ISEA Today in History - February
Today in History
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1587 English queen Elizabeth I signs Mary Stuart's death sentence
1842 Establishment of Nelson settlement ("Fifeshire".)
1923 Allied ultimatum on Lithuanian occupation of Memel.
1923 Fascists Voluntary Militia forms in Italy under Mussolini.
1933 German Parliament dissolves, General Ludendorf predicts catastrophe.
1992 US president George Bush and Russian president Yeltsin sign a Camp David declaration that effectively ended the Cold War.
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1709 British sailor Alexander Selkirk is rescued after being marooned on a desert island for five years. His story was
the inspiration behind Daniel Defoe's Robinson Crusoe. 1943 Battle of Stalingrad ends with final surrender of the German army, turning point of WWII (see pic).
1944 Allied troops first set foot on Japanese territory.
1974 Khmer Rouge bombard Phnom Penh, killing 17 people.
1979 After 14 years of exile, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returns from Paris and becomes the de facto leader of Iran.
1982 Coroner Gerry Galwin commits Lindy Chamberlain to stand trial on charge of murdering her 10-week-old daughter
Azaria, who disappeared at Ayers Rock, central Australia, in August 1980.
1995 The leaders of Israel, Jordan, the PLO and Egypt sit down together for the first time in Cairo in an attempt to revive
Israel's troubled accord with Palestinians.
1999 Hugo Chavez takes office as Veneuela's president, seven years after he tried to overthrow the government in a
military coup.
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1930 Vietnamese Communistic Party forms (see pic). 1945 Almost 1000 Flying Fortresses drop 3000 ton bombs on Berlin. 1815 The world's first commercial cheese factory established in Switzerland.
1919 First meeting of League of Nations in Paris.
1931 256 die in Hawkes Bay earthquake
Napier and Hastings suffer vast damage.
1959 Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper killed in plane crash near Mason City, Iowa.
1964 Beatles receive first gold record forI Want to Hold Your Hand.
1994 United States space shuttle Discovery blasts off, carrying five American astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut.
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1657 Oliver Cromwell grants residency to Luis Caravajal. 1904 Russio-Japanes war begins when Japan lays seige to Port Arthur. 1924 Gandhi is released from two years gaol in Bombay. 1932 Japanese troops occupy Harbin, Manchuria
1933 German President Von Hindenburg limits freedom of the press 1938 Hitler seizes control of German army & puts Nazis in key posts (see pic). 1945 Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin meet in Crimea to discuss plans for the defeat of the Axis powers and decide on a post-war world. 1969 Yassar Arafat takes over as chairman of PLO.
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1782 Spanish forces captured Minorca Island from the British.1811 Britain passed the Regency Act empowering the Prince of Wales to act as regnt during George III's temporary insanity. 1840 Hobson held a great meeting of the chiefs at Waitangi (see pic). 1862 The US issued its first 'Greenback' bills nicknamed after their colour. 1885 The Congo state was established as a personal possession of Belgium's King Leopold. 1917 Mexico became a federated republic with 28 states. 1945 British premier Churchill arrives in Yalta, the Krim. 1945 US troops under General Douglas MacArthur enter Manilla. 1971 US Apollo 14 astronauts landed on the moon. 1885 Spain reopened its border with Gibralter after a 16 year siege that started under General Franco. 1999 Nelson Mandela delivered his last major address to the South African parliament.
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1685 Death of Charles II who is succeeded by James II. 1840 Waitangi Day; treaty signed between Britain & Maoris at Waitangi, New Zealand (see pic). 1941 Battle of Beda Fomm Italian 10th army destroyed. 1941 British troops conquer Bengazi, Libya. 1945 Russian Red Army crosses the river Oder. 1952 Death of George VI who is succeeded by Elizabeth II. 1968 Dutch 2nd Chamber condemns US bombing of North Vietnam
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1554 Troops under Sir Thomas Wyatt march on London. 1831 Belgian constitution is proclaimed.
