Today in history
Today is Tuesday, November 5, the 309th day of 2019. There are 56 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1556 — The army of Akbar, the Great Mughal, defeats the numerically superior Sur army led by Hemu, in the Second Battle of Panipat. When Hemu was struck in the eye by an arrow, his army panicked, broke formation and fled.
1605 — The Gunpowder Plot, involving Guy Fawkes, to blow up the British Houses of Parliament is uncovered.
1649 — The English Rump Parliament votes to put
Charles I on trial for treason.
1881 — An attack by a force of 1600 armed police and volunteers forces the abandonment of a Maori settlement at Parihaka. Although Te Whiti and Tohu Kakahi offer no resistance, they are arrested and will not return from forced exile for 16 months.
1883 — The Mahdi defeats an Egyptian force under William Hicks at ElObeid; Britain decides to evacuate the Sudan.
1895 — Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) disembarks
at Bluff to begin a lecture tour of New Zealand.
1905 — The Otago Electric Company’s No 1 dredge claims a world record for five days of dredging, yielding 1273oz of gold. Otago dredges totalled 88,846oz for the year, compared to 87,130oz in 1903 and 106,369oz in 1902.
1912 — Geophysicist and meteorologist Alfred Wegener presents his then controversial theory on continental drift in a lecture at the Senckenberg Museum, Frankfurt.
1913 — In Wellington, during the Great Strike, 20 people are injured in the ‘‘Battle of Featherston Street’’, when 800 mounted special constables charge a crowd attempting to prevent racehorses being loaded on to a ship.
1928 — Mount Etna in Sicily erupts, destroying a
large area. The village of Mascali is buried.
1940 — In World War 2, the merchant cruiser HMS
Jervis Bay attacks the German pocket battleship
Admiral Scheer to allow time for the convoy it is escorting across the Atlantic to scatter. Jervis Bay is sunk.
1941 — Mr D. G. Sullivan lays the keel for the first minesweeper to be built at Port Chalmers; US president Franklin Roosevelt makes his ‘‘Four Freedoms’’ speech (freedom of speech and worship; freedom from want and fear) during his State of Union address.
1946 — John F. Kennedy is first elected to the
House of Representatives.
1956 — British paratroopers land at Port Said,
Egypt. The Soviet Union threatens the use of rockets unless Britain and France accept a ceasefire.
1975 — While returning to Taumarunui, a lightengine banker locomotive (used to help trains up steep gradients by pushing from behind), after assisting a train up to National Park, derails at Raurimu. The driver is killed and his assistant injured.
1976 — A security guard is fatally shot during the robbery of a newly opened branch of the ANZ Bank on Old Taupo Rd, Rotorua. It is the second robbery of the branch; the first, on July 16, occurred just five days after its opening. The incidents remain unsolved.
1978 — Iranian prime minister Jafar Sharif Emami resigns following riots and demonstrations against the shah.
1987 — South Africa releases African National Congress leader Govan Mbeki, who had been held prisoner for 23 years and was a colleague of Nelson Mandela.
1991 — Media mogul and MP Robert Maxwell is found dead in waters off the Canary Islands, where his yacht had been cruising.
1992 — Ernest Rutherford features on New
Zealand’s newly issued red $100 note.
2015 — Heir to the British throne Prince Charles and
his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, visit Dunedin.
Today’s birthdays
Elke Sommer, Germanborn actress (1940); Art Garfunkel, US musician (1941); Graham Griffiths, New Zealand football international (1944); Peter Noone, British singer (1947); Lesley Soper, New Zealand politician (1954); Bryan Adams, Canadian singer (1959); Lauren Kim Roche, New Zealand author/physician (1961); Tatum O’Neal, US actress (1963); Michael Bennett, New Zealand writer/director (1964); Famke Janssen, Dutch actress (1965); Chantal Brunner, New Zealand international sprinter/long jumper (1970); Gavin Wilkinson, New Zealand football international (1973); Taine Randell, All Black captain (1974); Marco Rojas, New Zealand football international 1991).
Quote of the day
‘‘Remember, remember, the 5th of November. The gunpowder, treason and plot; I know of no reason why gunpowder treason, should ever be forgot.’’ — Traditional rhyme for Guy Fawkes night.
ODT and agencies