Today in history
Today is Wednesday, September 5, the 248th day of 2018. There are 117 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1590 — The Duke of Parma, advancing from the Netherlands, forces France’s King Henry IV to lift his siege of Paris in the Catholic League War. 1698 — Peter the Great executes the Streltzy
rebels in Russia and imposes a tax on beards.
1781 — A French fleet of 24 ships under the
Comte de Grasse defeats the British under Admiral Samuel Graves at the Battle of Chesapeake Capes in the American War of Independence.
1793 — The revolutionary government in France starts the 10month Reign of Terror, during which 17,000 people are executed.
1800 — Malta is surrendered to the British under
Admiral Nelson after a blockade of French troops occupying the island.
1932 — A large crowd of youngsters becomes unmanageable and several boys were pushed through a plateglass window when the Dunedin business Barton’s Butchery in Manse St began distributing free kites.
1939 — Ailing New Zealand prime minister Michael Joseph Savage addresses the country in a radio broadcast from his bed, famously saying of Britain: ‘‘Where she goes, we go; where she stands, we stand’’.
1957 — Viscount Cobham assumes office as GovernorGeneral, quickly becoming a popular figure throughout New Zealand.
1969 — Negotiations are completed between the New Zealand Government and Comalco Industries of Australia for the construction of a planned $100million aluminium smelter at Bluff.
1974 — The burial service for New Zealand prime minister Norman Kirk is held at Waimate Cemetery.
1975 — In Sacramento, Lynette ‘‘Squeaky’’ Fromme, a follower of cult leader Charles Manson, attempts to assassinate United States president Gerald Ford.
1977 — West German urban guerrillas kidnap businessman Hanns Martin Schleyer, the president of the Federation of West German Industries. His body was found on October 19 in France.
1980 — The 16km Gotthard road tunnel in
Switzerland, the longest in the world, opens.
1991 — After seven decades of certainty, the Soviet Union destroys its old power structures and virtually abolishes the constitution. An interim government ushers in a new confederation of sovereign states.
1995 — France conducts an underground nuclear test on Mururoa Atoll, causing worldwide condemnation.
1996 — Ramzi Yousef, a Muslim extremist who allegedly masterminded the World Trade Centre bombing, is convicted of planning to blow up a dozen US commercial airliners.
1998 — North Korea’s Parliament elects
Kim Jongil to the presidency, completing the communist world’s first hereditary succession.
2000 — Fierce fighting devastates areas of Jaffna Peninsula, Sri Lanka, for a second day, leaving at least 344 people dead, as the Government orders a major military offensive before key elections.
2001 — Peru’s attorneygeneral files homicide charges against expresident Alberto Fujimori, linking him to two massacres by paramilitary death squads in the early 1990s.
2012 — A shallow 5.2magnitude earthquake strikes the western area of the lower South Island, forcing road closures on SH6 between Hawea and Haast because of slips.
Today’s birthdays:
Louis XIV, the ‘‘Sun King’’, of France (16381715); Johann Christian Bach, German composer and son of Johann Sebastian Bach (173582);
Caspar David Friedrich, German painter (17741840); Jesse James, US outlaw (18471882); John Rangihau, New Zealand academic and Maori leader (19191987); Thomas (Nick) Carter, New Zealand road cycling representative (19242003); George Lazenby, Australian actor (1939); Raquel Welch, US actress (1940); Freddie Mercury, British singer (194691); Murray Mexted, All Black (1953); Paddy Considine, English actor (1973); Chris Jack, All Black (1978); Chris Hipkins, New Zealand politician (1978); Kris Bright, New Zealand football international (1986); Mitch Cunningham, New Zealand racing car driver (1986); Pierre Casiraghi, son of Princess Caroline of Monaco (1987).
Quote from history:
‘‘Every time you smile at someone, it is an action of love, a gift to that person, a beautiful thing.’’ — Mother Teresa, who opened her first Calcutta slum school in 1949 and established her Missionaries of Charity order in 1950. She died on September 5, 1997.