Three seek Feds’ vice-presidency

Four men announced last week they are competing to replace retiring Federated Farmers’ president Don Nicolson and now three are vying for the vice-presidency:

“It is somewhat unprecedented to have four presidential nominations and now three for Vice-President,” says Conor English, Federated Farmers Chief Executive and Returning Officer.

“There is a considerable amount of interest in all elected positions. Given the Federation is a membership based organisation, this is a tangible demonstration of vitality and our strong democratic basis.

“It is believed to be the largest number of candidates seeking the two most senior elected offices in over 66 years of Federated Farmers modern history.

I hope that it is a demonstration of vitality because as I wrote last week this many people competing for the top jobs could also be a sign of division.

That wouldn’t be good for the Federation, its members and the wider rural sector who all need a united voice.

Presidential nominees are: Donald Aubrey of Ben McLeod Station, who is vice-president; Frank Brenmuhl of Christchurch, a former Federated Farmers dairy section chair; Lachlan McKenzie of Rotorua who is dairy spokesman; and Bruce Wills of Napier, current meat and fibre spokesman.

The three seeking the vice-presidency are Dr William Rolleston of Timaru, David Rose from Invercargill and Matamata’s Stewart Wadey.

Mana not registered yet

The Electoral Commission’s list of registered political parties, dated yesterday, does not include the Mana Party.

 It’s difficult to know how much credence to give last week’s poll in Te Tai Tokerau when so  many people in the electorate don’t have land lines but it’s safe to say the by-election is a two horse race.

The Maori Party hasn’t looked like it’s been trying from the start which leaves Mana’s Hone Harawira and Labour’s Kelvin Davis.

 Labour’s ability to mobilise voters, especially in Auckland, might give Davis an edge but there isn’t much in it with only three days to go.

The race is going to the wire and so is Mana’s registration. If Harawira pulls it off, he might do so as the leader of an unregistered party.

Hubbard supporters muted

When the news that Allan and Jean Hubbard were being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office supporters were angry, numerous, vocal and visible.

There are still supporters but they have gradually become more muted and response to the news that charges have been laid was more sad than angry.

That is at least in part due to respect for the legal process and because the many people the couple have helped are grateful and loyal.

But while few have criticised them publicly there are some very sad stories on the grapevine about people who invested a lot of money in one or other of the Hubbard entities.

Not all are all bad – one man extricated half his investment just before the statutory managers took over. But there are cases where people thought they’d been given a personal loan and have since found out the money was investors’ and others where people invested the proceeds of farm or house sales or life savings and have little hope of recouping much, if any

This is not to say Hubbard is guilty of the charges he’s facing, he is presumed innocent until it is proven he’s not.

It is merely an observation that the mood has changed. There is still gratitude and respect but there are also questions and concerns.

June 22 in history

217 BC  Battle of Raphia: Ptolemy IV of Egypt defeated Antiochus III the Great of the Seleucid kingdom.

 

168 BC  Battle of Pydna: Romans under Lucius Aemilius Paullus defeated and captured Macedonian King Perseus, ending the Third Macedonian War.

1593 Battle of Sisak: Allied Christian troops defeated the Turks.

1633  The Holy Office in Rome forced Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.

1680 Ebenezer Erskine, Scottish religious dissenter, was born  (d. 1754).

 

1713 Lord John Philip Sackville, English MP and cricketer, was born  (d. 1765).

1757 George Vancouver, British explorer, was born  (d. 1798).

1783  A poisonous cloud from Laki volcanic eruption in Iceland reached Le Havre in France .

1825  The British Parliament abolished feudalism and the seigneurial system in British North America.

1844  North American fraternity Delta Kappa Epsilon was founded at Yale University.

1845 Tom Dula, American folk character (Tom Dooley) was born (d. 1868).

1848  Beginning of the June Days Uprising in Paris.

 

1856  H. Rider Haggard, English author, was born  (d. 1925).

1887 Julian Huxley, British biologist, was born (d. 1975).

1893  The Royal Navy battleship HMS Camperdown accidentally rammed the British Mediterranean Fleet flagship HMS Victoria which sank taking 358 crew with her, including the fleet’s commander, Vice-Admiral Sir George Tryon.

 

1897  British colonial officers Rand and Ayerst were assassinated in Pune, Maharashtra, India by the Chapekar brothers and Ranade. They are considered the first martyrs to the cause of India’s freedom from Britain.

