Today in history
Today is Wednesday, January 29, the 29th day of 2020. There are 337 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1595 — William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet is thought to have been first performed at the Globe Theatre. It was not officially published until early 1597.
1676 — Theodore III becomes Tsar of Russia on the
death of his father, Alexis.
1730 — Tsar Peter II of Russia dies of smallpox on
the day set for his wedding.
1819 — Sir Stamford Raffles lands in Singapore and concludes a preliminary treaty with a local ruler to set up a British trading post.
1820 — King George III dies at Windsor Castle aged
81, feeble, blind and insane.
1856 — The Victoria Cross, the Commonwealth’s
highest military honour, is instituted.
1868 — The Otago Acclimatisation Society imports its first English birds on the Warrior Queen. They were starlings, blackbirds, song thrushes, chaffinches, linnets, hedge sparrows, goldfinches, yellowhammers, larks and sparrows.
1871 — The Acclimatisation Society receives six red and one axis deer, which had arrived on the ship City of Dunedin, to introduce to the Otago region.
1877 — A team of English professional cricketers begins a 39day tour of New Zealand with a match against an Auckland XXII.
1886 — German motor pioneer Karl Benz is granted a patent for the first successful petroldriven car, the Motorwagen. 1889 — Crown Prince Archduke Rudolf of AustriaHungary kills his mistress and himself at a hunting lodge in Mayerling.
1891 — Hawaii proclaims as its queen Liliuokalani,
renowned for her song Aloha Oe.
1896 — US physician Emil Grubbe becomes the first to use radiation treatment for breast cancer, on patient Rose Lee, of Chicago.
1904 — Francis Joseph, an Otago Daily Times journalist, is killed while witnessing the blasting of a tunnel at Harington Point on Otago Peninsula.
1916 — The Germans stage the first zeppelin raid on Paris in World War 1; British military tanks are tested for the first time, in Hertfordshire.
1953 — A radiotelephone link between Te Anau and Milford Sound is established. The limited service operated on a 9am to 5pm shift only, and allowed a direct link to New Zealand’s toll network.
1957 — Danish architect Joern Utzon wins a competition to design the proposed Sydney Opera House.
1966 — A threeday air pageant begins in celebration of the opening of Auckland International Airport.
1977 — The 31,671 tonne container ship Godwit arrives at Port Chalmers, becoming the first container vessel to use the new $16 million facility at the port and the first to start a direct container link between Japan and the South Island.
1984 — Some of the 2000 Invercargill residents evacuated because of flooding are informed by Civil Defence it will be at least another week until they are allowed back in their homes. With 10 small aircraft still under water, Invercargill Airport will be out of action for at least another three weeks.
1996 — La Fenice, the 204yearold opera house,
burns down in Venice.
1999 — Ecuador declares 1.1 million hectares of Amazon jungle off limits to oil drilling, mining, milling and colonisation.
2000 — In Egypt, a 32yearold housewife is the first woman to file for divorce under a new law that does not require a woman to prove physical or psychological harm on the part of her husband.
Today’s birthdays:
Thomas Paine, American patriot (17371809); Bill Barnard, New Zealand politician (18861958); Jack Manchester, All Black captain (190883); Bob Yule, New Zealandborn officer and fighter pilot for RAF in WW2 (192053); Ronald Hugh Morrieson, New Zealand novelist (19222); Germaine Greer, Australianborn feminist, academic and author (1939); Katharine Ross, US actress (1940); Tom Selleck ,US actor (1945); Ian ‘‘Molly’’ Meldrum, Australian TV personality (1946); Oprah Winfrey, US television personality (1954); Ron Mark, New Zealand politician (1954); Nicholas Turturro, US actor (1962);
Christine Jeffs, New Zealandborn film director (1963); John Gallagher, All Black (1964); Ed Burns, US actor/director (1968); Heather Graham, US actress (1970); Sara Gilbert, US actress (1975); Andrew Keegan, US actor (1979).
Quote of the day:
‘‘There is only one way to avoid criticism: do nothing, say nothing, and be nothing.’’ — Aristotle.
ODT and agencies