TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Monday, August 29, the 242nd day of 2022. There are 124 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1533 — Spanish conquistadors give Atahualpa, last emperor of the Incas, the choice of being burned at the stake or converting to Christianity. He converts and is garotted the same day.
1756 — Frederick II of Prussia invades Saxony, marking the start of the Seven Years’ War.
1782 — More than 800 die when the British warship HMS Royal George sinks at Spithead, at the entrance of Portsmouth Harbour, while repairs are being carried out just below the waterline. It is one of the most serious maritime losses to occur in British waters.
1793 — French commissioner LegerFelicite Sonthonax, facing a slave army and a British invasion, declares all slaves free in Haiti.
1831 — Michael Faraday demonstrates the first electric transformer.
1838 — The New Zealand Colonisation Company is founded in London, replacing
the New Zealand Association.
1842 — Great Britain and China sign the Treaty of Nanking, ending the Opium War.
1862 — During the US Civil War, the second Battle of Bull Run begins in Manassas, Virginia.
1882 — Spurred on by Australian fast bowler Fred Spofforth, who finished with match figures of 14 wickets for 90 runs, Australia defeats England at the Oval in its solitary test match of its tour of England that year. A mock obituary in the Sporting Times then declares the death of English cricket, saying its ashes will be taken to Australia
(the origin of the term the ‘‘Ashes’’).
1885 — The first motorcycle, built by Gottlieb Daimler in Germany, the Reitwagen, is patented.
1890 — New Zealand’s first big wharf strike begins when watersiders in Auckland are called upon to support striking Australian waterfront workers. During the strike’s twomonth duration, 10,000 New Zealand workers are involved.
1914 — Colonel Robert Logan leads a 1400strong expeditionary force to capture German Samoa in New Zealand’s first action of World War 1. This is the second German territory, after Togoland in East Africa, to fall to the Allies in the war. Meanwhile, the Otago and Southland section of the main body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force parades through Dunedin before embarking at Port Chalmers.
1944 — About 15,000 American troops march down the Champs Elysees in Paris as the French capital continues to celebrate its liberation from the Nazis.
1949 — The Soviet Union conducts its first nuclear test at Semipalatinsk.
1960 — Jordanian prime minister Hazza ElMajali and 10 others are assassinated by a time bomb.
1987 — New Zealand wins the World Netball Championships in Glasgow, when it beats Trinidad in the final 4937. The team was coached by Dunedin’s Lois Muir.
1991 — Soviet lawmakers suspend Communist Party activities nationwide and freeze its bank accounts because of the party’s role in a failed coup attempt.
1992 — The last Russian diplomats pull out of Kabul, ending a decade of involvement in Afghanistan.
2002 — Michael Skakel, a member of America’s politically prominent Kennedy family, is sentenced to 20 years life in prison for the 1975 murder of neighbour Martha Moxley.
2005 — Hurricane Katrina makes its second and third landfalls as a category 3 hurricane, devastating much of the US Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, causing over $115 billion in damage and costing more than 1836 lives.
2014 — Fallout continues after the revelation of a $1.5million fraud inquiry into the Dunedin City Council Citifleet, with the first resignations in relation to the scandal being tabled from council senior managers.
Today’s birthdays:
Elizabeth Fairburn Colenso, New Zealand missionary/Bible translator (18211904); Sir Charles Bowen, New Zealand politician (18301917); Alexander Hatrick, New Zealand merchant/shipowner/tourism entrepreneur (18571918); Edith Howes, New Zealand educationalist/writer of children’s literature (18721954); Te Kani Te
Ua, New Zealand tribal leader (18921966); Handley Brown, All Black (190473); Len Butterfield, New Zealand cricketer (191399); Eric Batchelor, New Zealand soldier twice awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal WW2 (19202010); Jack Laird, New Zealand potter/ceramist (19202009); Betty Lynn, US actress (1926); John Guy, New Zealand cricketer (1934); Elliott Gould, US actor (1938); Bill Hammond, New Zealand artist (19472021); George Morris, New Zealand cricket umpire (1957); Michael Jackson, US pop star (19582009); Rebecca De Mornay, US actress (1959); Dina Spybey (Dina Waters), US actress (1965); Yvonne Vale, New Zealand footballer (1970); Carla Gugino, US actress (1971); Paula Tesoriero, New Zealand Paralympic racing cyclist (1975); Che Bunce, New Zealand footballer (1975); Nick Miller, New Zealand actor (1980); Jay
Ryan, New Zealand actor (1981); Lea Michele, US actress (1986); Samantha Harrison, New Zealand field hockey player (1991).