TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Wednesday, February 3, the 34th day of 2021. There are 331 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1862 — The Dun Mountain Railway begins operations in Nelson as New Zealand’s first railway line. It is 22km long and freewheels downhill to the port at Nelson. Horses hauled the wagons back up the hill.
1868 — A violent storm begins to sweep across much of New Zealand, wrecking 12 ships, including the Star of Tasmania and
Water Nymph at Oamaru, and causing flash floods. No fewer than 25 people lose their lives.
1906 — The first New Zealand domestic radio transmission is made by the Marconi Company at the Christchurch International Exhibition.
1908 — The first wireless message between New Zealand and Australia is transmitted between New Zealand prime minister Sir Joseph Ward and Alfred Deakin, using a warship as a repeater station.
1913 — Constable John Doyle is assaulted at the Albion Hotel, near Shannon, and dies from his injuries in hospital two days later.
1915 — Private William Ham (22) is wounded and dies two days later, when a combined New Zealand and Indian force defends the Suez Canal from a Turkish attack. He is New Zealand’s first casualty of World War 1.
1931 — A magnitude7.8 earthquake devastates Napier, Hastings and the Hawke’s Bay interior, killing 256 people and leaving thousands homeless.
1959 — Rock’n’roll singers Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and J.P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson die in a United States plane crash.
1960 — British prime minister Harold Macmillan addresses the South African Parliament, saying: ‘‘The wind of change is blowing through this continent’’.
1962 — Peter Snell breaks the world records for both the 880 yards and 800m in the same race at Christchurch.
1963 — After answering a call to a domestic dispute in Lower Hutt, constables James Richardson and Brian Schultz are fatally shot while still in their vehicle outside the address of the offender.
1965 — New supergroup The Rolling Stones perform at Dunedin’s Town Hall to mixed reviews. The performance of Roy Orbison as a touring support act was reported to have outclassed his contemporaries. New Zealand act Ray Columbus and the Invaders proved worthy leadin performers.
1966 — The first controlled (soft) landing on the moon is made by the Soviet spacecraft
Luna IX.
1967 — Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne.
1971 — New York Police Officer Frank Serpico is shot during a drug bust in Brooklyn but survives to later testify against police corruption.
1972 — A weeklong period of low temperatures and severe winter storms that will result in the deaths of an estimated 4000 people begins in Iran. The storms will dump more than 3m of snow across rural areas in northwestern, central and southern parts of the country.
1973 — Fighting in Vietnam comes to a halt after a ceasefire goes into effect.
1978 — Fifteenyearold New Zealand schoolgirl Meda McKenzie becomes the first female to swim across Cook Strait. She makes a return crossing two weeks later.
1981 — Gro Harlem Brundtland is elected Norway’s first woman prime minister following the resignation of Odvar Nordli.
1984 — A California woman becomes the world’s first to give birth to a baby from a donated embryo.
1994 — US president Bill Clinton lifts a 19year trade embargo against Vietnam.
1995 — Astronaut Eileen Collins becomes the first woman to pilot the Space Shuttle.
1998 — Twenty people are killed when a lowflying Nato aircraft severs the cable of a cablecar near Trento, Italy.
2016 — Lord Lucan's death certificate is granted, 42 years after he disappeared following the murder of nanny Sandra Rivett.
Today’s birthdays
James Copland, New Zealand Presbyterian minister/doctor/writer (18341902); Amy Maria Hellaby, New Zealand businesswoman (18641955); Horace MooreJones, New Zealand artist/soldier (18681922); Alice Horsley, New Zealand doctor (18711957); Joseph (Gordon) Coates, New Zealand prime minister (18781943); Reremoana Hakiwai, New Zealand community leader (18891981); John Marwick, New Zealand geologist/ paleontologist (18911978); Sir Tennant (Tay) Wilson, New Zealand member International Olympic Committee (19252014); Guy Ngan, New Zealand artist (19262017); Carolyn Burns, New Zealand ecologist (1942); Eric Haydock, British musician (1942); Dave Davies, British musician (1947); Melanie, US singer (1947); Morgan Fairchild, US actress (1950); Steve Maharey, New Zealand politician (1953); Nathan Lane, US actor (1956); Maura Tierney, US actress (1965); Shane Rangi, New Zealand actor (1969);
Brad Thorn, All Black and rugby league player (1975); Isla Fisher, Australian actress/author (1976); Bridget Regan, US actress (1982).
Quote of the day:
‘‘Whoever said money can't buy happiness simply didn't know where to go shopping.’’ — Gertrude Stein, US novelist, who was born on this day in 1874. She died 1946, aged 72.