TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Tuesday, February 9, the 40th day of 2021. There are 325 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1770 — The Endeavour’s arrival at Cape Turnagain, halfway between Hawke Bay and Cook Strait, completes Captain James Cook’s circumnavigation of the North Island and confirmed that it was not part of the fabled continent, Terra Australis Incognita (unknown southern land).
1857 — The first gold from diggings in the Nelson area is put up for auction. The ensuing goldrush to the area brings about a name change, from Massacre Bay to Golden Bay.
1878 — A visiting British steamer mistaken for a hostile Russian raider causes panic in Wellington. The country is in the midst of the first Russian scare, forcing the Government to apply to Great Britain for heavy guns to increase coastal defences; the foundation stone for the University of Otago is laid in Castle St.
1895 — While working as director of physical education at the YMCA in Holyoke, Massachusetts, William G. Morgan creates a game called Mintonette, which soon comes to be referred to as volleyball.
1900 — Designed by Wellington architect George Stevenson, the Wanganui Opera House opened by New Zealand premier Richard Seddon. It was built to mark Queen Victoria’s 60year reign; in the sport of tennis the Davis Cup competition is established.
1908 — Dunedin’s world champion walker, Joe Scott, dies, aged 48.
1911 — Leo Walsh of Auckland successfully flies his homemade biplane at Papakura.
1949 — Mt Ngauruhoe erupts violently, discharging debris 100m skyward. Eruptions last for more than a week.
1950 — Senator Joseph McCarthy accuses the US Department of State of being filled with communists.
1951 — The beginning of industrial action on New Zealand’s waterfront that will divide the country and last for 151 days.
1959 — The R7 Semyorka, the first intercontinental ballistic missile, becomes operational at Plesetsk, in the Soviet Union.
1962 — Jamaica becomes an independent nation within the British Commonwealth.
1964 — The Beatles make their first live American television appearance on The Ed
Sullivan Show.
1965 — The US Marine Corps sends a MIM23 Hawk missile battalion to South Vietnam, the first American troops incountry without an official advisory or training mission.
1969 — The first test flight of the Boeing 747 jumbo jet occurs.
1971 — An earthquake in the San Fernando Valley near Los Angeles kills at least 64 people.
1981 — Death of Bill Haley, US rock ’n’ roll pioneer and band leader.
1983 — The racehorse Shergar, the 1981 English Derby winner, is stolen from his stable in Ireland.
1988 — Dunedin’s inaugural Baldwin St Gut Buster race is held. The run up and down the world’s steepest street attracted 60 competitors and a large crowd of spectators. The fastest runtime was achieved by Brendon Downs, who recorded 2min 36sec, and Dunedin jeweller Iain Clark set a world record when he rollerskated to the top.
1990 — Kenyan Foreign Minister Robert Ouko is found slain at his family farm before he was to have presented a report on corruption.
2001 — A US navy submarine collides with a Japanese fishing boat off the Hawaiian coast, killing nine of those aboard the boat.
2003 — Pope John Paul II appeals for world prayer to avert war before the USled invasion of Iraq.
2006 — Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez calls President George W. Bush a ‘‘madman’’ and accuses the US and Britain of planning to invade Iran, Venezuela’s closest ally in the Middle East.
2007 — Australian kayaker Andrew McAuley is lost at sea while attempting a transtasman crossing. His kayak is believed to have capsized 65km from New Zealand’s Milford Sound.
2016 — Two passenger trains collide in the German town of Bad Aibling in the state of Bavaria. Twelve people died and 85 others were injured.
Today’s birthdays:
William Salmond, New Zealand Presbyterian minister/university professor/ writer (18351917); Charles Adnam
Mountfort, New Zealand surveyor (18541941); James Peter Speid Jamieson, New Zealand doctor/political lobbyist (18801963); Harold (Toby) Murray, All Black, serviceman WW1, community leader (18881971); Horace Belshaw, New Zealand teacher/economist/university professor (18981962); James Courage, New Zealand novelist/shortstory writer/ poet (19031963); Cecily Pickerill, New Zealand plastic surgeon (19031988); Noel Sharp, New Zealand air force officer World War 2 (19221942); Walter Brown, New Zealand actor (19272013); Janet Suzman, British actress (1939); Brian Bennett, English musician (1940); J. M. Coetzee, South African author (1940); Carole King, US singer (1942); Joe Pesci, US actor (1943); Alice Walker, US author (1944); Mia Farrow, US actress (1945); Holly Johnson, English musician (1960); Peter Salmon, New Zealand filmmaker (1976); Ziyi Zhang, Chinese actress (1979); Dane Rumble, New Zealand singersongwriter (1982).
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