1863 Wreck of HMS "Orpheus" in Manukau Harbour. 181 lives lost. 1944 Germans launch counter-offensive at Anzio Italy. 1945 General Douglas MacArthur returns to Manila 1947 Arabs & Jews reject British proposal to split Palestine (see pic). 1950 US & Great-Britain recognize Bao Dai Vietnamese regime. 1962 President Kennedy begins blockade of Cuba. 1990 Central Committee approves the end of the Soviet Communist Party's constitutional guarrantee of power.
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1587 Mary, Queen of Scots beheaded
1601 Earl Robert Devereux of Essex armies draws into London1622 King James I disbands the English parliament 1842 A fire that started in a cabinet-maker's workshop led to half of Te Aro Pah being burnt down. This event eventually led to Maori moving out of Te Aro amid grievances about the conduct of Wakefield's NZ Company (see pic Wellington Harbour).
1857 St Andrews Presbyterian Church opened 1909 France & Germany sign treaty about Morocco 1920 Russian Bolsheviks capture Odessa in the Ukraine 1934 Gaston Doumergue forms new French government 1940 Lodtz, 1st large ghetto established by Nazis in Poland. 1940 German troops decimate two Polish villages in reprisals for the deaths of two German soldiers. 1941 Japanese armored barges cross Strait of Johore to attack Singapore. 1941 NSB'er Max Blokzijl begins Nazi propaganda on Dutch radio. 1942 Congress advises FDR that, Americans of Japanese descent should be locked up en masse so they wouldn't oppose the US war effort. 1942 The Japanese land on the western side of Singapore Island, encountering only minimal resistance. 1943 Red Army recaptures Kursk 1944 The Australians complete the occupation of the Huon Peninsula in New Guinea. 1968 Three college students are shot by highway patrolmen during a civil rghts protest in Orangeburg, Sth Carolina. 1971 South Vietnamese troops invade Laos
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1554 Battle at London Sir Thomas Wyatt defeated.
1540 First recorded horse race meeting in England is held at Roodeye Fields, Chester. 1904 Japan declares war on Russia (see picture of Port Arthur explosion). 1842 "Mary Anne" arrived in Nelson with 142 passengers 1916 Britain's military service act enforced (conscription).
1923 Dobrolet the Soviet state airline, is formed. It was renamed Aeroflot in 1932.
1941 German troops under General Erwin Rommel cross from Italy to North Africa in Second World War. 1941 British troops conquer El Agheila.
1942 The French passenger liner Normandie burns and sinks at pier in New York City. 1943 Nazis arrest Dutch sons of rich parents 1942 Japanese troops land near Makassar, South Celebes. 1943 German riots at "plutocratenzoontjes", 1,200 in Vught Camp 1943 Japanese evacuate Guadalcanal, epic battle ends.
1951 Start of waterfront dispute. which lasted 151 days.
1964 The Beatles make their first live American TV appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show.
1969 First test flight of the Boeing 747 Jumbo Jet.
1972 British government declares state of emergency over a miners' strike.
1996 Bomb explodes in London business district, killing two, injuring 37 and causing an estimated $US125 ($NZ302)
million in damage. IRA claims responsibility.
2001 US Navy submarine collides with Japanese fishing boat off Hawaiian coast, killing nine men and boys aboard the
boat.
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1863 Court of Appeal sat in Christchurch for the first time (see pic). 1840 Britain's Queen Victoria marries Prince Albert of Saxe Coburg Gotha.
1863 Two famous midgets, General Tom Thumb (1.02m) and Lavinia Warren (0.81m), marry in New York in front of 2000
of their closest friends.
1933 The Postal Telegraph Company of New York City introduces the singing telegram.
1942 Glenn Miller receives the first ever gold disc for Chattanooga Choo Choo.
1991 Lithuania votes for independence from the Soviet Union.
1996 IBM computer Deep Blue beats Garry Kasparov at chess.
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1573 Francis Drake becomes first Englishman to see the Pacific Ocean.1777 Captain Cook arrived at Ship's Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound (see pic).
1812 Massachusetts Governor Elbridge Gerry signs a districting law that favours his party, giving rise to the term
"gerrymandering". 1841 Barque "Brougham" arrived at New Plymouth 1864 Battle at Mangapiko. Heaphy won VC.