1898  Spanish-American War: United States Marines landed in Cuba.

1906 Anne Morrow Lindbergh, American author and pilot, was born  (d. 2001).

1906  The Flag of Sweden was adopted.

1907  The London Underground’s Charing Cross, Euston and Hampstead Railway opened.

 

1910  John Hunt, Leader of the 1953 British Expedition to Mount Everest, was born (d. 1998).

 

1911  George V and Mary of Teck were crowned King and Queen.

 

1918  The Hammond circus train wreck killed 86 and injured 127 near Hammond, Indiana.

1919  The Flag of the Faroe Islands was raised for the first time.

 

1922 Bill Blass, American fashion designer, was born (d. 2002).

1922  Herrin massacre: 19 strikebreakers and 2 union miners were killed in Herrin, Illinois.

1932 Prunella Scales, English actress, was born.

1936 Kris Kristofferson, American singer/songwriter and actor, was born.

1940 France was forced to sign the Second Compiègne armistice with Germany.

 General Charles Huntziger signs the armistice on behalf of France.

1941  Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. Russian The 22 June song is devoted to this day.

1941  The June Uprising in Lithuania began.

 

1941  Various Communist and Socialist French Resistance movements merged to one group.

 

1942  Erwin Rommel was promoted to Field Marshal after the capture of Tobruk.

1944 Peter Asher, British singer, guitarist and producer (Peter & Gordon), was born.

1944  Opening day of the Soviet Union’s Operation Bagration against Army Group Centre.

1949 Meryl Streep, American actress. was born.

1953 – Cyndi Lauper, American singer, was born.

1954  Pauline Parker, 16, and her best friend Juliet Hulme, 15,  killed Pauline’s mother, Honora, in Victoria Park, Christchurch.

1957 Garry Gary Beers, Australian bassist from group INXS, was born.

 

1957  The Soviet Union launched an R-12 missile for the first time (in Kapustin Yar).

1962  An Air France Boeing 707 jet crashed in bad weather in Guadeloupe, West Indies killing 113.

1964 Dan Brown, American author, was born.

1969  The Cuyahoga River caught fire, which triggered a crack-down on pollution in the river.

1976  The Canadian House of Commons abolished capital punishment.

1978 Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, was discovered.

 

1984 Virgin Atlantic Airways launched with its first flight from London Heathrow Airport.

2003  The largest hailstone ever recorded fell in Aurora, Nebraska

 

2009 June 22, 2009 Washington Metro train collision: Two Metro trains collided  in Washington, D.C., killing 9 and injuring over 80.

2009 – Eastman Kodak Company announced that it will discontinue sales of the Kodachrome Color Film, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Rantipole  – a wild rambunctious young man; roving; rakish.

And in our spare time we . . .

Men and women work similar hours but men get paid for more of what they do.

That’s the unsurprising finding in Statistics New Zealand’s time use survey.

Data collected from two-day time use diaries showed how much time people spent sleeping, on childcare, working, watching television or video, eating, socialising, and on sports and hobbies. 

“This time use survey provides information to help assess New Zealanders’ standard of living. It adds to knowledge from other survey types, such as economic change indicators, to provide a wider view of our country’s progress and the well-being of its people,” Social and Population statistician Paul Brown said.

Men and women spent 6 hours and 44 minutes each day in 2009/10 on paid and unpaid work activities (productive activities). Productive activity includes work for pay (and commuting to work) as well as household work, child care, purchasing goods and services, and other unpaid work.

“However, while 63 percent of men’s work was paid, 65 percent of women’s work was unpaid,” Mr. Brown said. Women spent 4 hours and 20 minutes daily doing unpaid work in 2009/10, less than their 4 hours and 36 minutes in 1998/99, in the first time use survey. Mr Brown said spending 13 minutes less on household work was a key factor. Men spent 2 hours and 32 minutes a day on unpaid productive activity in 2009/10.

I wonder if doing less household work indicates increased efficiency, more sharing of duties with men or just lower standards?

“The only unpaid work activities where men spent more time than women were home maintenance and grounds maintenance.”

People aged 65 and over spent the most time on unpaid work, at 4 hours and 31 minutes a day. People aged 12 to 24 years spent 1 hour and 46 minutes on unpaid work activities, the lowest of all age groups.

Can we take heart from the acknowledgement that a lot of the unpaid work we do is regarded as productive?

I suspect that not too long ago it wouldn’t have been seen as such.

Aftersocks for aftershocks

Warming hearts, warming toes, warming Cantabrians – that’s the idea behind aftersocks.

