Today in history
Today is Saturday, April 4, the 95th day of 2020. There are 271 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1406 — King Robert III of Scotland dies and is succeeded by James I, who was being held prisoner by the English.
1581 — Francis Drake arrives back in England after circumnavigating the globe and is knighted by Queen Elizabeth I on board his ship, the Golden Hind.
1618 — Cardinal de Richelieu is ordered into exile in Avignon for intrigues with the French Queen Mother, Marie de Medici.
1660 — England’s King Charles II issues the Declaration of Breda, promising religious tolerance.
1818 — The United States Congress decides the American flag will consist of 13 red and white stripes and 20 stars, with a new star to be added for every new state of the Union.
1864 — Hoyt and Company begins the first regular coach service between Dunedin and Invercargill, stopping overnight at Popotunoa.
1878 — The Otago Daily Times releases a
prospectus issued for a limited liability company.
1887 — Susanna Salter is elected in Argonia,
Kansas, becoming the US’ first female mayor.
1902 — British financier Cecil Rhodes leaves
$US10 million in his will to provide scholarships for Americans at Oxford University.
1910 — Despite long delays, the southern area of Greater Dunedin finally gets electric lighting when 124 60candlepower lamps are switched on by
Mayoress Walker, along the main streets of South Dunedin, Caversham and St Clair.
1918 — The second Battle of the Somme ends in World War 1 with German gains of some 60km at a cost of 150,000 killed or wounded; Allied casualties numbered 160,000.
1949 — Nato is founded when the North Atlantic Treaty is signed in Washington by the foreign ministers of the US, Britain, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Portugal, Denmark, Iceland, Norway and Canada for mutual assistance against aggression in the North Atlantic.
1963 — New Zealand joins the jet age when BOAC begins a regular international jet service between Auckland and Britain. The trip takes 37 hours.
1964 — Archbishop Makarios abrogates the 1960 treaty between Greece, Turkey and Cyprus, and heavy fighting erupts in northwest Cyprus;
The Beatles occupy the top five positions on the US singles chart at the same time.
1966 — The Dunedin City Council votes 8 to 5 in
favour of fluoridating the city’s water supply. 1969 — Doctors in a Houston, Texas, hospital implant the first complete artificial heart in a 47yearold man, who dies four days later.
1973 — The World Trade Centre, then the world’s
tallest building (110 storeys), opens in New York.
1975 — Microsoft is founded as a partnership between Bill Gates and Paul Allen to develop and sell BASIC interpreters for the Altair 8800 microcomputer.
1983 — The US space shuttle Challenger is
launched into orbit on its maiden flight.
2001 — Dame Silvia Cartwright becomes New Zealand’s 18th governorgeneral, completing a female clean sweep of the country’s most powerful political and legal positions.
2006 — Women make history in Kuwait by voting and running for office for the first time in a local byelection.
2014 — The Bell Tea and Coffee Co ends a more than 100year connection with Dunedin when it begins to progressively close its Dunedin factory and move machinery to its Auckland plant. 2017 — After devastating parts of Queensland, Cyclone Debbie heads across the Tasman, dumping torrential rain on most parts of the North Island and upper South Island, cutting power and causing landslips, with Whanganui and Rangitikei councils declaring a state of emergency ahead of possible serious flooding.
Today’s birthdays:
Arthur William Baden Powell, New
Zealand naturalist/palaeontologist
(190187); Selwyn Toogood, New
Zealand radio and television personality (19162001);
Christine Lahti, US actress (1950);
Murray Chandler, New Zealand chess grandmaster (1960);
Graham Norton, Irish talkshow host (1963);
Peter Bethune, New Zealand conservationist
(1965); Gail Jonson, New Zealand swimming representative (1965); Robert Downey jun, US actor (1965); Jessica Napier, New Zealandborn actress (1979); Andrea Hewitt, New Zealand triathlon representative (1982).
Quote of the day:
‘‘Lightning makes no sound until it strikes.’’ — US civil rights leader Martin Luther King jun. On April 4, 1968, King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee.
ODT