Today in history
Today is Saturday, February 22, the 53rd day of 2020. There are 313 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1371 — Robert II succeeds his uncle, David II, as king of Scotland, inaugurating the Stewart dynasty.
1759 — The French abandon the siege of Madras, India, upon the arrival of the British fleet.
1819 — Spain cedes Florida to the United States.
1879 — Frank Winfield Woolworth opens a fivecent store in Utica, New York.
1886 — The Times becomes the first British newspaper to institute a personal column in its classified pages.
1902 — A cable tram service in Wellington begins operating, transporting passengers between Lambton Quay and Kelburn.
1909 — The Great White Fleet, the first US fleet to circle the globe, returns to Virginia, whence it had departed just over two years earlier on December 16, 1907.
1913 — The Mexican military assassinates revolutionary president Francisco Madero and vicepresident Pino Suarez.
1908 — The first known fatal carcrash in New Zealand occurs in Christchurch, when a car swerved to avoid hitting a horse.
1927 — The Duke and Duchess of York (later King George VI and Queen Elizabeth) arrive on HMS Renown in Auckland.
1941 — Sir Cyril Newall assumes office as New Zealand GovernorGeneral. He holds the post until April 1946, and is best remembered for his controversial reference in a speech to the ‘‘men of the navy, men of the army and gentlemen of the air force’’.
1942 — Gold bullion worth £2,397,000 is recovered from the sunken liner RMS Niagara; General Douglas MacArthur is ordered to leave the Philippines, and makes his way to Australia, from where he directed much of the war against Japan. His famous promise that ‘‘I shall return’’ was kept when United States forces returned to the Philippines in 1944.
1966 — Ugandan prime minister Milton Obote orders five cabinet members arrested and assumes full power.
1967 — Indonesia’s President Sukarno surrenders power to premier General Suharto, remaining president in name only.
1972 — Qatar’s heir apparent, Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, overthrows the oil state’s emir, Sheikh Ahmed, in a bloodless coup.
1980 — The Israeli Government introduces a new currency, the shekel, replacing the Israeli pound.
1985 — Labour prime minister David Lange in a speech says New Zealand’s policy is ‘‘neither antiAmerican, nor antialliance (Anzus). It is simply antinuclear’’.
1991 — US president George Bush demands that Saddam Hussein begin an unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait by noon of the following day or risk a ground war with allied forces.
2011 — A magnitude6.3 earthquake centred 5km below the surface near Lyttelton strikes Christchurch at 12.51pm, leaving the central business district and Lyttelton township in ruins. The Christchurch Cathedral and a number of other historic buildings are destroyed. The Canterbury TV and Pyne Gould Corporation buildings collapse and become the focus of rescue attempts. An estimated 182 people lose their lives around the city and it takes many months for the last bodies to be identified. Prime Minister John Key, in declaring a national state of emergency, described it as ‘‘New Zealand’s darkest day’’. The earthquake triggered a spectacular glaciercalving at the Tasman Glacier Terminal Lake, with a 30milliontonne iceberg breaking off the glacier.
2018 — Wanaka 16yearold Zoi SadowskiSynnott wins New Zealand’s first Olympic Winter Games medal in 26 years, and New Zealand’s second winter games medal, when she wins a bronze medal in the women’s snowboard big air at Pyeong Chang; two hours later New Zealand has further success when fellow Wanaka teenager Nico Porteous wins the bronze medal in the men’s freestyle ski halfpipe.
Today’s birthdays:
George Washington, first US president (173299); Frank Worsley, New Zealand sailor and explorer (18721943); Don Merton, New Zealand conservationist (19392011); Fleur Beale, New Zealand fiction writer (1945); Brad McGann, New Zealand film director and screenwriter (19642007); Drew Barrymore, US actress (1975); James Blunt, British singer (1977); Hamish Bennett, New Zealand cricketer (1987).
Quote of the day
‘‘Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead 20 years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.’’ — Diana Ross, US singer/actress (1944).