TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Friday, July 23, the 204th day of 2021. There are 161 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1846 — Governor George Grey’s men capture Te Rauparaha at Plimmerton. Despite being held prisoner for 10 months before being placed under house arrest, he is not charged with any crime.
1851 — The ship Maria sinks off Cape Terawhiti. The incident claims 26 lives, including that of William Deans, who in 1843 was the first European to settle on the Canterbury Plains.
1870 — The schooners Enterprise and Tauranga sink after colliding between Cape Rodney and Sail Rock in the Hauraki Gulf; 18 lives are lost.
1904 — Dunedin’s Carisbrook ground hosts New Zealand’s first international football match, with New South Wales defeating the New Zealand side 1nil. A week later the sides drew 3all in Wellington.
1907 — An antipodes team including New Zealander Anthony Wilding defeats the British Isles 32 to win the Davis Cup. Wilding is also in the team that defends the prestigious tennis trophy in 1908 and 1909, and wins it again in 1914. Wilding won the Wimbledon singles title for four consecutive years (19101913).
1909 — A number of residents see a mysterious airship in the skies above Kelso.
1910 — Dr Alice Burn and Lady Anna Stout represent New Zealand at the great suffragette demonstration in Hyde Park, London.
1914 — AustriaHungary issues an ultimatum to Serbia after the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. The dispute led to World War 1.
1931 — A telephone link between New Zealand and Britain is officially launched, at a cost of £6 15s (more than a week’s wage then) for a threeminute call to England, Scotland or Wales. The cost to call the Isle of Man, Northern Ireland and Dublin is £7 1s for three minutes.
1942 — The gas chambers at Treblinka extermination camp begin operation, killing 6500 Jews who had been transported from the Warsaw Ghetto the day before.
1952 — Setting an Olympic record distance of 20ft 5in (6.24m), Yvette Williams wins the long jump at the Helsinki Olympic Games, becoming New Zealand’s first female Olympic gold medallist. God Defend
New Zealand is played following the national anthem God Save The Queen, at the medal ceremony. This is the first time the national hymn is heard at the Olympics and 20 years will pass before it is played again.
1958 — Queen Elizabeth II names four women to peerages, the first women to sit in Britain’s House of Lords.
1986 — Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson; they become the Duke and Duchess of York.
1995 — Comet HaleBopp is discovered and becomes visible to the naked eye around a year later. It remains visible for 18 months.
2009 — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and North Korea exchange pointed barbs, with Clinton declaring that North Korea ‘‘has no friends left’’ and the communist regime calling the US official a ‘‘schoolgirl’’.
2010 — Boy band One Direction is formed during the X Factor show as Niall Horan, Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Zayn Malik and Louis Tomlinson join together.
2011 — The Otago crosscountry team breaks a 53year drought, winning the senior men’s national teams title for the first time since 1958.
2012 — New Zealand’s most acclaimed children’s writer, Margaret Mahy, dies after a brief illness, aged 76. Mahy wrote her first story when she was 7, going on to write more than 120 books, which were translated into 15 languages.
2018 — Japan records its highest temperature at 41.1 degrees (105.98F) in Kumagaya. 2019 — Boris Johnson is chosen as the new British Prime Minister by the ruling Conservative Party to replace Theresa May.
Today’s birthdays:
Estelle Girda Beere, New Zealand dance teacher (18751959); Arthur Lindo Patterson, New Zealandborn pioneering Xray crystallographer (190266); Sir Jack Harris, New Zealand businessman (19062009); Douglas Goodfellow, New Zealand businessman (19172014); Peter Gordon, New Zealand politician (192191); Tom O’Donnell, New Zealand medical practitioner/academic (19262014); Dame Te Atairangikaahu, Maori queen (19312006); Woody Harrelson, US actor (1961); Eriq La Salle, US actor (1962); Paul Arthurs, British guitarist (1965); Charisma Carpenter, US actress (1970); Selma Blair, US actress (1972); Kathryn Hahn, US actress (1973); Stephanie March, US actress (1974); Emmanuelle Vaugier, Canadian actress (1976); Paul Wesley, US actor (1982); Duffy, Welsh singer (1984); Daniel Radcliffe, British actor (1989); Selina Goddard, New Zealand lawn bowls player (1994).
Quote of the day:
‘‘When I think of the person that I thought was Bill Clinton, I think he had genuine remorse. When I think of the person that I now see is 100 percent politician, I think he's sorry he got caught.’’ — Monica Lewinsky, former White House intern with whom President Bill Clinton admitted to having had what he termed an ‘‘inappropriate relationship’’. She was born on this day in 1973.