Today in history
Today is Saturday, September 8, the 251st day of 2018. There are 114 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1565 — The first permanent European settlement in North America is established by the Spanish in St Augustine, Florida.
1664 — The Dutch surrender New Amsterdam to the
British, who rename it New York.
1855 — The Crimean War ends.
1879 — The editor of the Otago Witness, Robert Wilson, is one of 12 people to perish when
Ross’s Buildings in Dunedin’s Octagon burn to the ground. Four others are injured.
1883 — The Northern Pacific Railroad across the
United States is completed.
1888 — Annie Chapman is found disembowelled in an East London street, the second victim of Jack the Ripper.
1891 — With the repeal of the property tax, the Land and Income Assessment Act passes into law, giving New Zealand its first experience of income tax.
1893 — Despite strong opposition from Prime Minister Richard Seddon and several ministers, the Legislative Council votes 2018 in favour of permitting women to vote in New Zealand.
1900 — Galveston, Texas, is struck by a hurricane
that kills approximately 6000 people.
1906 — New Zealand’s first motorvehicle fatality
occurs near Timaru. Janet Meikle was the victim.
1915 — Nicholas Nikolaevich is relieved of his army command in Russia and Tsar Nicholas II takes over personally. 1934 — Fire aboard the luxury liner SS Morro Castle
off the New Jersey coast takes 134 lives.
1943 — Allied commander Dwight Eisenhower announces Italy’s unconditional surrender in World War 2. The Germans take over Rome and northern Italy.
1944 — The first of more than 1000 German V2
ballistic missiles lands in Britain.
1945 — Hideki Tojo, Japanese prime minister during most of World War 2, attempts suicide rather than face a war crimes tribunal. The attempt fails and he is later convicted and hanged.
1951 — Timaru man Clark McConachy wins the world professional billiards championship at Leicester Square Hall, London. It is the 56yearold’s first world title and he retains it until 1968.
1954 — The Southeast Asia Collective Defence Treaty (the Manila Pact) is signed in Manila by Britain, France, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Thailand and the Philippines. From this, the Southeast Asian Treaty Organisation (Seato) is formed.
1962 — Don Clarke scores the only points, with a penalty goal from 35m, when the All Blacks beat Australia 3nil in an errorplagued test match at Carisbrook. Future All Black great Colin Meads had been controversially dropped and replaced by his brother Stan for the match.
1963 — Sylvia AshtonWarner’s book Teacher attracts wide interest after it is featured in the
New York Times Book Review.
1974 — Pizza Hut becomes the first fastfood franchise in New Zealand when it opens at Lynnmall, West Auckland; US president Gerald Ford grants an unconditional pardon to former president Richard Nixon for all federal crimes he may have committed while he was in office.
1987 — Rescue workers dig into a mudslip that buried cars and buses, killing at least 150 people on a lengthy stretch of highway at Maracay, Venezuela.
1997 — A ferry sinks north of PortauPrince, Haiti,
drowning an estimated 200 people.
2003 — Leni Riefenstahl, Adolf Hitler’s filmmaker and one of the last of Germany’s famous Naziera figures, dies aged 101. Her films of a Nazi Party rally and the 1936 Berlin Olympics brought her prewar fame and postwar notoriety.
2016 — Otago Paralympian Holly Robinson carries the flag to lead the New Zealand team into the Maracana Stadium during the opening ceremony of the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Today’s birthdays
Richard I, the Lionheart, king of England (115799); William Trethewey, New Zealand sculptor and monumental mason (18921956); Sir Harry Secombe, Welsh singercomedian (19212001); Sid Caesar, US comedian (19222001); Peter Sellers, British comedianactor (192580); Patsy Cline, US country singer (193263); Ross Brown, All Black (19342014); Graham Mourie, All Black captain (1952);
Michael Buble, Canadian singer (1975);
Sheryl Scanlan, New Zealand netball international (1977); Jeff Fleming, New Zealand football international (1979); Pink, US singer (1979);
Jav Jarquin, New Zealand comedian (1982).
Thought for today
Real generosity towards the future consists of giving all to what is present. — Albert Camus, Algerianborn French writer (191360).