Today in history
Today is Saturday, February 1, the 32nd day of 2020. There are 334 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1842 — The first settlers arrive in Nelson.
1862 — Julia Ward Howe’s poem Battle Hymn of the Republic is first published in Atlantic Monthly, later to be set to music.
1867 — Authorised in 1864, Post Office Savings Banks begin operations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Hokitika.
1877 — A rail service between Christchurch and
Dunedin begins.
1884 — The first volume of the Oxford English
Dictionary is published.
1892 — African explorer Henry Stanley arrives in Dunedin to deliver a series of four lectures on his experiences in the continent of Africa.
1893 — Inventor Thomas Edison completes work on the world’s first motionpicture studio, the Black Maria, in West Orange, New Jersey.
1896 — Dunedin’s St Hilda’s Collegiate School is dedicated by the Anglican Bishop of Dunedin, the Rev Dr Samuel Tarratt Nevill.
1908 — King Carlos I of Portugal and his heir, Prince Luis Filipe, are assassinated by Republican sympathisers in Terreiro do Paco, Lisbon. Manuel II becomes king.
1925 — Motor vehicle registration becomes law in
New Zealand.
1935 — British silver coins cease to be legal tender in New Zealand. Local coins have been gradually phased in since 1933.
1936 — A violent storm begins that will be responsible for the deaths of six people in the North Island and Marlborough, as well as causing the interisland steamer Rangatirato to run aground off Wellington Head.
1968 — Saigon police chief Nguyen Ngoc Loan executes Viet Cong officer Nguyen Van Lem with a pistol shot to the head. The execution is captured by photographer Eddie Adams and NBC cameraman Vo Su’u. The photo and footage become antiwar icons.
1981 — Australia defeats New Zealand in a oneday cricket international at the MCG, Melbourne, in a controversial and unsportsmanlike manner when Trevor Chappell bowls the final ball underarm to batsman Brian McKechnie.
1985 — New Zealand’s antinuclear stance leads to the refusal of a visit by the nuclearcapable USS Buchanan.The antinuclear policy of New Zealand irritates the US and eventually leads to the breakdown of the Anzus pact.
1992 — US president George Bush and Russian
president Boris Yeltsin sign a Camp David declaration stating that Russia and the US do not regard each other as potential adversaries, formally ending the Cold War.
1996 — President Jacques Chirac announces that France has finished its nuclear testing ‘‘once and for all’’.
2003 — The US space shuttle Columbia breaks apart as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere at the end of a 16day scientific mission, killing its seven crew members and scattering debris across Texas and Louisiana.
2012 — Auckland’s population reaches 1.5 million people, a third of the country’s population. When the country reached two million in 1952, Auckland’s population was 337,100. It grew to half a million in 1961 and passed one million in 1995; thousands of protesters gather outside the Christchurch City Council buildings to protest against inefficiencies in the way the council is conducting its business and call for the resignations of the city’s CEO, mayor and council. 2015 — New Zealander Lydia Ko (17) finishes in a tie for second in the Coates Golf Championship in Florida and becomes the topranked women’s golfer in the world and the youngest player, male or female, to do so; breaking the previous record, held by Tiger Woods, by almost four years.
2018 — Heavy rain and galeforce winds sweep up the South Island, combining with a king tide and forcing a state of emergency to be declared in both Dunedin and the Buller district. The storm results in evacuations, power cuts and numerous road closures, and 115 motorists spend the night stranded near Fox Glacier.
Today’s birthdays:
Sir George Fenwick, New Zealand newspaper proprietor and editor (18471929); Don Everly, US singer (1937); Terry Jones, British comedian (19422020); Billy Mumy, US actor/producer/writer (1954); Princess Stephanie of Monaco (1965); Sherilyn Fenn, US actress (1965); Lisa Marie Presley, US actress/singer (1968); Michael C. Hall, American actor (1971); Peter Fulton, New Zealand cricketer (1979); Harry Styles, English singer/songwriter (1994).
Quote of the day:
‘‘Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.’’ — Napoleon Bonaparte (17691821).
ODT and agencies