It’s a fundraising venture for Canterbury earthquake relief which was thought up by Justine and Jo Ottey. They went to Rural Women NZ who enlisted the help of Ashburton company NZ Socks.

The result is red and black merino blend socks with a fault-line pattern  selling for $20 a pair with all proceeds going to the Mayoral Relief Fund.

The socks will be officially launched on Thrusday  by Wellington Mayor of Wellington, Celia Wade Brown then at parliament by Jackie Blue MP.

You can read more on Facebook.

Waiting for the white stuff

Today is the winter solstice with the sun reaching its northern-most point this evening.

It’s not unusal to get the worst of winter after the mid-point but we’ve only had a couple of frosts so far this month.

Normally I’d hesitate before driving through the LIndis Pass late in the evening in mid-June but on Friday the temeperature didn’t get below 3 degrees and there was no danger of frost or ice.

South Island tourism has taken a hit from the Canterbury earthquakes and the slow start to winter is making life more difficult.

Wanaka was cold, overcast and there was a half-hearted attempt to rain on Saturday morning but there no sign of snow.

The town is usually quieter from after Easter until early June then it gets busier again when skiers and ski field staff arrive. It was still very quiet at the weekend.

It’s no better over the hill in Queenstown and the ODT reports closed ski fields have left 540 people without work.

The Winter Festival opens on Friday. Celebrations will go ahead snow or no snow but organisers will be regard bad weather as good weather as everyone waits for the white stuff.

Homes cost less, food costs more

A fall in house prices, record low mortgage interest rates and slow increases in wages and salaries slowly are making homes more affordable.

The Roost Home Loan affordability report for May showed that home loan affordability was at its best since April 2004.

The report calculates how much of a single median take-home income is required to service an 80% mortgage on a median-valued home.

Roost considers a mortgage unaffordable if servicing it requires 40% or more of one person’s median weekly take-home wage.

Queenstown was the least affordable place in the country with an affordability index of  79.3%. However, that’s still a lot better than it’s been:

Servicing a mortgage in Queenstown has become significantly more affordable in recent years, the report showed. A year ago it would have taken 111% of the median wage, with 120.1% required five years ago. The index reached its highest point of 154.3% in December 2005.

The most affordable place to own a home was Southland with an index of 28%.

While house prices and mortgage rates have declined, the price of food has been increasing. That is putting pressure on family budgets but it’s not a bad thing when we export so much of what we produce.

No-one likes paying more for food. But a reduction in interest rates leaves most people with more disposable income and therefore better able to cope with higher grocery prices and higher food prices mean better export returns.

That’s much better for the economy showing unsustainable consumption fuelled by taxing and borrowing is changing to savings, investment and export-led growth.

June 21 in history

524  Godomar, King of the Burgundians defeated the Franks at the Battle of Vézeronce.

1307  Külüg Khan enthroned as Khagan of the Mongols and Wuzong of the Yuan.

1528 Maria of Spain, Holy Roman Empire Empress, was born (d. 1603).

1582  The Incident at Honnō-ji  in Kyoto.

1621  Execution of 27 Czech noblemen on the Old Town Square in Prague as a consequence of the Battle of White Mountain.

 

1732 Johann Christoph Friedrich Bach, German composer, was born  (d. 1791).

1734  In Montreal, a slave known by the French name of Marie-Joseph Angélique was put to death, having been convicted of the arson that destroyed much of the city.

1749  Halifax, Nova Scotia, was founded.

1768   James Otis, Jr. offended the King and parliament in a speech to the Massachusetts General Court.

1788   New Hampshire ratified the Constitution of the United States and is admitted as the 9th state in the United States.

1791 Robert Napier, British engineer, was born  (d. 1876).

 

1798   Irish Rebellion of 1798: The British Army defeated Irish rebels at the Battle of Vinegar Hill.

1813   Peninsular War: Battle of Vitoria.

1824   Greek War of Independence: Egyptian forces captured Psara in the Aegean Sea.

1826   Maniots defeated Egyptians under Ibrahim Pasha in the Battle of Vergas.

1854  First Victoria Cross won during bombardment of Bomarsund in the Aland Islands.

1864   New Zealand Land Wars: The Tauranga Campaign ended.

1877   The Molly Maguires, ten Irish immigrants, were hanged at the Schuylkill County and Carbon County, Pennsylvania prisons.

 A “coffin notice”, allegedly posted by Molly Maguires in Schuylkill County, Pennsylvania.

