Today in history
Today is Tuesday, May 15, the 135th day of 2018. There are 230 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1536 — Anne Boleyn and her brother, Lord Rochford, are tried and found guilty in England of adultery and incest.
1567 — Mary, Queen of Scots, marries James Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, at Holyrood Palace in Edinburgh, three months after the assassination of her former husband, Henry Stuart (Lord Darnley). 1800 — King George III survives a second assassination attempt when James Hadfield fires a shot during a performance at the Drury Lane Theatre, London.
1865 — A telegraph line between Dunedin and Invercargill is opened and the first press telegrams are exchanged.
1883 — The Mornington Cable Tramways open in Dunedin.
1888 — The first St John Ambulance Association starts in Dunedin.
1901 — For driving at 10mph down Lincoln Rd, Nichola Oates is fined 20 shillings plus costs in the Christchurch Magistrates Court, and becomes the first person in New Zealand to be convicted of a speeding offence.
1915 — An estimated 3000strong mob attacks shops with German names in Wanganui. The mayor and several local police officers are injured while attempting to subdue the antiGerman sentiments brought about by the war.
1918 — The world’s first airmail postal service begins
between New York, Philadelphia and Washington. 1919 — A runaway goods train derails at a curve near Ngaurukehu, between Ohakune and Taihape, after exceeding 100 miles an hour when its Westinghouse brakes failed to respond when applied in the guards van. The driver is killed and the fireman seriously scalded.
1920 — The mayor of Wanganui, Charles Mackay, shoots local poet D’Arcy Cresswell, seriously wounding him.
1928 — The Royal Flying Doctor Service, originally called the Australian Inland Mission Aerial Service, is inaugurated in Cloncurry, Queensland.
1930 — The world’s first air hostess, Ellen Church, a registered nurse from Iowa, welcomes her 11 passengers aboard a Boeing 80A at Oakland Airport, California.
1936 — Amy Johnson arrives in Croydon, England, after a recordbreaking return flight from South Africa, taking four days 16 hours.
1948 — The state of Israel, one day old, is attacked by Egyptian planes and invaded by troops from Lebanon and Transjordan. 1954 — Tasman Airways begins a DC6 transtasman service that will replace the Solent flying boat service. Its new DC6 flagship Aotearoa III offered a service that was at least two hours quicker.
1965 — The Benmore hydro scheme is commissioned by Prime Minister Keith Holyoake, with electricity being sent to the North Island via the Cook Strait cable.
1972 — US presidential candidate George Wallace is shot and left paralysed while campaigning in Maryland.
1977 — The Tekapo B power station becomes operational, after eight years of construction at a cost of $225 million.
1991 — French prime minister Michel Rocard resigns and President Francois Mitterrand replaces him with Edith Cresson, the country’s first female prime minister.
2006 — New Zealander Mark Inglis becomes the first double amputee to conquer Mt Everest despite breaking one of his artificial limbs during the ascent. 2014 — A number of meetings are held concerning discrepancies in the fixed asset register and Dunedin City Council’s Citifleet vehicles. Subsequent inquiries reveal fraud in excess of $1.5 million.
Today’s birthdays:
William Downie Stewart, New Zealand politician and lawyer (18421898); Pierre Curie, French scientist (18591906); Arthur O’Brien, New Zealandborn British Isles rugby union representative and team manager (18781916); Charles (Ces) Dacre, New Zealand representative cricketer and football player (18991975); Ronald Hemi, All Black (19332000); Barry Crump, New Zealand author (19351996); Ted Dexter, English cricketer (1935); Madeleine Albright, former US secretary of state (1937); Gary Thain, New Zealandborn rock bassguitar player (19481975); David Charvet, US actor (1972); Roger Randle, All Black (1974); Danny Hay, New Zealand football representative (1975);
Zara Phillips, British royal (1981).
Thought for today:
Prophecy is the wit of a fool. — Vladimir Nabokov, Russianborn author (18991977).