Today in history
Today is Thursday, November 7, the 311th day of 2019. There are 54 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1659 — The Peace of the Pyrenees is reached
between Spain and France.
1733 — Spain and France sign the Treaty of
Escurial and form an alliance against England.
1837 — United States abolitionist Elijah Lovejoy is killed by a proslavery mob at his printing works in Alton, Illinois.
1861 — Archer wins the first Melbourne Cup.
1868 — An assault on Moturoa pa, near Wanganui, by Colonel George Whitmore and Kepa Te Rangihiwinui, fails when Titokowaru’s warriors launch a counterattack. Constable Henare Te Ahururu becomes the first to be awarded the New Zealand Cross for gallantry. 1872 — The US cargo ship Mary Celeste sets sail from New York on a journey which ended when she was found mysteriously abandoned the following month.
1881 — The barque England’s Glory is wrecked at
Bluff.
1885 — Canada’s first transcontinental railway, the Canadian Pacific, is completed in British Columbia.
1909 — The Presbyterian Church at St Clair is
opened.
1910 — Death of Count Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist who wrote War and Peace and Anna Karenina.
1917 — Bolsheviks seize the Winter Palace in St
Petersburg during the Russian Revolution. 1944 — US president Franklin Roosevelt is
reelected for a record fourth term.
1956 — Britain and France declare a ceasefire in Egypt, but Britain says it will evacuate troops only on the arrival of a UN emergency force.
1965 — British model wows the
Melbourne racing crowd by wearing a miniskirt.
1966 — Chinese diplomats walk out of the Bolshevik Anniversary celebration in Moscow after hearing Soviet criticism of the Chinese Government.
1970 — Christchurch climbers John Glasgow and Peter Gough become the first to climb Mt Cook via the Caroline Face.
1975 — New Zealand’s first marine reserve is established between Cape Rodney and Okakari Point, Northland.
1987 — Tunisia’s President Habib Bourguiba is removed from office by his prime minister, who says the 84yearold leader is too senile to rule.
1989 — The East German Government resigns
after prodemocracy protests.
— Mary Robinson is elected in Ireland’s first presidential election in seven years, becoming the country’s first female president.
— Alexander Dubcek, the Czech leader who sought to install ‘‘socialism with a human face’’ in the Prague Spring of 1968, dies from injuries suffered in a car crash.
1996 — A Nigerian airliner carrying 141 people crashes into swampland east of Lagos, killing all aboard.
2005 — Former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori is arrested in Chile on charges involving corruption and massacres as he returns home to run for reelection after five years as a protected exile in Japan. Fujimori, the target of an international arrest warrant, faces extradition to Peru.
2007 — More than 30 surgeons in southern India complete a gruelling 24hour operation on Lakshmi, a 2yearold girl born with four arms, during which they salvage her organs and rebuild her pelvis area. 2012 — Briscoes, a Dunedin retailer which became a 41store national chain, celebrates its 150th birthday. The homewares retailer started in a small shop in George St, Dunedin, in 1862, moving to the corner of Jetty and Princes streets in 1872.
Today’s birthdays
Doug Freeman, New Zealand cricket international (191494); Sir Roy McKenzie, New Zealand horsebreeder (19222007); Barry Newman, US actor (1938); Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella), US singer (1942); Dame Silvia Cartwright, 18th GovernorGeneral of New Zealand (1943); Joni Mitchell, Canadian singer/ songwriter (1943); Christopher Knight, US actor (1957); Murphy Su’a, New Zealand cricketer (1966); James Franklin, New Zealand cricket international (1980); Ladi6 (born Karoline Tamati), New Zealand singer/songwriter (1982); Anna Jullienne Kermode, New Zealand actress (1982).
Quote of the day:
‘‘Do not wait for the Last Judgment. It takes place every day.’’ — Albert Camus, French author and winner of the 1957 Nobel Prize for Literature, who was born on this day in 1913. He died in 1960, aged 46.