1945 US President Franklin D. Roosevelt, British Prime ~inister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin sign the
Yalta Agreement.
1964 The Beatles perform their first live concert in the US. 1975 - Margaret Thatcher becomes the first woman leader of a British political party.
1979 Followers of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini seize power in Iran, nine days after the religious leader returned to his
home country following 15 years of exile.
1990 African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela released after 27 years in South African prisons.
1993 President Clinton announces his choice of Miami , prosecutor Janet Reno to be the nation's first female attorney
general.
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1554 Lady Jane Grey executed for treason in England.
1777 Captain James Cook arrives on third voyage to New Zealand, anchors in Ship's Cove, Queen Charlotte Sound. 1841 Issue of charter of incorporation to NZ Company 1869 Maori attack on a foraging party at Karaka, 7 killed at site now named 'Ambush Rd' (see pic).
1908 First round-the-world car race begins in New York and ends in Paris the following August.
1909 Passenger steamer Penguin strikes Toms Rock in Cook Strait and is wrecked with loss of 75 lives.
1912 Pu Vi, the last emperor of China, abdicates, nding more than 2000 years of imperial rule.
1924 George Gershwin's 'Rhapsody in Blue' premieres in New York City.
1974 Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Soviet Nobel Prize linner, is arrested at his Moscow apartment and is exiled the following
day.
1986 The Channel Tunnel treaty between Britain and France is signed.
1993 Two lO-year-old boys lure two-year-old James Bulger from his mother at a shopping mall in Liverpool, ngland, and
beat him to death.
1994 More than 100 people trek the 50km subterranean Channel Tunnel,becoming the first humans to walk from France
to Britain since the Ice Age.
1999 US President Bill Clinton is acquitted by the Senate in an impeachment trial stemming from the Lewinsky scandal.
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1542 Catherine Howard was executed on orders of her husband Henry XIII (see pic).1858 Sir Richard Burton and Captain John Speke become the first Europeans to discover Lake Tanganyika in
Africa.
1920 Switzerland is admitted to the League of Nations.
1945 US planes firebombed Dresden, Germany, wiping out the city.
1975 Turkish Cypriots proclaim separate administraon in Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus.
1983 Lance Cairns hits six sixes in one-dayer against, Australia at MCG.
1989 Soviet Red Army leaves Afghan capital of Kabul.
1996 Israeli troops seal off the West Bank nd Gaza to prevent terrorist attacks.
1999 Osama bin Laden, the Saudi lillionaire suspected of being behind the bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, is reported to have disappeared from his base in Afghanistan.
2002 The Scottish parliament voted to ban fox hunting.
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1779 Captain James Cook was killed at Kealakekua Bay in Hawaii (see pic).
1909 Regular rail services begin between Auckland and Wellington.
1929 Seven· hoodlums, rivals of the AI Capone gang in Chicago, Illinois, are murdered in what becomes known as the
St Valentine's Day Massacre.
1939 The German Navy launches the battleship Bismarck.
1946 A machine atthe Universityof Pennsylvania takes seconds to do calculations that normally take hours. It was called
ENIAC, or Electronic Numerical Integrator And Computer.
1972 US trade restrictions against China are relaxed, putting China on same basis as Soviet Union.
1984 Elton John marries Renata Blauel in Sydney.
1989 Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran sentences British author Salman Rushdie to death for allegedly insulting Islam, after the
publication of Satanic Verses.
1995 New fighting breaks out beteen Ecuador and Peru only 90 minutes after a ceasefire was to take effect.
1998 T e Papa, Museum of New Zealand, opens.
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1788 HMS Supply leaves Sydney for Norfolk Island to establish a penal colony there. 1870 New Sydney-Auckland - San Fransisco mail service announced.
1882 First shipment of frozen mutton leaves NZ for England aboard SS Dunedin, arriving on May 25 (see pic).
1898 Spanish-American war begins after the battleship USS Maine, travelling to Havana on a goodwill mission, strikes a
mine and blows up.
