TODAY IN HISTORY TODAY is Tuesday, October 19, the 292nd day of 2021. There are 73 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date: 1774 — Captain Cook makes his fourth visit to New Zealand. 1781 — British troops under Lord Cornwallis surrend
with damage estimated at £500,000. Earlier in the year, the firm’s paper division was also extensively damaged by fire.
1966 — US president Lyndon B. Johnson arrives for a short visit to New Zealand.
1969 — US vicepresident Spiro Agnew refers to antiVietnam War protesters as
‘‘an effete corps of impudent snobs’’.
1974 — Niue gains selfgovernance in association with New Zealand.
1977 — The supersonic Concorde makes its first landing in New York after 19 months of delays caused by residents concerned about the aircraft’s noise.
1980 — An appeal is launched for a CT body scanner at Dunedin Hospital.
1982 — Plans to build an aluminium smelter at Aramoana are abandoned by Minister of Energy Bill Birch.
1983 — The commander of Grenada’s armed forces announces that Prime Minister Maurice Bishop, who was under house arrest, was killed by soldiers after he tried to seize army headquarters.
1987 — The Government sells New Zealand Steel to listed company Equiticorp as part of its asset sales programme, as stock markets crash around the world. The Dow Jones Industrial Average plunges 508 points, or 22.6% in value, its biggest
percentage drop in decades. The day is known as ‘‘Black Monday’’.
1992 — The Fred Hollows Foundation is launched in New Zealand.
1995 — Three die after a hotair balloon is blown across Christchurch, eventually landing in the sea several hundred metres off Waimairi Beach.
2004 — Myanmar’s secretive military regime forces out its prime minister, the longpowerful General Khin Nyunt, and places him under house arrest on corruption charges.
2005 — Chile’s Supreme Court strips former dictator General Augusto Pinochet of immunity from prosecution in relation to corruption charges linked to his multimilliondollar bank accounts.
2012 — The road to Milford Sound reopens to singlelane traffic a week after it was closed by a massive slip, which left rocks weighing up to 500 tonnes strewn across the highway.
2016 — A week after quitting his role as manager of Dunedin energy company
Delta, Richard Healey goes public over unsafe work practices and the rundown state of power poles in Dunedin and Central Otago. The number of power poles needing immediate replacement in the region is estimated to be in the thousands.
2017 — Almost a month after the general election, New Zealand gets a government when Winston Peters announces New Zealand First will form a coalition government with Labour and the Green Party, ending National’s nine years in
power. It is the first time under New Zealand’s MMP electoral system that the party gaining the most votes does not get to help form a government.
Today’s birthdays
Robert Coupland Harding, New Zealand printer/typographer/journalist/editor (18491916); Marion Mitchell, New Zealand singer (18761955); Read Masters, All Black/rugby administrator (190067); Edwin Coubray, New Zealand projectionist/filmmaker/inventor (190097); John le Carre, British author (19312020); Michael Gambon, BritishIrish actor (1940); Maire Leadbeater, New Zealand human rights/ peace activist and writer (1945); John Lithgow, US actor (1945); Rocky Wood, New Zealandborn writer (19592014); Jennifer Holliday, US singer (1960); Evander Holyfield, US former heavyweight boxing champion (1962); Gary Lawson, New Zealand lawn bowler (1965); Jon Favreau, US actor/director (1966); Trey Parker, US comedian/animator (1969);
Glen Mitchell, New Zealand cyclist (1972); Miriama Kamo, New Zealand television presenter (1973); Desmond Harrington, US actor (1976); Rebecca Ferguson, Swedish actress (1983); Ciara Renee, US actress (1990).
Quote of the day
‘‘I am not a politician . . . I only suffer the consequences.’’ — Peter Tosh, Jamaican reggae musician, who was born on this day in 1944. He was murdered during a home invasion in 1987, aged 42.