand’s first commercial thermal power production. It is the second power station of its kind in the world.
1971 — A delegation from the People’s Republic of China is seated at the UN General Assembly for the first time.
1979 — British prime minister Margaret Thatcher names Sir Anthony Blunt as a spy for the Russians and the ‘‘fourth man’’ in the BurgessPhilbyMacLean spy ring.
1980 — Saturday morning shopping returns nearly 50 years after the introduction of the 40hour week had seen it abolished. Most Dunedin shops opened at 10am and closed midafternoon, with shopping peaking just before lunchtime.
1985 — British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and Irish prime minister Garret FitzGerald sign the AngloIrish agreement, which gives the republic a consultative role in the running of Northern Ireland for the first time.
1986 — In a game No 8 Buck Shelford has no memory of, New Zealand loses 316 to France in the second test at Nantes. Shelford (28) suffered a torn scrotum early in the game but returned to the field, only to be knocked out and lose several teeth. Only then did he retire from the field. It was Shelford’s second test appearance.
1997 — China’s bestknown dissident,
Wei Jingsheng, is released on health grounds from a 14year jail term and leaves for the US the next day.
2012 — Of the 115 remaining staff at Dunedin’s Hillside Workshops, 90 are made redundant. First opened in 1875, the operation employed as many as 1200 workers at its peak in the 1950s; the Environment Court moves to protect Dunedin’s landmark Saddle Hill ridgeline and prevent the removal of any further stone through quarrying operations.
2016 — Military and civilian helicopters remove the first tourists stranded in Kaikoura after a 7.8magnitude earthquake isolated in the area between Seddon and Cheviot; the three cows trapped on a mound of earth during the earthquake are successfully rescued; meanwhile, areas within innercity Wellington are cordoned off after a number a buildings are deemed unsafe, requiring demolition or extensive repairs. Flooding added to Wellington’s troubles, when heavy rain caused flooding and road closures.