1922 The Permanent Court of International Justice, sitting at The Hague in the Netherlands, holds its first session.
1933 President-elect Franklin D Roosevelt escapes an attempt on his life in Miami by Giuseppe Zangara, an Italian-born
anarchist.
1942 Singapore surrenders to Japanese forces in Second World War.
1944 US troops complete reconquest of Solomon Islands in Pacific Ocean in World War II; Nearly 1000 British
bombers pound Berlin, Germany; Monastery at Monte Cassino in Italy is bombed by allied aircraft.
1965 Canada's new flag, with its maple-leaf design, unfurled in ceremonies in Ottawa.
1978 Agreement is announced in Rhodesia to bring blacks into key roles in government of Prime Minister lan Smith.
1986 Philippines National Assembly proclaims Ferdinand Marcos President for another six years;
1988 Austrian President Kurt Waldheim, accused of having Nazi past, flatly rejects widespread calls for his resignation.
1989 Last Soviet soldier leaves Afghanistan after a 10-year occupation that failed to quell a Muslim insurgency.
1991 South African government announces it will free all political prisoners and African National Congress agrees to end
armed struggle against apartheid.
1990 Britain and Argentina restore diplomatic relations; broken off during the 1982 Falkland Islands War.
1996 Police deactivate a bomb in central London hours after the IRA refuses to rule out further attacks.
2003 In a wave of demonstrations, the biggest since the Vietnam War, more than six million peace protesters take to the
world's streets in 600 towns and cities against war in Iraq.
16th
1791 First boat of the third fleet to Australia - the Mary Anne with 150 female convicts on board sets out from
England.
1804 Force of US Marines slips into Tripoli harbour and burns US Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had been captured
by pirates.
1808 France invades Spain. 1871 Franco-Prussian War ends in defeat for France. 1867 First public schoolroom opens in Dunedin
1918 Dover is bombarded by German submarine in First World War. 1923 Recently unearthed burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's unsealed in Egypt.
1945 Massive US air raids on Tokyo begin. 1953 South Africa instituted Emergency Powers under the Public Safety Act.
1959 Fidel Castro becomes premier of Cuba (see pic).
1960 US nuclear submarine Triton begins its underwater round-the-world voyage.
1977 Anglican Archbishop of Uganda and two cabinet ministers are killed in what Ugandan authorities said was an
automobile accident after being dragged away from a rally against President Idi Amin.
1983 Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim more than 70 lives.
1987 John Demjanjuk goes on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being Ivan the Terrible, a guard at the Treblinka
concentration camp in Second World War. 1991 Former Contra military chief Enrique Bermudez is assassinated.
1994 An earthquake kills at least 134 people and seriously injures 550 more in Indonesia.
2000 A former Bank of New York executive and her husband plead guilty to laundering billions of dollars from Russian
bankers in one of the biggest such schemes in US history.
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1835 William Colenso produced the first book printed in NZ, 'Epistle to the Philippians and Ephesians, in Maor (see pic)i.
1909 Geronimo, last Apache chief to surrender, dies in custody.
1924 In Miami, swimmer Johnny Weissmuller, who became film's Tarzan, set a world record for the lOO-yard freestyle
in just over 52 seconds.
1934 Belgium's King Albert I is killed while mountain climbing.
1945 A Soviet offensive forces rocket scientists to evacuate. the' V2 rocket site at Peenemunde, eastern Germany.
1965 US spacecraft Ranger 8 is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, and makes crash-landing on Moon three days
later after sending back more than 7000 pictures. 1972 The British House of Commons votes to join the European
Community.
1979 China invades Vietnam in response to Vietnamese "aggression" over the previous six months.
1985 John Walker becomes first athlete to run 100 sub-four-minute miles, winning race at Mt Smart Stadium.
1992 Jeffrey Dahmer, who murdered and carmibalised young men, sentenced to 15 life terms. (He was later killed in jail).
1997 Frenchman Christophe Auguin breaks the solo round-the-world sailing record, finishing the Vendee Globe race in
105 days, 20 hours and 31 minutes.
