Today in history
Today is Monday, December 10, the 344th day of 2018. There are 21 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1520 — Martin Luther publicly burns the Papal Bull excommunicating him from the Roman Catholic Church.
1845 — The first pneumatic tyres are patented by
British civil engineer Robert Thomson.
1848 — Louis Napoleon is elected president of France by a huge majority of almost four million votes, with 74% of the vote.
1867 — Dunedin’s waterworks are inaugurated.
1896 — Alfred Nobel, a Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, dies. He used his wealth to found the Nobel prizes.
1898 — The Treaty of Paris between the United States and Spain ends the SpanishAmerican War, with Spain ceding Cuba, Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to the United States for $US20 million.
1902 — The original Aswan Dam, built by the British
to control the Nile’s floods, is completed.
1906 — President Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping to mediate an end to the RussoJapanese War.
1908 — New Zealander Ernest Rutherford is presented with the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, at Stockholm.
1918 — New Zealand’s Electricpower Boards Act becomes law to allow the creation of regional power boards to control the distribution of electricity; the Repatriation Act is also passed into law; it offers assistance to returning soldiers; New Zealand’s war loan of £10 million is authorised.
1928 — (United) takes office for a second time as New Zealand prime minister. He first held office 22 years earlier, serving from August 1906 to March 1912. His second term lasts 18 months.
1936 — King Edward VIII of Britain abdicates, with the intention of marrying American divorc´ee Wallis Simpson.
1950 — New Zealand’s KForce departs on the Ormonde from Aotea Quay, Wellington, to begin service in the Korean War.
1962 — New Zealander Maurice Wilkins,
Englishman Francis Crick and James Watson of the US are presented with the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work in discovering the threedimensional molecular structure of DNA.
1967 — The first commercial thermonuclear blast occurs in the US state of New Mexico, to give access to natural gas in underground deposits. 1969 — New Zealand’s first steel using local
ironsand is made at Glenbrook.
1980 — Milton Obote is sworn in as Uganda’s president, becoming the first African president ousted in a military coup to recapture the presidency. He was ousted by the army for the second time in 1985.
1983 — Democracy returns after seven years of dictatorship in Argentina, as Raul Alfonsin is sworn in as president.
1989 — Little interest is shown when Sunday
shopping begins in New Zealand.
1990 — Gary Ball and Rob Hall become the first to climb the seven highest peaks on the seven continents in seven months when they climb the 5140m Vinson Massif in Antarctica.
1991 — More than 1000 people attend a public meeting at Timaru’s Caroline Bay to address the escalation of the city’s gang warfare.
1996 — New Zealand First leader Winston Peters ends eight weeks of speculation since the October 12 general election, by opting to form a coalition government with the Jim Bolgerled National Party.
2007 — Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner is sworn in as Argentina’s first elected female president.
2016 — Joseph Parker wins the vacant WBO heavyweight boxing title, defeating Andy Ruiz (Mexico) by majority decision, in Auckland.
Today’s birthdays:
Ada King, Countess of Lovelace,
English mathematician and world’s first computer programmer
(18151852); Sir James Prendergast,
New Zealand Chief Justice
(18261921); Reginald Miles, New
Zealand decorated soldier in World
War 1 and World War 2
(18921943); Alan Smith, All Black (1942);
Simon Owen, New Zealand golfer (1950);
Susan Dey, US actress (1952); Kenneth Branagh, British actor/director (1960); Robin Brooke, All Black (1966); Chris Martin, New Zealand cricketer (1974); Paul Cleave, New Zealand author (1974); Caleb Ross, New Zealand actor (1981); Tom Hern, New Zealand actor (1984); JamiLee Ross, New Zealand politician (1985).
Thought for today:
I dislike arguments of any kind. They are always vulgar, and often convincing. — Oscar Wilde, Irish poet, dramatist, author (18561900).
ODT and agencies