TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY is Tuesday, April 16, the 107th day of 2024. There are 259 days left in the year. Highlights in history on this date:

1746 — The Duke of Cumberland’s forces defeat the Jacobite Scots at the Battle of Culloden, near Inverness,

Scotland. The Scots lose over 1000 men and most of the remaining are massacred.

1892 — At a meeting in Wellington, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union is founded, despite Otago and Canterbury withdrawing support.

1897 — The Tutaekuri River in Hawkes Bay breaks its banks. Subsequent flooding causes 12 men to drown, 10 of whom are swept away in rescue attempts.

1900 — The United States Post Office issues the first books of postage stamps.

1908 — A new factory for the manufacture of Lane’s Creosoted Emulsion medicament is opened in Oamaru’s Harbour St.

1912 — Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to gain a pilot’s licence, becomes the first female to fly an aircraft across the Channel from England to France.

1917 — Vladimir Lenin issues his radical ‘‘April Theses’’, calling for Soviets to take power during the Russian Revolution.

1922 — The Treaty of Rapallo between Germany and the Soviet Union recognises the Soviet Union as a ‘‘great power’’ and leads to the resumption of diplomatic and trade relations.

1947 — The French freighter SS Grandcamp, with a cargo of ammonium nitrate fertiliser, explodes in the Port of Texas City, Texas, at Galveston Bay, killing at least 581 people and destroying most of the town’s business district. It is the deadliest industrial accident in US history, and one of the world’s largest nonnuclear explosions.

1948 — The Organisation for European Economic Cooperation (EEC) forms in Paris.

1953 — The British Royal Yacht Britannia is launched, just months before Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation.

1964 — Nine men receive sentences of between 25 and 30 years for their part in Britain’s 1963 Great Train Robbery.

1973 — Arthur Allan Thomas is convicted of the murders of Harvey and Jeanette Crewe for a second time, and again sentenced to life imprisonment. He is later pardoned and paid compensation

1982 — Queen Elizabeth II proclaims Canada’s new constitution, severing the last colonial links with Britain.

1996 — Prince Andrew of Britain and his wife, Sarah Ferguson, announce they are to divorce after 10 years of marriage; an Italian court finds disgraced former prime minister Bettino Craxi guilty on further charges of corruption and sentences him to prison.

2011 — Christchurch is battered, once again, by a powerful 5.3magnitude earthquake, which struck the city at 5.49pm, followed by a series of aftershocks, the largest measuring 4.1.

2013 — The fishing boat Lady Anna rolls in heavy seas on the Greymouth bar, resulting in the loss of the boat’s skipper. The two crew cling to a flotation device and make it safely to shore.

2016 — Formed in 1939, the New Zealand Scottish Regiment has its final parade in Princes St, Dunedin. Its colours are presented to Toitu ¯ Otago Settlers Museum for safekeeping.

2018 — Kendrick Lamar is the first rapper and non classical or jazz musician to win the Pulitzer Prize for music with his album Damn.

Today’s birthdays:

ElisabethLouise Vigee Le Brun, French painter (17551842); Wilbur Wright, US aviator (18671912); Charles (Charlie) Chaplin, actor/director (18891977); Roger Mirams, New Zealand film director (19182004); Terrence ‘‘Spike’’ Milligan, IrishBritish actor (19182002); Sir Peter Ustinov, British actor (19212004); Henry Mancini, US composer/conductor (19241994); Pope Benedict XVI (19272022); Dusty Springfield [Mary O'Brien], British singer (193999); Queen Margrethe II of Denmark (1940); Kareem AbdulJabbar, US professional basketballer (1947); Peter Garrett, Australian singer-politician (1953); Ellen Barkin, US actress (1954); Jimmy Osmond, US singer (1963); Peter Billingsley, US actor (1971); Akon, US singer/songwriter (1973); Claire Foy, British actress (1984); Laura Langman, New Zealand netballer (1986); Anya TaylorJoy, British actress (1996).

Quote of the day:

‘‘I thought I’d begin by reading a poem by Shakespeare, but then I thought, why should I? He never reads any of mine." — Terrence ‘‘Spike’’ Milligan, IrishBritish writer, actor and comedian, who was born this day in 1918. He died in 2022.

ODT and agencies