Today in history
Today is Saturday, February 8, the 39th day of 2020. There are 327 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1587 — Mary, Queen of Scots, is beheaded after being accused of plotting to murder England’s Queen Elizabeth I.
1807 — Battle of Eylau ends inconclusively between Napoleon’s forces and the Russian Empire. It is the first battle in which Napoleon is not victorious.
1840 — New Zealand’s first labour movement is established when workers at Port Nicholson, Wellington, negotiate an eighthour day.
1851 — Initially issued fortnightly by John B. Todd,
the Otago Witness is first published in Dunedin. 1865 — Wellington’s Evening Post newspaper
begins publication.
1915 — D.W. Griffith’s silentmovie epic about the United States’ Civil War, The Birth of a Nation, premieres in Los Angeles.
1924 — The first US execution by gas takes place
at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City.
1931 — The first fatal accident on a scheduled air service in New Zealand occurs when all three people on board a Dominion Airlines Desoutter are killed when it crashes near Wairoa in northern Hawkes Bay.
1936 — New Zealander Sir Peter Buck is appointed
to the chair of anthropology at Yale University.
1960 — In Christchurch, Mrs H.L. Garrett becomes the first woman in New Zealand to serve on a jury in a criminal case. She also becomes the first jury forewoman; Queen Elizabeth II of the United
Kingdom issues an OrderinCouncil, stating that she and her family would be known as the House of Windsor, and that her descendants will take the name ‘‘MountbattenWindsor’’.
1963 — Weighing almost four tonnes, the first industrial computer arrives in Auckland for use at Tasman Pulp and Paper’s mill at Kawerau; Abdul Salam Arif leads dissident army elements in a coup against Iraqi premier Abdul Karim Kassem, who is killed. Arif is appointed president of Iraq.
1964 — Holland’s Princess Irene renounces her rights to the throne in order to marry Roman Catholic Spanish prince Carlos Hugo of Bourbon Parma.
1971 — The Nasdaq Composite stock market index
debuts with 50 companies and a value of 100.
1972 — The New Zealand women’s cricket team records its first test victory when it defeats Australia by 143 runs in Melbourne. The match was the first women’s test match to be played over four days. Previously, women’s tests were played over three days. 1980 — Marking New Zealand’s 50 years as a crickettestplaying nation, the first test of a threetest series against the touring West Indies gets under way at Carisbrook. The match is remembered as the most acrimonious in New Zealand cricket history. The fiery temperament of the West Indian side overshadowed New Zealand’s onewicket win and Richard Hadlee becoming New Zealand’s most successful bowler. It is remembered most for West Indian fast bowler
Michael Holding kicking over the stumps.
1983 — A dust storm deposits about 11,000 tonnes
of topsoil on Melbourne.
1989 — Champion American jockey Chris Antley begins a record winning sequence of riding at least one winner on 64 consecutive days.
1991 — The Waitangi Tribunal declares that Ngai
Tahu has legitimate Otago land grievances.
1994 — The head of the French army’s history section is fired over a report that cast doubt on the innocence of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was arrested for treason in 1894; in a fit of road rage double Academy Awardwinning actor Jack Nicholson uses a golf club to attack the car of a driver who cut in front of him.
1997 — Six people are shot dead after a gunman goes on a rampage in the central North Island town of Raurimu.
2005 — English sailor Ellen MacArthur sets a solo aroundtheworld sailing record of 71 days and 14 hours.
Today’s birthdays:
Jules Verne, French author
(18281905); James Ryan, All Black
(18871957); John Williams, US composer/conductor (1932); Nick Nolte, US actor (1941); Paul Maunder, New Zealandborn film director (1945); Mary Steenburgen, US actress (1953); John Grisham, US author (1955); Vince Neil, US singer (1961); Pauly Fuemana, New Zealand singer/songwriter (19692010); Mary McCormack, US actress (1969); Seth Green, US actor (1974); Cory Jane, All Black (1983); Anna Hutchison, New Zealand actress (1986); Zac Guildford, All Black (1989).
Quote of the day:
‘‘The past cannot be changed. The future is yet in your power.’’ — Mary Pickford (born Gladys Louise Smith), Canadianborn American film actress/producer (18921979).