TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY is Wednesday, September 7, the 251st day of 2022. There are 115 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1776 — Turtle, the first submarine used in warfare, makes an unsuccessful attempt to attach a mine to British admiral Richard Howe’s flagship Eagle in New York Harbour.

1850 — The first settlers selected by the Canterbury Association leave Plymouth aboard the ships Charlotte Jane, Randolph and Cressy.

1878 — The Christchurch to Dunedin railway line opens. Among the first passengers are the governor (George Phipps), the Marquess of Normanby, and a number of MPs.

1880 — The Auckland Free Public Library is officially opened.

1892 — At the Olympic Club in New Orleans, the first boxing match under Marquess of Queensberry rules is held, with Gentleman Jim Corbett knocking out John Lawrence Sullivan in the 21st round.

1909 — A gold nugget named the ‘‘Honourable Roddy’’ is discovered at Bullock Point, near the Ross goldfields. Weighing 99.63oz (3.09kg), and the size of a person’s hand, it was the biggest nugget ever found in New Zealand. It was bought from the miners for £400 and then sold to the Government, which gifted it to King George V for his coronation.

1921 — A South African journalist was outraged when European spectators supported the New Zealand Maori team in its match against the touring Springboks at Napier. ‘‘Spectacle thousands Europeans frantically cheering on band of coloured men to defeat members of own race was too much for Springboks, who frankly disgusted,’’ he telegraphed, while reporting on the tourists’ 98 victory.

1927 — American television pioneer

Philo T. Farnsworth succeeds in transmitting the image of a line through purely electronic means with a device called an ‘‘image dissector’’.

1936 — What was said to be the last Tasmanian tiger dies in Hobart’s Beaumaris Zoo.

1940 — In World War 2, the German air force, under Hermann Goering, begins its Blitz bombing campaign on London.

1942 — The Gisborne to Napier railway opens.

1962 — Sir Guy Richardson Powles (57) is chosen as New Zealand’s first ombudsman. He took up the post on October 1.

1969 — The multimilliondollar Manapouri power scheme begins electricity generation.

1977 — The Panama Canal treaties, calling for the US to eventually turn over control of the waterway to Panama, are signed.

2010 — A magnitude5.2 earthquake shakes the Hawke’s Bay region. There are no reports of injury or damage.

2016 — Wind gusts of up to 142kmh batter Otago, downing trees and power lines across Dunedin, cutting power to an estimated 380 households.