Today in history
Today is Thursday, January 16, the 16th day of 2020. There are 350 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1547 — Ivan the Terrible is crowned as Russia’s first tsar.
1666 — France, allied with Holland, declares war on England.
1761 — The British take Pondicherry after a siege, marking the end of French dominion in India.
1816 — Portugal’s South American colony, Brazil, becomes a kingdom.
1872 — The New Zealand Shipping Company is established.
1878 — The Turkish steamer Intibah becomes the first vessel to be sunk by selfpropelled torpedoes, launched from torpedo boats operating from the tender Velikiy Knyaz
Konstantin under the command of Stepan Osipovich Makarov during the RussoTurkish War.
1909 — Explorers A. F. McKay, Edgeworth David and Douglas Mawson reach the magnetic South Pole.
1911 — Dunedin’s new post office at St Kilda is officially opened by Prime Minister Sir Joseph Ward.
1917 — The Germans propose in a telegram that Mexico becomes Germany’s ally, with a view to recovering Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. The telegram is intercepted, hastening the United States’ entry into World War 1.
1920 — Prohibition, banning the sale and manufacture of alcohol, is introduced in the US. 1935 — At Lake Weir, Florida, Ma Barker (63) and her gang are killed in a gun battle with police and FBI agents.
1941 — The New Zealand Air Force creates the
Women’s Auxiliary Air Force. More than 1000 women from the air force services were posted overseas during World War 2.
1954 — The Kiwi Concert Party performs for the
final time at His Majesty’s Theatre, Auckland.
1957 — Three B52s leave California to record the first nonstop aroundtheworld flights; the
Cavern Club on Matthews St, Liverpool, opens for business. It was later to host The Beatles 292 times between 1961 and 1963.
1964 — Hello, Dolly, a musical starring Carol Channing, opens on Broadway and runs for 2844 performances.
1969 — Soviet cosmonauts achieve the first linkup of two manned spaceships while in orbit around Earth.
1979 — Faced with an army mutiny and violent
demonstrations against his rule, Shah
Mohammad Reza Pahlavi flees Iran.
1980 — Otago and Southland are hit by the worst floods in 100 years. It is the second time in less than two years that floods have occurred. The West Otago township of Kelso is hit by a ‘‘100year flood’’ for the second time in 15 months. Floodwaters rise to 2.5m and engulf the
Wrightson NMA store.
1991 — US and allied fighters and heavy bombers start pounding targets in Iraq and Kuwait after Iraq fails to meet a deadline to withdraw from Kuwait.
2000 — Ricardo Lagos is elected Chile’s first socialist president since Salvador Allende, whose government was toppled in a bloody 1973 military coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. 2003 — The shuttle Columbia is launched from Florida’s Kennedy Space Centre amid unprecedented security as it carries the first Israeli astronaut. On reentry to the atmosphere, on February 1, it broke apart, killing all seven astronauts aboard. 2005 — Elvis Presley notches another musical milestone when a rerelease of his 1959 hit One Night became the 1000th song to top the British pop charts.
2006 — Liberia’s Ellen Johnson Sirleaf takes office
as Africa’s first elected female president.