Today in history
Today is Saturday, March 24, the 83rd day of 2018. There are 282 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date.
1449 — England breaks a truce and captures Fougeres from the French, leading Charles VII to renew the Hundred Years’ War.
1595 — The Peace of Boulogne ends England’s
war with France and Scotland.
1603 — Queen Elizabeth I dies after ruling England for more than 40 years; James VI of Scotland accedes to the throne as James I, uniting the thrones of Scotland and England.
1840 — A forerunner of today’s ANZ Bank, the Union Bank of Australia, opens what will be New Zealand’s first successful banking business, operating from a tin shed at Petone. 1882 — German bacteriologist Robert Koch
announces the isolation of tuberculosis germs. 1883 — The Salvation Army newspaper War Cry
is first published in Sydney.
1900 — The first contingent from Otago and Southland departs from Port Chalmers for the Boer War.
1901 — The Ariadne is wrecked south of the
Waitaki River.
1907 — William Hughes Field, the member of Parliament for Otaki, promotes public objection to the New Zealand Government’s establishment of a leper station on Kapiti Island.
1927 — The Australian federal parliament sits in Melbourne for the final time before moving to Canberra. 1929 — The Fascists ‘‘win’’ singleparty elections
in Italy.
1944 — In Rome, Nazis execute more than 300 civilians in reprisal for an attack the previous day by Italian partisans, who killed 32 German soldiers.
1947 — The New Zealand high commissioner in London signs a cheque for £10 million as a gift to Great Britain on behalf of all New Zealanders in recognition of Britain’s burden during World War 2.
1953 — The resident of 10 Rillington Pl, London, discovers a body in a cupboard. It led to the arrest of mass murderer John Christie.
1965 — The United States spacecraft Ranger 9 crashlands on the moon. Some of the 5000 pictures it sends back are broadcast live on television for the first time.
1970 — Privately owned commercial radio is reinstated in New Zealand with the issue of warrants to the Aucklandbased Radio Hauraki and Radio i. 1972 — Britain takes over direct control of
Northern Ireland in an effort to restore peace.
1976 — The president of Argentina,
Isabel Peron, is deposed in a bloodless military coup. General Jorge Videla is named as president.
1980 — A Porirua to Wellington suburban train crashes headon into a diesel shunter, killing two people and injuring 77 others.
1982 — Lieutenantgeneral Mohammad Hossain Ershad declares himself leader of Bangladesh after a military coup.
1988 — Former nuclear technician
Mordechai Vanunu is found guilty in an Israeli court of treason for revealing Israel’s nuclear secrets.
1989 — America’s worst oil spill occurs as the supertanker Exxon Valdez runs aground on a reef in Alaska’s Prince William Sound and begins leaking 55million litres of crude oil.
2000 — Two 18yearold youths are arrested in
Britain on charges of breaking into ecommerce internet sites in five countries, stealing information on more than 26,000 creditcard accounts and posting some of it on the web.
Today’s birthdays:
Harry Houdini, US magician and escape artist (18741926); Dame Elizabeth Gilmer, New Zealand social worker (18801960); Viscount Galway [George Vere Arundel MoncktonArundell, New Zealand Governor 19351941] (18821943); Nancy Borlase, New Zealandborn Australian artist (19142006); Peter Jones, All Black (19321994); Sir Thomas (Kerry) Burke, former New Zealand politician (1942); Kate Webb, New Zealandborn journalist (19432007); Robert Carradine, US actor (1954); Kelly LeBrock, US actress (1960); Annabella Sciorra, US actress (1960);
Lara Flynn Boyle, US actress (1970); James Napier, New Zealand actor/film director (1982); Matt Todd, All Black (1988).
Quote from history:
‘‘I like the moment when I break a man’s ego’’. — Former world chess champion Bobby Fischer to
Newsweek magazine in 1972. He was released from detention in Japan on March 24, 2005, allowing him to avoid deportation to the US and head for Iceland, which had granted him citizenship.
ODT and agencies