Today in history
Today is Tuesday, May 29, the 149th day of 2018. There are 216 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1453 — Constantinople, capital of the Byzantine Empire, is captured by the Turks. Some historians list the date as the end of the Middle Ages.
1500 — Portuguese explorer Bartolomeu Diaz, who discovered the Cape of Good Hope, drowns during a voyage.
1692 — The related naval battles of Barfleur and La Hougue begin with a British fleet defeating the French Navy on June 4, and ending an attempted invasion of England.
1765 — Peter II, the grandson of Peter I and son of
Alexis, becomes Tsar of Russia.
1868 — The foundation stone for Dunedin’s
First Church is laid by the Rev Dr Burns, who arrived in the province with the first settlers in 1848.
1886 — The first metal snap fastener (press stud) is invented by Frenchman PierreAlbert Raymond, for use in fastening gloves.
1903 — The threemasted sailing ship Loch Long is wrecked off the Chatham Islands with the loss of 24 lives.
1914 — The liner Empress of Ireland, carrying 1477 passengers and crew, collides with the Norwegian freighter Storstadt in the St Lawrence River, Canada. Of the 1477 people on board, 1012 died. The number of deaths is the largest of any Canadian maritime accident in peacetime.
1927 — Dunedin’s new automated telephone system comes into operation.
1942 — Bing Crosby records Irving Berlin’s White
Christmas in Los Angeles for Decca Records. It becomes one of the world’s bestselling songs.
1953 — New Zealander Edmund Hillary and Nepalese Sherpa Tenzing Norgay reach the summit of Mt Everest. Another New Zealand climber in the Britishled expedition, George Lowe, is also part of the team that became the first to climb the world’s highest mountain.
1972 — United States president Richard Nixon and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev sign a declaration pledging an era of peaceful coexistence between the US and the Soviet Union.
1982 — One of Dunedin’s favourite sons, Glenn Turner, joins an elite group of international cricketers when he scores his 100th firstclass century playing county cricket for Worcestershire against Warwickshire. He played an astonishing innings of 311 not out and his side declared at 501/1. He is the first person to score his 100th 100 with a triple century; Pope John Paul II, in the first papal visit to Britain since 1531, prays alongside the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England, in Canterbury Cathedral.
1985 — More than 30 people are killed and 375 others injured at Brussels’ Heysel Stadium in riots involving Liverpool and Juventus supporters before the European Cup soccer final.
1990 — Boris Yeltsin is elected president of Russia,
the largest of the Soviet Union’s 15 republics.
1991 — The Yugoslav republic of Croatia declares itself ‘‘an independent state’’ and formally secedes from Yugoslavia a month later.
1998 — President Boris Yeltsin announces a crackdown on Russia’s millions of tax cheats as part of a strategy to fill the Government’s empty coffers.
1999 — The US space shuttle Discovery becomes the first spacecraft to dock with the International Space Station. 2013 — Dunedin’s weekly free newspaper for the past five years, D Scene, publishes its final edition. It was owned by Fairfax Media.
Today’s birthdays:
Charles II, British monarch (16301685); Bob Hope, US comedianactor (19032003); Sir Edward (Denis) Blundell, 12th New Zealand GovernorGeneral (19071984); John F. Kennedy, US president (19171963); Roy Crewdson, British musicianactor (1941); Gary Brooker, British musician (1945); LaToya Jackson, US singer (1956); Annette Bening, US actress (1958); Rupert Everett, British actor (1959); Melissa Etheridge, US singer (1961); Noel Gallagher, British musician (1967); Mike Sanderson, New Zealand sailor (1971); Neil Harlock, New Zealand football international (1975); Melanie ‘‘Scary Spice’’ Brown, British singer (1975); Iosefo (Motu) Tony, New Zealand rugby league player (1981);
Issac Luke, New Zealand rugby league player (1987).
Thought for today
‘‘Who does not thank for little will not thank for much.’’ — Estonian proverb.