Today in history
Today is Tuesday, May 12, the 133rd day of 2020. There are 233 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1536 — Sir Francis Weston, Mark Smeaton and other alleged lovers of Anne Boleyn, Henry VIII’s second wife, go on trial in London for treason.
1780 — After approximately six weeks of siege during the American War of Independence,
Charles Town (later Charleston), South Carolina, falls to the British.
1809 — In the Second Battle of Porto, also known as the Battle of the Douro, General Arthur Wellesley’s AngloPortuguese Army defeats Marshal Nicolas Soult’s French troops and takes back the city of Porto, forcing the French to retreat from Portugal.
1838 — The death of the Rev Samuel Marsden, the
missionary, aged 73.
1839 — Without the approval of the British Government, Colonel William Wakefield departs on the New Zealand Company ship Tory, with the instructions to purchase land from Maori with £5000 worth of cargo carried in the ship’s hold.
1926 — Jozef Pilsudski leads a successful military coup against the Government in Poland; Norwegian Roald Amundsen, Italian Umberto Nobile and American Lincoln Ellsworth cross the North Pole in the airship Norge.
1937 — King George VI is crowned at Westminster
Abbey.
1940 — Nazi blitzkrieg and the conquest of France
begins with the crossing of the Muese River.
1943 — The Battle of North Africa ends in World
War 2 with the Axis forces surrender of Cap Bon in Tunisia.
— The Russian blockade of West Berlin officially ends after 11 months, with a food convoy driving into the city.
1967 — Death of John Masefield, English poet and,
from 1930, poet laureate.
1969 — Cliff Tait takes to the skies above Hamilton in his Airtourer craft Miss Jacy, on his quest to fly around the world in 40 hops. He returns to New Zealand triumphant 81 days later; the voting age in the United Kingdom is lowered from 21 to 18.
1971 — Vietnam War protesters in Auckland disrupt a civic reception for the 161 Battery and the SAS, on their return from Vietnam, chanting and throwing red paint.
1973 — The last execution by guillotine takes place
in France.
1978 — The United States Weather Bureau announces that hurricanes will no longer be named exclusively after women. 1988 — Nine people are killed when an aircraft crashes into wooded hills in murky weather north of Wanganui.
1997 — Australian Susie Maroney becomes the first person to swim from Cuba to Florida, covering the 190km in 241⁄2 hours.
2006 — Up to 200 are killed in Nigeria when petrol gushing from a ruptured pipeline explodes as villagers scavenge for fuel, setting off an inferno.
2010 — A 10yearold Dutch boy in a hospital bed, head bandaged, skin pale and legs shattered, is the sole survivor of an airliner crash that killed 103 people in the Libyan capital of Tripoli.
2011 — Just five days after heavy rain saturated the area, Dunedin is hit by strong northwest winds gusting up to 160kmh, uprooting trees, cutting power to 12,000 consumers, disrupting flights and forcing road closures. Seven people are admitted to hospital with minor injuries. One was a 63yearold man who had a tree fall on his car on SH1, near the Karitane turnoff.
2012 — The owner of the Alexandra pie cart escapes with minor burns after fleeing the kerbside diner as it erupted in flames. An application to revive the business is declined by the Vincent Community Board 10 months later, which cites a decline in crime around the area since the demise of the facility.
Today’s birthdays:
Isaac Luck, New Zealand architect (18171881); Florence Nightingale, English nursing pioneer (18201910); Josiah (Joe) Hanan, New Zealand politician (18681954); Julius Rosenberg, US electrical engineer and communist, executed, along with his wife, for spying (19181953); Burt Bacharach, US songwriter (1928); Barry Barclay, New Zealand filmmaker (19442008); Steve Winwood, British singer (1948); Gabriel Byrne, Irish actor (1950); Ving Rhames, US actor (1959); Emilio Estevez, US actor (1962); Steven Baldwin, US actor (1966); Catherine Tate, English comedian/ actress (1968); Jonah Lomu, All Black (19752015).
Quote of the day:
‘‘If it's true that our species is alone in the universe, then I'd have to say the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little.’’ — George Carlin, US comedian, who was born on this day in 1937. He died in 2008, aged 71.