Today in history
Today is Tuesday, August 14, the 226th day of 2018. There are 139 days left in the year. Highlights in history onthis date:
1040 — King Duncan of Scotland is murdered by Macbeth, who then becomes king and rules for 17 years.
1598 — A Gaelic native Irish army under Hugh O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, defeats an English force at the Battle of the Yellow Ford, in western County Armagh, Ulster, near the River Blackwater, marking the greatest Irish victory in the wars with the English.
1678 — William of Orange is repulsed and loses several thousand men when he launches a surprise attack on the French army near Mons.
1784 — The first Russian colony in Alaska is
founded on Kodiak Island.
1874 — The Temperance Hall in Moray Pl opens.
1891— The first petition, containing 9000 signatures, supporting the introduction of parliamentary voting rights for women in New Zealand is presented at Parliament.
1893 — France becomes the first country to
introduce motor vehicle registration plates.
1894 — The Otago Daily Times begins printing from a continuous roll of newsprint from its newly installed Hoe rotary press.
1900 — An international force captures Beijing, relieving foreigners besieged there since the start of the Boxer Rebellion two months earlier.
1908 — The world’s first international beauty contest is held at the Pier Hippodrome at Folkestone, England.
1941 — The Atlantic Charter, a statement of principles that renounces aggression, is signed by United States president Franklin Roosevelt and British prime minister Winston Churchill;
German spy Josef Jakobs is put to death, the last person to be executed in the Tower of London.
1945 — Japan surrenders to the US, ending World War 2; France’s Marshal Henri Petain is sentenced to death (later commuted to life imprisonment) for collaborating with the Nazis.
1947 — Pakistan, including what is now Bangladesh, is founded when British rule over the region ends and the Asian subcontinent is partitioned into Islamic Pakistan and predominantly Hindu India.
1949 — West Germans vote for the first time since
the end of World War 2.
1962 — After threeandahalf years of digging, Italian and French workers complete a road tunnel under Mont Blanc.
1966 — While trying to prevent the escape of two
prisoners from the Dunedin police cells, Constable Donald Richard Stokes is severely beaten and dies the following day in hospital.
1969 — British troops arrive in Northern Ireland to intervene in sectarian violence between Protestants and Roman Catholics.
1973 — US bombing in Cambodia ends, marking an official halt to 12 years of combat activity in Indochina.
1989 — P.W. Botha resigns as South African
president.
2003 — One of the biggest power outages hits large areas of North America, trapping thousands in crowded subways and forcing millions of evacuated office workers onto the streets.
2006 — New Zealand freelance cameraman
Olaf Wiig is kidnapped by six armed men in Gaza City and incarcerated in a 3m by 3m concrete room. When his captors learn he is a New Zealander 13 days later, he is told his nationality is his ticket to freedom.
2011 — Sir Paul Reeves, New Zealand’s first Maori
GovernorGeneral (198590), dies aged 78.
2016 — In what is claimed to be the closest victory in Olympic history, Mahe Drysdale retains his title in the men’s singlescull event at the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games. In a photo finish, Drysdale was adjudged the winner by the smallest of margins to become New Zealand’s oldest Olympic champion at the age of 37 years, 8 months and 25 days.