1895  The Kiel Canal was officially opened.

 

1898   The United States captured Guam from Spain.

1905 Jean-Paul Sartre, French philosopher and writer, Nobel Prize  laureate, was born  (declined) (d. 1980).

1912  Mary McCarthy, American writer, was born  (d. 1989).

1915  The U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Guinn v. United States 238 US 347 1915, striking down an Oklahoma law denying the right to vote to some citizens.

1919  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police fired a volley into a crowd of unemployed war veterans, killing two, during the Winnipeg General Strike.

 

1919   Admiral Ludwig von Reuter scuttled the German fleet in Scapa Flow, Orkney. The nine sailors killed were the last casualties of World War I.

1921  Judy Holliday, American actress, was born  (d. 1965)

1921  Jane Russell, American actress, was born. 

1940  The first successful west-to-east navigation of Northwest Passage began at Vancouver, British Columbia.

 

1942   World War II: Tobruk fell to Italian and German forces.

1942  World War II: A Japanese submarine surfaced near the Columbia River in Oregon, firing 17 shells at nearby Fort Stevens in one of only a handful of attacks by the Japanese against the United States mainland.

1944 Ray Davies, English musician (The Kinks), was born.

1945  World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ended.

1947  Joey Molland, English musician (Badfinger), was born.

1948 Ian McEwan, English writer, was born.

1948  Columbia Records introduced the long-playing record album in a public demonstration at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel.

1952  Philippine School of Commerce, through a republic act, was converted to Philippine College of Commerce; later to be the Polytechnic University of the Philippines.

1957  Ellen Louks Fairclough was sworn in as Canada’s first woman Cabinet Minister.

1964 The Beatles landed in New Zealand.

1964  Three civil rights workers, Andrew Goodman, James Chaney and Mickey Schwerner, were murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi,, by members of the Ku Klux Klan.

   

1973   In handing down the decision in Miller v. California 413 US 15, the Supreme Court of the United States established the Miller Test, which now governs obscenity in U.S. law.

 

1982 Prince William of Wales, British prince and heir, was born.

1982  John Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity for the attempted assassination of U.S. President Ronald Reagan.

 

2000   Section 28 (outlawing the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality in the United Kingdom) was repealed in Scotland with a 99 to 17 vote.

2001  A federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia, indictws 13 Saudis and a Lebanese in the 1996 bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia that killed 19 American servicemen.

 

2004   SpaceShipOne became the first privately funded spaceplane to achieve spaceflight.

2006   Pluto’s newly discovered moons were officially named Nix & Hydra.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Quisguous  – perplexing, puzzling.

Hubbards to face charges – UPDATED

“What would you have said if this had happened under a Labour government?” my farmer asked when news broke that Allan and Jean Hubbard were being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office.

I would have ranted and I would have been wrong. This is a matter for the law not politics.

There is no doubt the Hubbards did a lot of good for their community and the wider economy but there are very serious questions about whose money they used to do it, albeit for no personal financial gain.

In Counting the Cost Rebecca Macfie wrote:

If the Hubbards are indeed found to have committed fraud, their famously frugal lifestyle and commitment to charity – Hubbard estimates he has given away $200 million over the years – suggest they have not profited personally. But that’s irrelevant to the SFO: “Personal gain is not necessarily a requirement of fraud or theft,” says Feeley. “If I take $100 from you and say I am going to put it in the bank, whether I give it to the IHC or bet it at the race track, either way that would be a fraudulent act.”

A law unto himself, another Listener story by Macfie, provides a good background to the saga and if you enter Hubbard as a search term in the NBR the headlines tell a very sorry story.

Now the NBR reports D-Day for Hubbards?:

The Financial Markets Authority and the Serious Fraud Office were today set to lay charges in relation to a finance company, with speculation focused on Allan Hubbard’s Aorangi Securities and Hubbard Management Funds.

NBR was aware of last minute discussions between Mr Hubbard’s lawyer Mike Heron and the SFO over how the decision would be announced. A press release was due to be sent out by the regulators today.

It is a year and a day since the news first broke that the SFO was investigating the Hubbards.

It will have been a hard year for them – and for the people who trusted them with their money who will be lucky to get much, if any of it back among whom are the taxpayers who guaranteed deposits.

UPDATE: NBR reports: Hubbard to face 50 charges.

Key’s address to Aust parliament on TV

Prime Minister John Key’s address to the Australian parliament will be broadcast live on Sky channel 90 just before 5pm today.

Who do we trust?