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1861 Victor Emmanuel was proclaimed King of
Italy. 1876 Completion of telegraph cable between NZ and NSW
1915 Germany begins a blockade of Bntain using submarines.
1930 Clyde Tombaugh discovers the planet Pluto. 1932 Sonja Henie wins her sixth world women's
figure skating title in Montreal. 1943 In the wake of the Stalingrad disaster, Dr. Goebbels, speaking before an enthusiastic audience of soldiers and civilians in Berlin, announces the implementation of "total war" which, for the first time, mandates the employment of German women in the war effort 1618 John Bunyan's 'Pilgrim's Progress' was published (see pic).
1957 The last person executed in NZ, Walter James Bolton, is hanged at Mt Eden for poisoning his wife.
1965 Gambia granted independence from Britain.
1972 California repeals the death penalty. Among those spared was Charles Manson 1980 Pierre Trudeau returned as Prime Minister of Canada.
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1800 Napoleon Bonaparte establishes hlmself First Consul in France.
1878 Thomas Egison receives a patent for his phonograph.
1918 In Russia, a decree abolishing all pnvate ownership of land, water and natual resources is issued by the
Soviet Central Executlve Commlttee.
1942 First Japanese attacked Australian mainland in Second World War when aircraft bomb Darwin and nearby
military bases.
1959 Agreement is signed in London by Greece, Turkey and Britain for independence of Cyprus.
1978 Social Credit leader Bruce Beetham wins Rangitikei by-election (see pic).
1992 South and North Korea put into effect Historic Treaties banning nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula.
20th
1876 Submarine telegraph cable connected between New South Wales and New Zealand.
1954 Yvette Williams breaks women's world long jump record with a leap of 6.29m.
1962- Astronaut John Glenn becomes first American to orbit earth.
1965 The Ranger 8 spacecraft crashes on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface.
1981 In a first inquest, Alice Springs Coroner determines that Azaria Chamberlain was killed by a dingo.
1985 Sale of contraceptives is made legal in Ireland.
1986 Russia launches the Mir space station.
1998 Central Auckland is plunged into five weeks of darkness and commercial chaos when four main electricity cables
fail.
1998 American Tara Lipinski is youngest gold medallist In Winter OlympIcs history when she wins women's figure
skating title at Nagano.
21st
1866 First Chinese arrive in Dunedin (see pic). 1879 Disastrous mining accident at Kaitangata, 34 killed.
1741 Death of Jethro Tull, English agriculturalist, who invented the seed drill and pioneered the planting of seeds in rows.
1804 Welsh inventor Richard Trevithick displays first self-propelled railway locomotive.
1815 Birth of Thomas Holloway King, first white child born in NZ.
1842 John Greenough patents sewing machine.
1879 Huge explosion kills 35 in coal mine accident at Kaitangata,near Balclutha.
1918 Australian cavalry capture Jericho in Jordan during World War I.
1965 Black nationalist leader Malcolm X is murdered in New York as he is about to address a meeting of his Afro-American Unity Organisation.
1972 US President Richard Nixon arrives in Beijing for a week-long visit that paves way for normalised US-China relations.
1975 Three former aides to US President Richard Nixon -Attorney General John Mitchell, Chief of Staff H. R. Haldeman and domestic adviser John Ehrlichman - are jailed for obstructing the course of justice in the Watergate affair. 1986 Richard Hadlee takes his 300th test wicket, against Australia.
1992 For the first time since the communist revolution of 1949, China welcomes foreigners back to its Shanghai stockmarket.
1997 Jeanne Calment, believed to be the world's oldest person, celebrates her 122nd birthday in France with memories ranging from meeting Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh to her new career as a pop star.
2001- Britain uncovers its first cases of foot and mouth disease for 20 years at an abattoir in Essex.
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1791 James Ruse receives first official NSW land grant, becoming first selfsupporting farmer in colony.
1879 Frank Winfield Woolworth opens a five-cent store in Utica, New York.
1886 The Times becomes the first British newspaper to institute a personal column on its classified page.
1892 Oscar Wilde's play Lady Windermere's Fan is first performed, at London's St James Theatre.
1928 Australian aviator Bert Hinkler arrives in Darwin in Avro Avian, completing first UK-Australia solo flight from
Croydon in 15.5 days.
