TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Monday, February 15, the 46th day of 2021. There are 319 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1842 — The wives and children of an advance party of settlers arrive at Nelson on the Lloyds. The voyage was horrendous, with 65 children dying and the crew treating the vessel as a virtual brothel.
1876 — Sir Julius Vogel assumes office as New Zealand’s prime minister on the resignation of Daniel Pollen. Six months earlier, Pollen had taken over the role from Sir Julius, who had served his first term between April 1873 and July 1875. Vogel’s second term (which lasted just under six months) ended when he resigned to take up a post in London.
1882 —SS Dunedin sails from Port Chalmers with the first refrigerated shipment of sheepmeat. All 5000 frozen carcasses arrive in excellent condition in Great Britain on May 24.
1909 — A fire at the Flores Theatre in Acapulco, Mexico, results in the deaths of 250 people.
1930 — The Dunedin Town Hall is officially opened.
1933 — Presidentelect Franklin D. Roosevelt escapes an attempt on his life in Miami by Giuseppe Zangara, an Italianborn anarchist.
1942 — Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces World War 2.
1947 — Wellington is hammered by an intense cyclone, which causes considerable damage.
1949 — Gerald Lankester Harding and Roland de Vaux begin excavations at Cave 1 of the Qumran Caves, where they will eventually discover the first seven Dead Sea Scrolls.
1951 — The Port Employers’ Association starts a partial lockout of waterside employees, who have imposed an overtime ban as part of industrial action over a wage claim. The dispute will last four months and divide the country. At its height, more than 20,000 unionists were involved.
1965 — Replacing the old Red Ensign design, Canada’s new flag, with its mapleleaf design, is unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa. This date is now celebrated annually as National Flag of Canada Day.
1971 — Britain changes to decimal currency, making the pound worth 100 pence and dispensing with all other previously used coins and banknotes.
1977 — The first commercial flight between New Zealand and the Antarctic begins operating as a day trip by Air New Zealand. Among the 232 passengers and 24 crew on the DC10 was the grandniece of Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott.
1978 — Set 137 for victory in the first test at the Basin Reserve in Wellington, England was dismissed for 64, with Richard Hadlee taking six for 26, to assist the New Zealand cricket team to its first test victory over England in 48 attempts. The threetest series was drawn 11.
1982 — Eightyfour men are killed when a huge oildrilling rig, the Ocean Ranger, sinks off the coast of Newfoundland, Canada, during a storm.
1986 — Ferdinand Marcos wins a rigged presidential election in the Philippines.
1992 — A protest rally takes place in Dunedin over planned cuts to surgical services. Among the protesters were approximately 4000 people who travelled from the Clutha and Oamaru districts to protest cuts to surgical services in their areas.
2003 — An estimated 6 million to 11 million people around the world take to the streets to protest against US and British plans to invade Iraq.
2012 — A fire at a Honduran prison in the city of Comayagua kills 360 people.
2013 — A meteor explodes over Russia, injuring 1500 people as a shock wave blows out windows and rocks buildings. The event occurs only hours before the expected closest ever approach of the larger and unrelated asteroid 2012 DA14.
2020 — In China, Beijing orders people returning to the city after Lunar New Year holiday to selfquarantine for 14 days to prevent spread of Covid19.
Today’s birthdays:
Gustavus von Tempsky, New Zealand artist (182868); George Allen, New Zealand architect/ surveyor (18371929); William Nelson, New Zealand farmer/industrialist (18431932); Mere Mete Whaanga, New Zealand Maori missionary (18481944); Alexander Galbraith, New Zealand trade unionist/politician (18831959); Air Marshal Sir Hector Douglas McGregor, New Zealand senior Royal Air Force commander (191073); Doreen Lang, New Zealand actress (191599); Jimmy James, New Zealand dancer/cabaret proprietor (191592); David Hall, New Zealand chemist/ crystallographer (19282016); Claire Bloom, Englishborn actress (1931); Mick Avory, British musician (1944); Kurt Ganzl, New Zealand actor/ writer/singer (1946); Jane Seymour, Englishborn actress (1951); Elizabeth Knox, New Zealand writer (1959); Ali Campbell, British singer (1959); Jock Hobbs, All Black and rugby administrator (19602012); T. Amalia Hall, New Zealand violinist (1989); Zachary Gordon, US actor (1998).
Quote of the day
‘‘I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.’’ — Susan B. Anthony, US social reformer/women’s rights activist, who was born on this day in 1820. She died in 1906, aged 86.