The top three places in the Readers Digest Most Trusted people in 2011 go to scientists:

1. Sir Ray Avery, scientist, inventor, New Zealander of the Year 2010
2. Sir Peter Gluckman, Chief Science Advisor to the Prime Minister
3. Sir Paul Callaghan, physicist and New Zealander of the Year 2011

That is good publicity for scientists and science, although it is important to keep in mind the survey is biased from the start because participants are asked to rank people already selected not choose them themselves.

The others in the top 10 are:

4. The Hon. Justice Helen Winkelmann, Chief High Court Judge 
5. Roger Hall, film, TV and theatre actor, playwright
6. Bret McKenzie, comedian, actor, and musician 
7. Denise L’Estrange-Corbet, fashion designer
8. Jemaine Clement, comedian, actor, and musician
9. Simon Salt Gault, celebrity chef and MasterChef judge
10. Tony Kokshoorn, Grey District Mayor

Is this the first time a politician has appeared this high?

Certainly other politicians don’t score well:

The Rt. Hon. John Key, current Prime Minister (90);  Paul Holmes, broadcaster (91);  Paul Henry, journalist, radio and TV presenter (92);  Jim Anderton, Progressive Party leader (93);  The Hon. Bill English, Deputy Prime Minister (94); The Hon. Pita Sharples, Minister of Maori Affairs (95);  The Hon. Phil Goff, Labour Party leader (96);  The Hon. Tariana Turia, Maori Party co-leader (97); The Rt. Hon. Winston Peters, New Zealand First leader (98); The Hon. Rodney Hide, Minister of Local Government (99); The Hon. Hone Harawira, activist, and Member for Te Tai Tokerau (100).

Politician isn’t the least trusted profession though, that honour goes to journalists (sigh) and real estate agents. 

Fire fighters, rescue volunteers and paramedics are the most trusted professions (passing quickly over the point that volunteers aren’t professionals).

Participants weren’t asked if they trust this type of survey.

What’s Hone living on?

Last month Hone Harawira said that campaigning would be tough because he’d be doing it on the dole.

It’s up to the people of Te Tai Tokerau to judge if someone who’d been receiving an MP’s salary for nearly six years without saving enough to live on for a month  has the nous to be an MP.

They might also ponder how someone who purports to represent the poor and downtrodden doesn’t know there’s a stand-down period for people who’ve resigned from a job before they can receive a benefit.

The rest of us can ponder what he’s living on since he said he had no savings and he’s ineligible for the dole.

Someone with a better understanding of electoral law than I have might know whether donations to a candidate for living expenses count as donations which have to be recorded in election returns.

What’s fairer than free choice?

NZUSA is seeking a fairer alternative to the Voluntary Student Membership bill which is grinding its way very, very slowly through parliament.

But what’s fairer than free choice which is all that VSM aims to provide?

 

Leader in waiting for change

Prime Minister John Key in July North and South:

“I was lucky because when I became party leader National was in an upswing and the Labour government was in its dying days. I critiqued the government, but was able to spend a lot of that time actually talking about our agenda – what we’d do in power.” -

Contrast that with Labour leader Phil Goff seen as to eager to moan in the Manawatu Standard :

The problem here is that Mr Goff looks like he enjoys negativity, that he lies awake at night pondering new ways to be a wet blanket. He frequently comes across as a little too earnest, a bit too eager to moan.

Opposition parties always run that risk, and keeping the Government accountable is important, but Mr Goff will soon need to show he can do a better job in the hot seat than Mr Key. In that regard, he has a great deal of work to do.

John Key took over National as it was gaining support and he’s built on that.

Phil Goff took over a party which had just been thrown out of office after nine years in power. Its support had been falling for most of the last six and he hasn’t been able to turn that round.

John Key has a united caucus, happy to work with him to earn another term in government.

Phil Goff has a divided and directionless caucus. His leadership is safe for now, only because none of his colleagues want to grasp a poisoned chalice.

National is getting on with the business of governing and clearly articulating a plan to build a better New Zealand based on savings, investment and export-led growth.

Phil Goff and Labour aren’t particularly good at critiquing the government. Every time they look like they’re getting somewhere with that they’re sidetracked by sabotage from within, own goals or side shows. If they’ve got a plan they’re having trouble articulating it.

National is running the country.

Labour doesn’t look as if it’s capable of running itself.

John Key is the Prime Minister.

Phil Goff doesn’t look like a Prime Minister in waiting, he looks like a caretaker leader in waiting for the inevitable post-election leadership change.

