TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Monday, February 1, the 32nd day of 2021. There are 333 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1842 — The ship Fifeshire arrives in Nelson with immigrants for the New Zealand Company’s first settlement in the South Island.
1867 — Authorised in 1864, Post Office Savings Banks begin operations in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Dunedin and Hokitika.
1877 — A rail service between Christchurch and Dunedin begins.
1884 — The first volume of the Oxford
English Dictionary is published.
1896 — Dunedin’s St Hilda’s Collegiate School is dedicated by the Bishop of Dunedin, the Rev Dr Samuel Tarratt Nevill.
1925 — Motor vehicle registration becomes law in New Zealand.
1935 — British silver coins cease to be legal tender in New Zealand. Local coins have been phased in since 1933.
1936 — A violent storm begins that will be responsible for the deaths of six people in the North Island and Marlborough, as well as causing the interisland steamer Rangatira to run aground off the Wellington heads.
1958 — The Queen Mother visits New Zealand.
1978 — Harriet Tubman becomes the first African American woman featured on a US postage stamp; film director Roman Polanski skips bail and flees to France after pleading guilty to charges of engaging in sex with a 13yearold girl.
1979 — Iranian Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns to Teheran after nearly 15 years of exile.
1981 — Australia defeats New Zealand in a oneday cricket international at the MCG, Melbourne, in a controversial and unsportsmanlike manner when Trevor Chappell bowls the final ball underarm to batsman Brian McKechnie.
1985 — New Zealand’s antinuclear stance leads to the refusal of a visit by the nuclearcapable USS Buchanan.The antinuclear policy of New Zealand irritates the US and eventually leads to the breakdown of the Anzus pact.
2003 — The US space shuttle Columbia breaks apart as it reenters Earth’s atmosphere at the end of a 16day scientific mission, killing its seven crew members and scattering debris across Texas and Louisiana.
2004 — In a stampede at the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia, 251 people are trampled to death and 244 injured; due to a wardrobe malfunction, Janet Jackson’s breast is exposed during the halftime show of Super Bowl XXXVIII, resulting in US broadcasters adopting a stronger adherence to censorship guidelines.
2012 — Auckland’s population reaches 1.5 million people, a third of the country’s population. When the country reached two million in 1952, Auckland’s population was 337,100. It grew to half a million in 1961 and passed 1 million in 1995; thousands of protesters gather outside the Christchurch City Council buildings to protest against inefficiency in the way the council is conducting its business and call for the resignations of the city’s chief executive, mayor and council.
2013 — Formerly London Bridge Tower, the Shard is opened to the public. Designed by Italian architect Renzo Piano, the Shard is a 72storey skyscraper standing 309.6m high and is the sixthtallest building in Europe; 26 people are killed when a truckload of fireworks explodes causing a highway to collapse in Henan, China
2015 — New Zealander Lydia Ko (17) finishes in a tie for second in the Coates Golf Championship in Florida and becomes the topranked women’s golfer in the world and the youngest player, male or female, to do so — breaking the previous record, held by Tiger Woods, by almost four years.
2018 — Heavy rain and galeforce winds sweep up the South Island, combining with a king tide and forcing a state of emergency to be declared in both Dunedin and the Buller District. The storm brings evacuations, power cuts and numerous road closures, and 115 motorists spend the night stranded near Fox Glacier.
Today’s birthdays:
James Duncan, New Zealand missionary/ presbyterian minister (18131907); Sir George Fenwick, New Zealand newspaper proprietor/editor (18471929); Russell Calvert, New Zealand local body politician (19092011); James Gould, New Zealand rower (191497); Denis Adam, New Zealand businessman/patron of the arts (19242018); John Dawson, New Zealand botanist (19282019); Nicholas Tarling, New Zealand historian (19312017); Don Everly, US singer (1937); Billy Mumy, US actor/producer/ writer (1954); Princess Stephanie of Monaco (1965); Sherilyn Fenn, US actress (1965); Sylvia Hume, New Zealand swimmer (1968); Lisa Marie Presley, US actress/singer (1968); Antonio Te Maioha, New Zealand actor (1970); Michael C. Hall, US actor (1971); Rachelle Lefevre, Canadian actress (1979); Sam Tuitupou, All Black (1982); Christian Huriwai, New Zealand unicyclist (1992); Harry Styles, English singer/songwriter (1994).
Quote of the day:
‘‘No man is an island. No man stands alone.’’ — Dennis Brown, Jamaican reggae singer, who was born on this day in 1957. He died in 1999, aged 42.