1980 The Israeli Government introduces a new currency, the shekel, which replaces the Israeli pound (see pic).
1990 Last Stalin statue topples in Mongolian capital of Ulan Bator.
1999 Fighting flares in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and the Yugoslav Army as the deadline for peace talks in
France
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1836 Mexican General Santa Anna and troops begins the seige of the Alamo, held by 145 Texans including Jim Bowie
and Davy Crockett. All the Texans were killed.
1905 The Rotary Club is founded, in Chicago.
1911 New Zealander Joseph Harnmond carries the first aircraft passenger in Australia: Mrs Hammond.
1919 Senito Mussolini breaks with the Socialist party and founds his own Fasci del Comattimento (Fascist) party in
Italy (see pic).
1938 First oil discovery in Kuwait.
1942 A mutual aid agreement is signed between the· United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
1945 US Marines on Iwo Jima capture Mt Suribachi and raise the American flag.
1954 First mass inoculation of children against polio with the Salk vaccine begins in Pittsburgh.
1967 Jim Ryun sets a half-mile record of 1m 48.3s.
1974 SymbioneseLiberation Army demand another $US4 million for hostage Patty Hearst, having already received $US2
million.
1983 US President Ronald Reagan announced plans for a new space-based defence system dubbed 'Star Wars'.
1995 Dow-Jones index tops 4000 mark for first
time.
1997 Scientists in Scotland announce they have succeeded in cloning an adult mammal, producing a lamb named Dolly.
2002 Afghan schools reopen with women teachers returning for the first time in six years and with new textbooks written
by Afghan scholars in the US.
2005 New York authorities end efforts to identify victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks, leaving the remains of
nearly half the 2749 people killed in the World Trade Centre unidentified.
24th
1870 Last detachment of imperial troops leave NZ (see pic).
1839 Mr William S. Otis of Philadelphia files a patent for the steam shovel.
1983 The Dow Jones industrial average closes above the 1100 mark for the first time.
1996 Princess Diana agrees to divorce Prince Charles.
1946 Juan Peron elected for first of three presidential terms in Arge~tina.
1968 Australian Prime Minister John Gorton wins, House of Representatives seat after predecessor Harold Holt disappeared two months earlier.
1970 Section of New Zealand's Kaimai tunnel collapses, killing four.
1981 Buckingham Palace announces engagement of Prince Charles and Lady Diana Spencer.
1989 United Airlines Flight 811 out of Honolulu on its way to Sydney is 160km southwest of Hawaii when its cargo door
blows out. The explosion in the Boeing 747 creates a 3m x 12m hole in the fuselage
and nine passengers are sucked out and nine passengers are killed.
25th
1836 American inventor Samuel Colt patents his revolver.
1899 Death in France of Paul Julius Reuter, German founder of the international news agency.
1943 Japanese POWs try to break out of Featherston camp in Wairarapa, with loss of 49 lives (see pic).
1961 Sydney's last tram runs.
1964 Cassius Clay (Muhammad Ali) becomes world heavyweight boxing champion for the first time by knocking out
Sonny Liston in Miami.
1972 Soviet Union's Luna 20 spacecraft returns to earth with samples of the Moon's surface.
1986 Philippine's President Ferdinand Marcos resigns.
26th
1839 In Britain, the first Grand National run.
1916 German submarine sinks French cruiser Provence in Mediterranean in First World War.
1935 RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) first demonstrated by Robert Watson Watt.
1936 Adolf Hitler opens first Volkswagen plant in Saxony, Germany.
1952 Winston Churchill announces that Britain has produced its own atomic bomb (see pic).
1980 Egypt and Israel establish diplomatic relations, marking end of 30 years of war.
1993 Bomb at World Trade Centre in New York City kills six and injures 1000.
1995 London finance house Barings collapses after losses run up in Singapore by trader Nick Leeson.
27th
1861 Warsaw Massacre occurs when crowd is fired upon by Russian troops during demonstration against Russian
rule.
