TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Friday, November 13, the 318th day of 2020. There are 48 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1789 — Benjamin Franklin writes a letter to a friend in which he says: ‘‘In this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.’’
1887 — A march in London protesting unemployment and coercion in Ireland becomes known as ‘‘Bloody Sunday’’ when the protesters are attacked by Metropolitan Police and the British Army. It was reported 400 people were arrested and 75 badly injured, including many police.
1896 — Te Maari, a crater at the northern end of the Tongariro range, erupts spectacularly and continues to erupt sporadically for almost a year.
1901 – During what became known as the ‘‘Great Storm’’, the Caister lifeboat disaster occurs off the coast of CaisteronSea, Norfolk, England.
1907 — Designed by Paul Cornu, the first helicopter to achieve free flight carrying a man rises 1.5m off the ground, holding him there for 20sec, at Coquainvilliers, near Lisieux, in France.
1918 — During the height of the influenza outbreak, the district health officer for Otago, Dr Faris, calls for the Public Health Act of 1908 to be enacted, and the board to close all schools throughout the region.
1940 — Walt Disney’s animated movie Fantasia has its world premiere in New York. 1941 — The British aircraft carrier Ark
Royal is hit by a torpedo off Gibraltar in World War 2 and sinks early the following day.
1945 — Sukarno becomes president of Indonesia; General Charles de Gaulle is elected president of the French provisional government.
1947 — The Soviet Union completes development of the AK47, one of the first modern assault rifles.
1956 — The US Supreme Court rules that segregation of the races on public buses is unconstitutional.
1962 — The Glenorchy to Queenstown road is opened, ending a century of isolation for the Lake Wakatipu community and opening up a vast new scenic area to tourists.
1970 — Hafez alAssad seizes power in a bloodless coup in Syria; a 242kmh tropical cyclone hits the densely populated Ganges Delta region of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh), killing an estimated 500,000 people.
1973 — A state of emergency is declared in Britain after power workers and coal miners begin industrial action; the ‘‘Cod War’’ between Britain and Iceland subsides when the Icelandic Parliament approves the terms of a settlement.
1974 — Karen Silkwood, a technician and union activist at the KerrMcGee Cimarron plutonium plant near Crescent, Oklahoma, is killed in a car crash in suspicious circumstances; Ronald Joseph (Butch) DeFeo jun kills his father, mother, two brothers and two sisters, in Amityville, Long Island. The case inspired the book and film versions of The Amityville Horror.
1978 — The New Zealand Film Commission is created, its role being to fund and promote a national film industry.
1982 —Ray Mancini defeats Duk Koo Kim in a boxing match held in Las Vegas. Kim’s subsequent death (on November 17) leads to significant changes in the sport.
1985 — The Nevado de Ruiz volcano in Colombia erupts, sending an avalanche of mud and rock slamming into the town of Armero. About 25,000 people die.
1990 — David Gray begins a 22hour shooting rampage at Aramoana, killing 13 people and maiming a further three. He is killed in an exchange of gunfire with police the following day.
1999 — Lennox Lewis becomes the first Britishborn undisputed heavyweight boxing champion of the 20th century when he defeats Evander Holyfield.
2003 — Residents of the remote village of Nubutautau, on the Fijian island of Viti Levu, apologise to the descendants of British missionary the Rev Thomas Baker. He was killed and eaten by their ancestors 136 years earlier, in 1867.
2005 — The former frigate HMNZS
Wellington is sunk off the coast of Island Bay, Wellington, to become a living reef for divers.
2013 — 4 World Trade Center officially
opens.