TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Wednesday, April 21, the 111th day of 2021. There are 254 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1509 — Death of King Henry VII of England. His son, Henry VIII, becomes king of England.
1836 — The Mexicans are defeated by the Texans in the Battle of San Jacinto, thus ensuring Texan independence. With cries from the Texans of ‘‘Remember the Alamo!’’ and ‘‘Remember Goliad!’’, the combat lasted just 20 minutes.
1841 — The first European child is born in Otago.
1871 — Gas lighting begins in Welling
ton.
1882 — Frederick Whitaker assumes office as New Zealand’s premier for a second term, serving until September 1883. His first term ended almost 18 years earlier, when he served between October 1863 and November 1864.
1891 — Emily Siedeberg enrolls at the University of Otago as a medical student. In five years she will become New Zealand’s first female doctor.
1909 — Percy Redwood marries Agnes Ottaway, but days later the groom is exposed as male impersonator Amy Bock and arrested. A month later she was sentenced to two years’ hard labour.
1918 — Baron Manfred von Richthofen, the German ace known as the Red Baron, is killed in action during World War 1. He had shot down 80 Allied aircraft.
1941 — In what is described as a ‘‘brilliant rearguard action’’, Anzac forces cover the withdrawal of imperial troops from Greece.
1959 — English ballerina Dame Margot Fonteyn is jailed for a day in Panama while police look for her Panamanian husband, who was accused of plotting a coup.
1966 — Surgeons in Houston, Texas, make what is said to be the first implant of an artificial heart into a human.
1971 — The Court Theatre in Christchurch stages its first play, The Prime of
Miss Jean Brodie, in the city’s Provincial Council buildings.
1987 — Champion New Zealand cricket allrounder Richard Hadlee scores an unbeaten 151 against Sri Lanka in Colombo, the 100th test century scored by a New Zealander. In the process, he also added a further New Zealand test record when he shared 246 for the sixth wicket with captain Jeff Crowe.
1993 — The Supreme Court in La Paz, Bolivia, sentences former dictator Luis Garcia Meza to 30 years’ jail without parole for murder, theft, fraud and violating the constitution.
1994 — A Belfast court clears Paul Hill of the 1974 murder of a former British soldier, absolving him of IRA guerrilla links for which he was wrongfully jailed for 13 years.
1995 — The FBI arrests former soldier Timothy McVeigh at an Oklahoma jail, where he had spent two days on minor traffic and weapons charges. He was later charged in connection with the deadly Oklahoma City bombing.
1996 — Constable Glenn McKibben is fatally shot by former soldier Terence Thompson while standing beside his patrol car in Flaxmere. Thompson was later shot dead by the armed offenders squad.
1997 — The ashes of 1960s LSD guru Timothy Leary
and Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry are blasted into space in the world’s first space funeral.
2009 — Rotorua petrol station owner Leo Gao discovers that $10 million has mistakenly been deposited in his Westpac account. He splits the funds between finance companies and flees New Zealand.
2013 — Torrential rain causes havoc and flooding in the Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, Nelson and Marlborough regions. More than 100 businesses and homes are damaged in the Nelson areas of Richmond and Stoke when 104mm of rain falls in one hour alone; the final contingent of New Zealand soldiers returns from service in Afghanistan.
2019 — Terror attacks on churches and hotels on Easter Sunday in three Sri Lankan cities, Colombo, Negombo and Batticaloa, kill 258 people and injure about 500.
Today’s birthdays:
Charlotte Bronte, English novelist (181655); Dame Louise Henderson,
New Zealand artist (190294); Queen Elizabeth II (1926); Sir Geoffrey Palmer, 33rd New Zealand prime minister (1942); Iggy Pop, US singer (1947); Tony Danza, US actor (1951); Andie MacDowell, US actress (1958); Richie Barnett, New Zealand rugby league international (1972); Danyon Loader, double Olympic goldmedalwinning
New Zealand swimmer (1975); Princess Isabella of Denmark, daughter of Crown Prince Frederik and Tasmanianborn Crown Princess Mary (2007).
Quote of the day:
‘‘Life is about making choices, seeing those choices through and living through consequences.’’ — Molly Bloom, US entrepreneur/author, who was born on this day in 1978.