1881 Boers defeat British force at Majuba Hill in South Africa.
1889 Railway is opened in Burma from Rangoon to Mandalay.
1900 British Labour Party is formed with Ramsay MacDonald as secretary.
1922 The US Supreme Court unanimously upholds the 19th Amendment to the Constitution that guarantees the right of
women to vote.
1933 Reichstag, German parliament building in Berlin, is burned, and Nazis blame Communists.
1939 Britain and France recognise General Francisco Franco's government in Spain.
1942 In the first phase of the Battle of Java Sea, three Allied destroyers and a cruiser are sunk by the Japanese.
1952 The UN holds its first meetings in its new permanent headquarters in New York.
1968 Britain's House of Commons approves bill to restrict immigration of coloured people to Britain.
1973 Native Americans begin an occupation of Wounded Knee, South Dakota, in a siege that lasts till May.
1975 In West Germany, opposition leader Peter Lorenz is kidnapped by Baader-Meinhof guerrillas.
1976 Eskimo leaders in Canada present government with claim to quarter of a million square miles of land.
1980 First election giving black majority full voting powers in Rhodesia (Zimbabwe).
1989 Yugoslavia imposes emergency measures in strife-torn southern province Kosovo.
1990 Nelson Mandela arrives in Zambia on his first foreign trip since his release after 27 years in South African jails (see pic).
1991 US President George Bush announces an end to offensive military action in the Gulf War and outlines conditions
that will lead to a ceasefire if met by Iraq.
1996 The United Nations suspends sanctions against the Bosnian Serbs after Nato verifies that Serb forces have
withdrawn from buffer zones.
1997 Divorce becomes legal in Ireland.
1998 Britain's House of Lords agrees to end 1000 years of male preference by giving a monarch's first-born daughter
the same claim to the throne as any first-born son. 
28th
1525 Cuauhtemoc, the last Aztec emperor, is tortured and executed by Spanish conqueror Hernan Cortes.
1784 John Wesley signs the "deed of declaration" formalising the establishment of the Wesleyan faith, or Methodists.
1825 Britain and Russia sign a treaty settling the border between Canada and Alaska, then a Russian possession.
1842 NZ Supreme Court sits for first time, in Auckland.
1868 Benjamin Disraeli replaces Lord Derby as Britain's Prime Minister.
1951 NZ Government deregisters Waterside Workers' Union.
1911 Australian Prime Minister Andrew Fisher announces plans to nationalise monopolies.
1921 The Kronstadt Rebellion begins in Russia when sailors of the Baltic Fleet and workers at Kronstadt naval base rise
up against the Communist government.1933 Nazi decree suppresses civil liberties in Germany.
1943 Nine Norwegian commandos sabotage German heavy water installations near Ryukan in Norway. 1947 Taiwanese rebel against Nationalist forces moving in from mainland China and thousands die in a month-long blood
bath.
1948 The last British troops leave India (see pic).
1952 Vincent Massey takes office as Governor General of Canada, the first Canadian to hold the
office. 1971 Male voters of Liechtenstein defeat a referendum on giving women the vote.
1974 British general election produces minority Labour government under Harold Wilson.
1975 Britain's worst underground train crash 42 people die when train crashes into buffers at Moorgatestation, London.
1982 Fire destroys Braeside stables, Melbourne, that once housed Phar Lap, the 1930 Melbourne Cup winner.
1986 Sweden's Prime Minister Olof Palme is assassinated on a street in Stockholm.
1990 Soviet legislature passes a landmark law allowing citizens to acquire land and bequeath it to their children.
1993 Four federal agents and six members of a Christian sect are killed when authorities raid the sect headquarters in
Waco, Texas. A 51-day standoff ensues, ending with the deaths of about 80 sect members in a fire.
29th
1880 The St Gotthard railway tunnel through the Alps linking Italy and Switzerland, was completed.1948 The Stern Gang blew up a train carrying British soldiers from Cairo to Haifa and 27 soldiers were killed. 1956 Pakistan became an Islamic republic (see pic).
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schoolhistory history at waitangi and schoolhistoryNZ with goldfields in zealand or at NZ studying education in luther and maori
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References: The Dominion, The Evening Post, The NZ Herald, (1994) On This Day by Helicon publishing: Oxford.
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