Today in history
Today is Tuesday, June 5, the 156th day of 2018. There are 209 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1840 — The British flag is raised on Stewart Island by Major Thomas Bunbury, who claims sovereignty over it and the islands in Foveaux Strait.
1847 — The Auckland Savings Bank begins operations, although the first deposit is not received until two weeks later. It is the first institution of its kind in New Zealand.
1869 — Christchurch is shaken by a violent earthquake just after 8am. It is recorded by the surveyorgeneral of Canterbury,
Sir Julius von Haast, as coming from the south, with a good number of aftershocks. It is estimated to have been a magnitude 5.7. St John’s Church lost its spire, prompting the Church of St Michael and All Angels to be built in wood.
1871 — The Rev S.T. Nevill is consecrated Bishop
of Dunedin.
1879 — The first recorded night game of football in New Zealand is played at the Basin Reserve, Wellington, before a crowd of 8000. Two electric lamps are used to provide the lighting, and when one of the lamps goes out, the other is carried up and down the sideline. The match is, however, shortened when the second lamp malfunctions.
1915 — Standing proudly on duty on the wall of the Fleming and Co building in Mersey St, Gore, Sergeant Dan comes into being.
1916 — Lord Horatio Herbert Kitchener, Irish
soldier, statesman and conqueror of Sudan, is lost at sea when his ship strikes a mine off the Orkneys.
1937 — Heavy ground conditions do little to slow the English Amateurs football team when defeating New Zealand 12nil at Carisbrook.
1945 — The Allied Control Commission assumes control of Germany, which is divided into four occupation zones: Russia to control East Germany; England, France and the United States to control West Germany.
1947 — New Zealand’s first automatic traffic lights are switched on, at the corner of Customs and Albert Sts, Auckland.
1956 — The South African rugby team arrives at Auckland to begin its tour of New Zealand. The tourists played 23 matches, winning 16, losing 6 and drawing 1. The All Blacks won an epic test series 31.
1963 — British war minister John Profumo resigns from the Government and Parliament after admitting he lied to the House of Commons about his affair with call girl Christine Keeler. 1967 — Israel launches airstrikes on Egypt, destroying most of that country’s air force on the ground to open the SixDay Middle East War. Syria, Jordan and Iraq enter the conflict.
1968 — US senator Robert F. Kennedy is shot and mortally wounded after claiming victory in California’s Democratic presidential primary. Gunman Sirhan Bishara Sirhan was arrested.
1980 — The Outram bridge is washed downstream after rising river levels and flooding caused by the heaviest rainfall in 57 years in the Dunedin and Taieri areas. A state of civil emergency is declared when almost every homeowner in Mosgiel is affected by flooding, and the northern approaches to Dunedin are closed by surface flooding and slips.
1981 — The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention report that five gay men in California are suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with weakened immune systems. These are the first recognised cases of what became known as Aids. 1988 — Australian Kay Cottee becomes the first
woman to sail alone nonstop around the world.
1989 — Auckland general practitioner
Dr Peter Coop disappears in Dunedin while attending an ophthalmology course at Dunedin Hospital. The case remains a mystery.
2009 — David Bain is acquitted of the murder of his parents, two sisters and younger brother at their Every St, Dunedin, home in June 1994, after serving 12 years for the crime.
Today’s birthdays:
Molly Raynor, New Zealand actress (19051976); Les (Yussock) George, All Black (19081996); Redmond Phillips, New Zealand actor/writer (19121993); Nancy Stafford, US actress (1954); Kenny G, US jazz saxophonist (1956); Leslie Hendrix, US actress (1960); Brian McKnight, US singer (1969); Mark Wahlberg, US actor (1971); Susan Lynch, Irish actress (1971); Pero Cameron, New Zealand basketball international (1974); Liza Weil, US actress (1977); Charlie Clements, English actor (1987).
Quote from history:
‘‘We cannot play innocents abroad in a world that is not innocent.’’ — Ronald Reagan, US president (198189), in a speech in 1985. Reagan died on June 5, 2004, from Alzheimer’s disease.