TODAY IN HISTORY
TODAY is Saturday February 10, the 41st day of 2024. There are 325 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:
1777 — Captain Cook arrives for a third visit to New Zealand.
1873 — New South Wales coalminers win a 10.5hour day after a sixweek strike against 12hour days.
1908 — Auckland gets its first public supply of electricity, 20 years after Wellington, via a steampowered generator run in conjunction with the city’s destructor at Freemans Bay.
1933 — The first singing telegram service is introduced by the Postal Telegram Company in New York.
1958 — The Queen Mother visits Dunedin.
1967 — The New Zealand government announces an end to subsidies on flour and butter. On the same day, the last delivery of free milk in schools, which began 30 years earlier, takes place.
1985 — New Zealand’s major trading banks operate a pilot scheme for eftpos through 19 of Auckland’s petrol stations. Despite a number of problems with its acceptance, eftpos eventually becomes a permanent and vital method of financial transactions in New Zealand.
1992 — Heavyweight boxing champion Mike Tyson is convicted in Indianapolis of raping Desiree Washington, a Miss Black America contestant.
1996 — An IBM computer called Deep Blue makes chess history by beating Garry Kasparov, in the first game of the sixgame match, the first time a chessplaying computer has beaten a reigning world champion under chess tournament rules.
1997 — A civil jury heaps $US25 million in punitive damages on O.J. Simpson for the slayings of his exwife and her friend.
2002 — The last Southerner passenger train service travels to Christchurch.
2005 — Prince Charles announces his engagement to Camilla Parker Bowles.
2013 — During the Hindu festival Kumbh Mela, a stampede brakes out at the train station in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India, leading to the deaths of 42 people and injuring about 45 others.
2022 — The first Covid19 cases for 22 months are detected in Dunedin and Queenstown.
2023 — US songwriter Burt Bacharach dies.
Today’s birthdays: William Reeves, New Zealand journalist/ newspaper proprietor/politician (182591); Harriet Sophia Cobb, New Zealand photographer (18461929); Sir James Allen, New Zealand politician/diplomat (18551942); William Pember Reeves, New Zealand statesman/historian/poet (18571932); Thomas Hunter, New Zealand dentist/public health administrator (18631958); Thomas Bloodworth, New Zealand politician (18821974); Diamond Jenness, New Zealandborn scientist (18861969); Boris Pasternak, Russia writer (18901960); Jimmy Durante, US actor (18931980); Harold Macmillan, English politician (18941986); Bertolt Brecht, German playwright (18981956); Beau Cottrell, All Black (190788); George Hart, All Black/New Zealand serviceman WW2 (190944); Paul Whitelaw, New Zealand cricketer (191088); Manuhuia Bennett, New Zealand bishop (19162001); Dorothy Freed, New Zealand author/composer/music historian (19192000); Leontyne Price, US soprano (1927); Robert Wagner, US actor (1930); Keith Bagley, All Black (19311999); Fleur Adcock, New Zealand poet/editor (1934); Roberta Flack, US singer (1937); Mark Spitz, US swimmer (1950); Greg Norman, Australian entrepreneur/retired professional golfer (1955); John Campbell, New Zealand journalist (1964); Laura Dern, US actress (1967); Henry Paul, New Zealand rugby league player (1974); Stephanie Beatriz, US actress (1981); Uzo Abuda, US actress (1981); Nikita Ramsey, British actress (1988); Emma Roberts, US actress (1991); Samantha Hoopes, US model (1991); Vivian Nouri, New Zealand recording artist (1993); Nicole van der Kaay, New Zealand triathlete (1996); Chloe Grace Moretz, US actress (1997).