TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Tuesday, January 26, the 26th day of 2021. There are 339 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1841 — The British flag is raised on Hong Kong Island, six days after China agrees to cede it to Britain.
1844 — Following calls for revenge, Governor Robert FitzRoy rules that Ngati Toa had been provoked by the unreasonable actions of the Europeans when 22 settlers were killed seven months earlier at Tuamarina, in the Wairau Valley (10km north of today’s town of Blenheim). The ‘‘Wairau Massacre’’ was the first serious clash of arms between Maori and British settlers following the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi. Four Maori were also killed in the encounter.
1875 — Hillside Railway Workshops in Dunedin begins operation; the electric dental drill is patented by its inventor, George F. Green, of Kalamazoo.
1879 — The foundation stone is laid for Dunedin’s Roman Catholic Cathedral by Bishop Moran.
1883 — The New Zealand Shipping Company inaugurates a steam service to England.
1905 — The world’s largest diamond, the Cullinan, is discovered near Pretoria, weighing 3106 carats. Named after Thomas Cullinan, the chairman of the mine in which it was discovered, and presented to King Edward VII of Britain for his 66th birthday, it was cut into several polished gems, the largest of which is named Cullinan I or the Great Star of Africa, at 530.4 carats.
1915 — The Rocky Mountain National Park is established in the US.
1926 — Scottish inventor John Logie Baird demonstrates the world’s first working television system to members of the Royal Institution of Great Britain and a reporter from
The Times in his laboratory at 22 Frith St in the Soho district of London.
1932 — Norman (Wizard) Smith breaks the world’s 10mile landspeed record on Ninety Mile Beach. Smith’s average speed was 164.084mph (264kmh).
1940 — At the Palmerston North Showgrounds, the 28th (Maori) Battalion assembles for the first time.
1952 — AntiBritish riots take place in Cairo, killing more than 20 and destroying by fire the famous Shepheard’s Hotel.
1961 — Installed at a cost of £20,000, floodlights are switched on at Forbury Park Raceway for Dunedin’s first trotting meeting under lights. A record crowd of more than 12,000 attended the meeting.
1962 — Ranger 3 is launched to study the moon but later, due to several malfunctions, misses the moon by 35,400km.
1965 — The military seizes power in South Vietnam, ousting the civilian government of Tran van Huong; Hindi becomes the official language of India, leading to riots in the south of the country.
1966 — The Beaumont children, Jane (9), Arnna (7), and Grant (4), disappear after travelling by bus to Glenelg Beach, near Adelaide. The case has never been solved.
1980 — After a state of war had existed for more than 30 years, Egypt and Israel formally establish diplomatic relations.
1984 — A storm hits Fiordland and Southland, causing widespread flooding that forces thousands to be evacuated. While there was no human loss of life, stock losses were heavy throughout the region and damage to property significant.
1986 — The Ugandan government of Tito Okello is overthrown by the National Resistance Army, led by Yoweri Museveni.
1992 — Russian president Boris Yeltsin announces Russia will stop targeting US cities with nuclear weapons.
1993 — Vaclav Havel is elected president of the new Czech Republic.
1994 — Romania becomes the first former Cold War foe of Nato to sign a partnership document with the military alliance.
1998 — United States president Bill Clinton denies having an affair with a White House intern, telling reporters, ‘‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky’’.
2000 — More than a year after a DNA test suggests that Thomas Jefferson may have had a son by his slave Sally Hemings, the Thomas Jefferson Memorial Foundation, which owns Jefferson’s home, acknowledges he probably was the father of one, if not all six, of her children.
2003 — US tennis star Martina Navratilova becomes the oldest player to win a grand slam title when at 46 she takes the Australian Open mixed doubles with partner Leander Paes.
2018 — Following a $20 million earthquakestrengthening and refurbishment project, Dunedin’s Law Courts buildings are officially opened by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern.
2020 — A Sikorsky S76B flying from John Wayne Airport to Camarillo Airport crashes in Calabasas, 48km west of Los Angeles, killing all nine people on board including former fivetime NBA champion Kobe Bryant and his daughter Gianna Bryant.
Today’s birthdays:
Frank Jolly, New Zealand local body politician (18651943); Douglas MacArthur, US general (18801964); Percy Roderick Coleman, New Zealand motorcycle racer/businessman/ aviator (18971965); Les Gandar, New Zealand politician/diplomat (191994); Barbara Heslop, New Zealand immunologist (19252013); Murray Ball, New Zealand cartoonist (19392017); Scott Glenn, US actor (1941); Lucinda Williams, US singer (1953); Ellen DeGeneres, US actress (1958); Philip (Shane) Ardern, New Zealand politician (1960); Ganesh Nana, New Zealand economist (1960); Andrew Ridgeley, British musician (1963); Pippa Wetzell, New Zealand television personality/ journalist (1977); Colin O’Donoghue, Irish actor (1981); Laura Wilson, New Zealandborn actress (1983).
Quote of the day:
‘‘If you’re playing a poker game and you look around the table and can’t tell who the sucker is, it’s you.’’ — Paul Newman, US actor/film director/race car driver/ entrepreneur, who was born on this day in 1925. He died in 2008, aged 83.
ODT and agencies