Today in history
Today is Tuesday, April 23, the 113th day of 2019. There are 252 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
303 — Death of St George, patron saint of England.
1014 — The high king of Ireland, Brian Boru, is killed while repelling Viking invaders at the battle of Clontarf.
1516 — Duke Wilhelm IV of Bavaria endorses ‘‘The German Beer Purity Law’’ (Reinheitsgebot) and adds to it standards for its sale, stating that only barley, hops, and water could be used. This regulation remained in force until it was abolished as a binding obligation in 1986 by PanEuropean regulations of the European
Union.
1661 — Charles II is crowned king of England.
1702 — Queen Anne is crowned at Westminster
Abbey.
1848 — French voters, with universal male suffrage for the first time, go to the polls to elect a national assembly.
1849 — The first regatta is held at Port Chalmers.
1896 — The Vitascope system for projecting movies on to a screen is exhibited for the first time at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York. Although poorly marketed, Thomas Edison and Thomas Armat profited greatly from the device, while many investors defaulted.
1920 — The national council in Turkey denounces the government of Sultan Mehmed VI, the last Ottoman sultan, and announces a temporary constitution.
1940 — About 200 people die in a dancehall fire
in Natchez, Mississippi.
1969 — Sirhan Sirhan is sentenced to death for the assassination of US senator Robert F. Kennedy, a sentence later reduced to life imprisonment.
1970 — The fishing vessel is engulfed by fire while under tow by the 23km off Taieri Mouth. The five crew members aboard jump for their lives and are rescued unharmed.
1975 — South Vietnam’s cabinet resigns as panic grips Saigon and US president Gerald Ford declares the Vietnam War over.
1979 — New Zealandborn teacher Blair Peach is beaten to death by members of the Police Special Patrol Group at an antifascism rally in Southall, London. No public inquiry is held and no officer is held accountable, but Peach becomes a symbol of unjustified police violence around the world.
1980 — Saudi Arabia expels the British ambassador following the showing on British TV of Death of a Princess, which depicts the life and death of a Saudi Arabian princess.
— Prince William is photographed with a Buzzy Bee toy on the lawn at Government House, Auckland. The picture of the prince crawling across a rug was the first colour image transmitted digitally from New Zealand to the rest of the world.
1986 — Death of Jim Laker (63), Surrey and England cricketer, best remembered for taking a record 19 wickets in one test match for only 90 runs against Australia in 1956.
1994 — The Clyde Dam is officially opened by
Prime Minister Jim Bolger.
1996 — Fire races through deserted villages around the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine, sending radioactive particles skyward,10 years after the world’s worst nuclear accident.
1998 — Queenstown becomes the first resort in New Zealand to be granted licences for two casinos, Otago Casino’s $4.5million boutique casino on Steamer Wharf and Queenstown Casino’s $14million development in Beach St.
2007 — Former Russian president Boris Yeltsin, who hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union by scrambling atop a tank to rally opposition against a hardline coup and later pushed Russia to embrace democracy and a market economy, dies at 76.
Today’s birthdays
William Shakespeare, English poet/playwright (15641616); Sir Frederick Whitaker, Englishborn New Zealand politician and attorneygeneral (18121891); George Gillett, Original All Black and rugby league international (18771956); Dame Edith (Ngaio) Marsh, New Zealand crime writer and theatre director (18951982); Colin Horsley, New Zealand classical pianist (19202012); Lee Majors, US actor (1939); Dame Gillian Whitehead, New Zealand composer (1941); Michael Moore, US director (1954); Jason Williams, New Zealand rugby league international (1966); Brendan Cole, New Zealand ballroom dancer (1976); David Kidwell, New Zealand rugby league international (1977); Luke Ronchi, Australian and New Zealand cricket international (1981).
Thought for today
Be not afraid of greatness: some are born great, some achieve greatness, and others have greatness thrust upon them. — From Twelfth Night, by William Shakespeare (15641616).