TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Wednesday, October 14, the 288th day of 2020. There are 78 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1066 — At the Battle of Hastings, William the Conqueror and his Norman army defeat the English forces of Harold II, who is killed in the battle.
1322 — Robert the Bruce, of Scotland, heavily defeats King Edward II, of England, at the Battle of Old Byland, north of York. Edward is thus forced to accept the independence of Scotland.
1586 — Mary, Queen of Scots, goes on trial in England, accused of conspiring against Queen Elizabeth I. Mary was beheaded the following February.
1878 — After more than a week of rain, the bridge over the Clutha River at Clydevale is washed downstream, where it collides with the road bridge at Balclutha, causing it to collapse also.
The flooding in the South Otago area does not begin to subside until two days later and is regarded as New Zealand’s greatest recorded flood.
1892 — Mother Aubert, known initially in her religious life as Sister Mary Joseph, was appointed to the newly established order at Hiruharama (Jerusalem) on the Whanganui River. In 2016, Pope Francis declared Mother Aubert ‘‘Venerable’’, an important milestone on the journey to a person being declared a saint.
1912 — Theodore Roosevelt, campaigning for the US presidency, is shot in the chest in Milwaukee. He is saved by his thick coat and a bundle of paper in his breast pocket and goes ahead with a scheduled speech.
1913 — Britain’s worst mining disaster occurs as the result of an explosion at the Universal Colliery in Senghenydd, near Caerphilly, Glamorgan, Wales, killing 439.
1927 — Dunedin’s Dale Austen wins the Miss New Zealand contest and receives a threemonth Hollywood contract.
1939 — A German U47 submarine sinks the British battleship HMS Royal Oak, with the loss of 833 lives.
1943 — Ethel Benjamin, who in 1897 was the first woman to become a lawyer in New Zealand, is struck by a motor vehicle and dies of a fractured skull in Mount Vernon Hospital, Middlesex, England; 600 Jews escape during an uprising at the Nazi concentration camp in Sobibor, Poland.
1944 — British and Greek troops liberate Athens from the Germans in World War 2; German Field Marshal Erwin Rommel commits suicide rather than face execution for allegedly conspiring against Adolf Hitler.
1947 — US Air Force test pilot
Charles ‘‘Chuck’’ Yeager becomes the first person to break the sound barrier, flying the experimental Bell X1 rocket plane over Edwards Air Force Base in California.
1962 — US U2 espionage planes locate missile launchers in Cuba.
1968 — The first live telecast from a manned US spacecraft is transmitted from Apollo 7.
1979 — New Zealander Martin (Mr Asia) Johnstone’s handless body is discovered in England. Terry Clark, an associate of Johnstone and the former leader of the Mr Asia drug ring, is later convicted of masterminding the crime.
1987 — A reallife drama begins in Midland, Texas, after 18monthold Jessica McClure slides 6.7m down an abandoned well at a daycare centre. Hundreds of rescuers work 58 hours to free her; GovernorGeneral Ratu Sir Penaia Ganilau resigns after Fiji is declared a republic following two coups d’etat.
1997 — Dozens of protesters shouting ‘‘Clinton, go home’’ burn an effigy of US president Bill Clinton and throw manure on his limousine, marring an otherwise uneventful visit to Brazil.
2003 — A Bill abolishing New Zealand appeals to the Privy Council and establishing a Supreme Court is passed.
2010 — The New Zealand and Australian netball teams play the goldmedal match at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, India, in what is the longest official game of netball ever played, stretching out over 84 pulsating minutes, with New Zealand winning 6664.
2012 — Dunedinbased doctor Dougal Thorburn sets a world 10km prampushing record by pushing a pram containing his 2yearold daughter, Audrey, throughout a 10km race held near Outram in the time of 32min 26sec.
Today’s birthdays:
Frederick Furkert, New Zealand engineer (18761949); Katherine Mansfield, New Zealandborn writerpoet (18881923); William Newnham, New Zealand civil engineer (18881974); Eddie McLeod, New Zealand cricketer (190089); Colin Dickinson, New Zealand cyclist (19312006); Ralph Lauren, US fashion designer (1939); Sir Cliff Richard, British singer (1940); Alan Brunton,
New Zealand poetplaywright (19462002); Justin Hayward, British singermusician (1946); Douglas
Wright, New Zealand dancerchoreographer (19562018); Lori Petty, US actress (1963); Steve Coogan, English actor (1965); Darren Watson, New Zealand singersongwriterguitarist (1966); Walter Little, All Black (1969); Carlos Spencer, All Black (1975); Usher, US singer (1978); Hadley Wickham, New Zealand computer scientist (1979); Jonelle Price, New Zealand equestrian (1980); Ben Whishaw, English actor (1980); Marc Ryan, New Zealand cyclist (1982); Leon Henry, New Zealand basketballer (1985); Max Thieriot, US actor (1988); Ardie Savea, All Black (1993).
Quote of the day:
‘‘If there is to be any hope of prosperity for this country it is by reversing that policy which made us simply the kitchen garden for supplying the British with cheap food.’’ — Eamon de Valera, third president of Ireland, who was born on this day in 1882. He died in 1975, aged 92.