TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Tuesday, February 16, the 47th day of 2021. There are 318 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1659 — British merchant Nicholas Vanacker, writes out a cheque (dated on this day) payable to Mr Delboe for the grand sum of £400. It is the earliest modern British cheque for making a payment to be written and is now on on display at Westminster Abbey.
1770 — Captain James Cook sights Banks Peninsula from Endeavour and, deciding that it is an island, names its Banks Island in recognition of the expedition’s botanist, Joseph Banks. One of two significant errors on what was a remarkably accurate map of New Zealand Cook made on his first expedition, the error will not be realised until 1809, when Captain Samuel Chase of Pegasus attempts to sail between ‘‘Banks Island’’ and the Canterbury mainland.
1861 — Southland’s first newspaper, The Southern News and Foveaux Straits Herald, begins publication. It is renamed the Southland Daily News in 1875.
1865 — Work begins on a railway line from Auckland to Drury. Financially restricted, the project is abandoned two years later.
1890 — The barque Assaye leaves London bound for Wellington, but does not reach its destination. Wreckage of it and its cargo are discovered seven months later on the Chatham Islands; 24 lives were lost.
1898 — Thomas Bracken, who wrote New Zealand’s national anthem, God Defend New Zealand, dies aged 55.
1901 — Regiments of British troops march from the wharves to the Auckland Domain. Following the hot and dusty march, the men are denied a beer by the prohibitionist welcoming committee, although the officers are served Champagne.
1942 — During World War 2, the Bangka Island massacre takes place, in which 21 members of the Australian Army Nursing Service and other survivors from the sinking of the SS Vyner Brooke are massacred on Bangka Island. The only surviving nurse was Sister Vivian Bullwinkel.
1948 — A Dunedin man is one of three guests injured when a fire destroys the eastern wing of the Tourist Department’s hostel at Milford Sound.
1980 — TVNZ begins operations after it was formed from the breakup of Television One and South Pacific Television.
1983 — The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia lead to the deaths of 75 people and cause significant property and livestock loss.
1986 — The Soviet cruise ship Mikhail Lermontov runs aground and sinks in the Marlborough Sounds, with the loss of one life. Responsibility will later be found to rest with the Marlborough harbourmaster, who piloted the ship through a passage too shallow for it; French warplanes bomb a Libyan airfield in northern Chad used as a support centre for rebels in their offensive against President Hissene Habre’s government.
1987 — John Demjanjuk goes on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being Ivan the Terrible, a guard at the Treblinka concentration camp in World War 2.
1993 — Telecom announces a massive staff reduction programme that will effectively cut staff numbers nationwide by 5200 over four years, despite recording a thirdquarter profit of $121 million.
2005 — The Kyoto Protocol comes into force, following its ratification by Russia.
2008 — The 12 military medals for bravery, which were made up of nine Victoria Crosses, two George Crosses and an Albert Medal, stolen from the New Zealand Defence Force Museum just more than 10 weeks earlier, are recovered.
2011 — Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard makes history as the first foreign leader to address the New Zealand Parliament. Although she is not permitted to speak on the floor of the chamber for fear of setting a precedent, she speaks in the debating chamber.
2017 — A state of emergency is called as air crews and firefighters continue to battle wildfires over an estimated 1800ha in the Port Hills area of Christchurch. More than 1000 people are evacuated from homes in the area around Dyers Pass Rd and the Sign of the Takahe and a total fire ban is imposed between the South Canterbury and Hurunui districts; chocolatemanufacturing giant Cadbury announces plans to close its Dunedin plant. Final closure and job losses are to take effect in March 2018.
Today’s birthdays:
Thomas Grace, New Zealand missionary (181579); Andrew Cameron, New Zealand presbyterian minister/community leader (18551925); Dorothy (Dot) Simons, New Zealand sports administrator/writer (191296); Venn Young, New Zealand politician (192993); Robin Clark, New Zealand chemist (19352018); Bruce Beetham, New Zealand politician
(193697); Foss Leach, New Zealand archaeologist (1942); Laurie Mains, All Black and coach (1946); Errol Clince, New Zealand professional hunter/engineer (19532014); Ritchie Pickett, New Zealand singer/songwriter (19552011); Marcus Turner, New Zealand singer/ songwriter (19562016); Vincent Ward, New Zealand film director (1956); IceT, US actorrapper (1958); John McEnroe, US tennis player (1959); Andy Taylor, British musician (1961); Christopher Eccleston, English actor (1964); Philipp Plein, German fashion designer (1978); Hadyn Green, New Zealand actor/screenwriter (1979); Valentino Rossi, Italian motorcyclist (1979); Elizabeth Olsen, US actress (1989).
Quote of the day
‘‘There’s a saying among prospectors: ‘Go out looking for one thing, and that’s all you’ll ever find’.’’ — Robert J. Flaherty, US filmmaker, who was born on this day in 1884. He died in 1951, aged 67.