June 20 in history

451  Battle of Chalons: Flavius Aetius battled Attila the Hun. After the battle, which was inconclusive, Attila retreated, causing the Romans to interpret it as a victory.

1005 Ali az-Zahir, caliph, was born (d. 1036).

1214 The University of Oxford received its charter.

1631  The sack of Baltimore: the Irish village of Baltimore was attacked by Algerian pirates.

1652  Tarhoncu Ahmet Paşa appointed grand vezir of the Ottoman Empire, served until 21 March 1653.

1685  Monmouth Rebellion: James Scott, 1st Duke of Monmouth declared himself King of England at Bridgwater.

1723 Adam Ferguson, Scottish philosopher and historian, was born  (d. 1816).

 

1756  A British garrison was imprisoned in the Black Hole of Calcutta.

 

1782  The U.S. Congress adopted the Great Seal of the United States.

 

1787  Oliver Ellsworth moved at the Federal Convention to call the government the United States.

1789  Deputies of the French Third Estate took the Tennis Court Oath.

 

1791  King Louis XVI of France and his immediate family began the Flight to Varennes during The French Revolution.

1819 Jacques Offenbach, German-born French composer, was born  (d. 1880).

 

1819  The U.S. vessel SS Savannah arrived  at Liverpool, United Kingdom - the first steam-propelled vessel to cross the Atlantic, although most of the journey was made under sail.

1837  Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne.

 Victoria receives the news of her accession to the throne from Lord Conyngham (left) and the Archbishop of Canterbury.

1840  Samuel Morse received the patent for the telegraph.

 

1862   Barbu Catargiu, the Prime Minister of Romania, was assassinated.

1863  American Civil War: West Virginia was admitted as the 35th U.S. state.

1877  Alexander Graham Bell installed the world’s first commercial telephone service in Hamilton, Ontario.

 

1893  Lizzie Borden was acquitted for the murders of her father and stepmother.

1909 Errol Flynn, Australian actor, was born (d. 1959).

1919  150 died at the Teatro Yaguez fire, Mayagüez, Puerto Rico.

1924  Chet Atkins, American guitar player and producer, was born  (d. 2001).

1934 Wendy Craig, English actress, was born.

 

1942 Brian Wilson, American musician (The Beach Boys), was born.

1944 World War II: The Battle of the Philippine Sea concluded with a decisive U.S. naval victory. The lopsided naval air battle is also known as the “Great Marianas Turkey Shoot”.

 

1944  Continuation war: Soviet Union demanded an unconditional surrender from Finland during the beginning of partially successful Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive.

1945  Anne Murray, Canadian singer, was born.

1946 Xanana Gusmão, President of East Timor, was born.

1948 Ludwig Scotty, President of Nauru, was born.

1948 Toast of the Town, later The Ed Sullivan Show, made its television debut.

 1949  Lionel Richie, American musician (The Commodores) , was born.

1949  Alan Longmuir, Scottish bass guitarist (Bay City Rollers), was born. 

1950  Nouri Al-Maliki, Prime Minister of Iraq, was born. 

1954 Michael Anthony, American musician (Van Halen), was born.

1956  A Venezuelan Super-Constellation crashed in the Atlantic Ocean off Asbury Park, New Jersey, killing 74 people.

1959  A rare June hurricane struck Canada’s Gulf of St. Lawrence killing 35.

 

1960 John Taylor, English musician (Duran Duran), was born.

1960  Independence of Mali and Senegal.

1963  The so-called “red telephone“ was established between the Soviet Union and the United States following the Cuban Missile Crisis.

1967 Nicole Kidman, American-born Australian actress, was born.

1971 Josh Kronfeld, New Zealander rugby union footballer, was born.

1973  Ezeiza massacre in Buenos Aires  Snipers fired on left-wing Peronists. At least 13 were killed and more than 300 injured.

1979 ABC News correspondent Bill Stewart was shot dead by a Nicaraguan soldier under the regime of Anastasio Somoza Debayle. The murder was caught on tape and sparked international outcry of the regime.

1987 The All Blacks won the inaugural rugby World Cup.

 

1990  Asteroid Eureka was discovered.

1991  The German parliament decided to move the capital from Bonn back to Berlin.

2003 The WikiMedia Foundation was founded in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Quaintise -  elegance, beauty; craft; subtlety; cunning, ingenuity; a trick or strategum.

7/10

7/10 in Stuff”s Biz Quiz