Otago Daily Times

Today in history

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Today is Wednesday, May 9, the 129th day of 2018. There are 236 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1502 — Christophe­r Columbus sets out from Cadiz, Spain, on his fourth and last voyage to the western hemisphere.

1671 — Thomas Blood, the Irish adventurer better known as Captain Blood, steals the crown jewels from the Tower of London.

1785 — British inventor Joseph Bramah patents

the beerpump handle.

1832 — The foundation­s are laid for the stone store at Kerikeri. The building, which is New Zealand’s oldest commercial building, was completed in 1836.

1863 — New Zealand’s first gas streetligh­ts are lit in Dunedin by the Dunedin Gas Light and Coke Company

1877 — Romania proclaims its independen­ce from the Turks just one month after it allied with Tsarist Russia to fight the Ottoman Empire.

1915 — Turkish forces are repulsed in an attack on Anzacs at Gallipoli at a cost of 7000 men. The Anzacs lose 500.

1921 — George Bolt makes a flight in an Avro floatplane to begin New Zealand’s first airmail service. The sixdayawee­k service between Auckland and Whangarei soon became uneconomic and ended.

1926 — US navy commander Richard Byrd and Floyd Bennett become the first people to make a plane flight over the North Pole.

1788 — Britain passes a parliament­ary motion to reduce overcrowdi­ng on slave ships.

1936 — Italy annexes Ethiopia, and King Victor Emmanuel III is proclaimed emperor.

1940 — The British begin nighttime bombing raids on German cities.

1945 — An estimated 7000 people assemble in Dunedin’s Octagon and surroundin­g streets to take part in a civic thanksgivi­ng service to mark the end of the war in Europe; Germany’s Field Marshal Keitel signs the final surrender documents at the end of World War 2.

1946 — King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy abdicates and the monarchy is replaced by a republic.

1955 — West Germany is admitted as a member

of Nato.

1960 — The United States becomes the first

country to legalise the birth control pill.

1967 — India’s vicepresid­ent, Zakir Hussain, is named president of India, becoming the first Muslim to hold that office.

— The bulletridd­led body of Italy’s former prime minister, Aldo Moro, is found in a parked car in central Rome, 54 days after his abduction by Red Brigades terrorists.

1980 — Thirtyfive motorists are killed when a Liberian freighter rams the Sunshine Skyway Bridge over Tampa Bay, Florida, causing a 400metre section to collapse.

1987 — A Polish jetliner bound for New York crashes into a forest outside Warsaw, killing all 183 people aboard.

1991 — William Kennedy Smith, nephew of

Edward Kennedy, is charged with rape.

1993 — Paraguay holds its first presidenti­al and

parliament­ary elections in almost 50 years.

1994 — South Africa’s newly elected parliament chooses Nelson Mandela to be the country’s first black president.

1996 — The South African National Party, which imposed apartheid and then helped break it, decides to quit President Nelson Mandela’s twoyearold government of national unity. 2001 — A total of 126 people die after a stampede at Accra’s main football stadium when police fire teargas at rioting fans.

Today’s birthdays:

John Brown, US slavery abolitioni­st (180059); Frederick Weld, former New Zealand premier (182391); Sir James Barrie, English dramatist (18601937); Howard Carter, British archaeolog­ist (18731939); Robin Cooke, Baron Cooke of Thorndon, British law lord (19262006); Albert Finney, English actor (1936); Glenda Jackson, English actress turned politician (1936); Sonny Curtis, US musician and songwriter (1937); James L. Brooks, US film producerdi­rector (1940); Candice Bergen, US actress (1946); Marilyn (Joy) Quigley, former NZ politician (1948); Billy Joel, US pop singer

(1949); Andrew Jones, NZ cricketer (1959); AnnaLouise Plowman (Stephens), NZborn actress (1972); Shane van Gisbergen, NZ carracing driver (1989).

Thought for today

Television has changed the American child from an irresistib­le force into an immovable object. — Laurence J. Peter, Canadianbo­rn educator (191990).

 ??  ?? Stone store
1978
Stone store 1978
 ??  ?? Joseph Bramah
Joseph Bramah
 ??  ?? Thomas Blood
Thomas Blood
 ??  ?? King Victor Emmanuel III
King Victor Emmanuel III
 ??  ?? George Bolt
George Bolt
 ??  ?? Billy Joel
Billy Joel

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