Within living memory . . .
TODAY is Saturday, June 3, the 154th day of 2023. There are 211 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
— Explorer Hernando De Soto claims Florida in the Americas for Spain.
— While in Tahiti, Captain James Cook, Joseph Banks, Charles Green, and Daniel Solander record the transit of Venus.
— The University of Otago is created as a corporate body with the power to grant degrees in the arts, law, medicine and music.
— The Dunedin Working Men’s Club opens in premises formerly known as Storry’s Dining Rooms, in Princes St, opposite the post office.
— The immigrant ship Trevelyan ,onthe way from Glasgow to Auckland, founders in a storm off the Cape of Good Hope; 100 lives are lost.
— Future New Zealand prime minister Joseph Ward lays the foundation stone for the Dunedin Railway Station. Designed by Sir George Troup, it will be officially opened in 1906, although not completed until 1907.
— Britain’s Duke of Windsor, formerly King Edward VIII, marries American divorcee Wallis Simpson in France.
— The first intake of women into the New Zealand police force begins training. Although having the same legal powers as their male counterparts, they are used as typists and clerks and will not be issued uniforms until 1952.
—The Otago Daily Times reveals the widespread use of the drug Benzedrine (amphetamine) in Dunedin as a stimulant.
— Pop artist Andy Warhol is shot and critically wounded in his New York film studio, known as The Factory, by radical feminist, author and actress Valerie Solanas.
— A wellhead blowout on the Ixtoc I rig spills some 3 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, one of the worst oil spills in history.
— Chinese troops storm Tiananmen Square, killing hundreds of prodemocracy demonstrators; more than 500 people die and hundreds of others are injured when gas from a leaking pipeline explodes, engulfing two packed passenger trains on the TransSiberian Railway.
— Archaeologists scouring the Mediterranean seabed announce they have found the 2500yearold ruins of the submerged Pharaonic cities Heracleion, Canopus and Menouthis, previously known only through Greek tragedies, travelogues and legends.
— Martin Guptill records the highest score by a New Zealander in oneday international cricket, 189 not out against England at Southampton. His total equalled that of ‘‘Master Blaster’’ Sir Vivian Richards (West Indies) as the highest score by any player against England.
— New Zealand singer Lorde releases her debut single Royals. It won the Grammy for song of the year in 2014.
— Hashim Amla becomes the first nonwhite captain of the South African national cricket team.
— A terrorist attack in Borough Market, London, by three men who drove a van into pedestrians then stabbed and killed seven and wounded 48. The attackers were shot dead by British police.
Today’s birthdays:
Henry (Rex) Mason, New Zealand politician (18851975); Ken Armstrong, New Zealand and England dual international footballer (192484); John R. Reid, New Zealand cricket captain (19282020); Colin Meads, All Black (19362017); Suzi Quatro, US singer (1950); Dan Hill, Canadian singer (1954); Scott Valentine, US actor (1958); James Purefoy, English actor (1964); Wasim Akram, Pakistani cricketer/commentator (1966); Simon Maling, All Black (1975); Miriama Smith, New Zealand actress (1976); Rafael Nadal, Spanish tennis player (1986); Imogen Poots, English actress (1989); Sarah McLaughlin, New Zealand footballer (1991).
Quote of the day:
CHRIS HIPKINS
The Prime Minister sighed, and started packing for the long weekend. He chided himself for sighing. He sighed so often these days. It had come with the job.
He laid out a suitcase on the bed. It still had a baggage tag on it from a trip he had taken last year. Last year! It felt so long ago. He remembered that trip — sunlight, a few drinks at twilight, the usual paperwork but he was on top of it, he was always on top of it back then. He flipped open the case. The past, he reflected, was another holiday.
He packed a suit. Then he remembered the suit he had downstairs from the drycleaner, and he brought it back to his room, and packed it as well. Then he packed six business shirts, and three pairs of leather shoes.
There was something missing. He sighed, and packed another suit. Well, he reflected, it is called a suitcase.
CHRISTOPHER LUXON
The leader of the National Party said to an aide, whose name he had forgotten, ‘‘Pack my suitcase for me, will you?’’
He put his feet up. He swiped through social media on his phone to see what people were saying about his ‘‘Get NZ Back On Track’’ tour. He saw a lot of positives, especially his stand on crime.
‘‘Gangs are not nice people,’’ he had said. ‘‘We are going to back our police and give them the tools they need.’’
He had good writers. And they knew the value of statistics.
‘‘Violent crime is up 30%. Retail crime is up 40%. Gang memberships are up over 60% and in five of our police districts we have more gang members than we now have police officers.’’
He got a bit bored reading the tweets and retweets, and looked for a game. He found an app for Subway Surfers.
He called out to an aide, ‘‘How do you play this?"
KIRI ALLAN
The Labour Cabinet member sighed, and started packing for the long weekend.
It had been a niggling week. She had read the wrong speech at the third reading of a freedom camping bill in Parliament. There had been a muckup, a misunderstanding. By mistake, she reread almost word for word a speech given at the Selfcontained Motor Vehicles
Legislation Bill’s second reading.
She sighed. It wasn’t her fault. She had been roped in to speak on the bill at the last minute, and Labour whips gave her the wrong speech to read.
It wasn’t a big deal. Nobody died. But she was aware it was a bad look, and that National would exploit it as a sign the government were in disarray, a shambles, all at sea.
Things couldn’t be further from the truth. She was part of a welloiled machine, full of purpose, on top if it.
She searched for her suitcase, but couldn’t find it. She sighed.
KING CHARLES III
The King said, ‘‘What have we got on this weekend, dear?’’
The Queen said, ‘‘Nothing.’’
‘‘But isn’t it King’s Birthday Weekend? The very first King’s Birthday Weekend?’’
‘‘Only in one or two of the colonies,’’ she said.
‘‘Which ones?’’
‘‘New Zealand, I think,’’ she said. ‘‘Ah yes,’’ he said. ‘‘Good old New Zealand.’’
He sighed, happily.