November 23 n history

534 BC – Thespis of Icaria became the first actor to portray a character onstage.

1227 – Polish Prince Leszek I the White was assassinated at an assembly of Piast dukes at Gąsawa.

1248 – Conquest of Seville by the Christian troops under King Ferdinand III of Castile.

1499 – Pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck was hanged for reportedly attempting to escape from the Tower of London.

1531 – The Second war of Kappel resulted in the dissolution of the Protestant alliance in Switzerland.

1644 – John Milton published Areopagitica, a pamphlet decrying censorship.

1808 – French and Poles defeated the Spanish at battle of Tudela.

1844 – Independence of the Duke of Schleswig-Holstein from Denmark.

1859 Billy The Kid, American outlaw, was born (d. 1881).

1863 – American Civil War: Battle of Chattanooga began.

1867 – The Manchester Martyrs were hanged for killing a police officer while freeing two Irish nationalists from custody.

1876 –  Tammany Hall leader William Marcy Tweed (better known as Boss Tweed) was delivered to authorities in New York City after being captured in Spain.

1887  Boris Karloff, British actor, was born (d. 1969).

1888 Harpo Marx, American comedian, was born (d. 1964).

1889 – The first jukebox went into operation at the Palais Royale Saloon in San Francisco.

1890 – King William III of the Netherlands died without a male heir and a special law was passed to allow his daughter Princess Wilhelmina to become his heir.

1903 – Governor of Colorado James Peabody sent the state militia into the town of Cripple Creek to break up a miners’ strike.

1910 – Johan Alfred Ander was the last person in Sweden to be executed.

1914 – Mexican Revolution: The last of U.S. forces withdrew from Veracruz.

1918 – Heber J. Grant succeeded Joseph F. Smith as the seventh president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

1934 – An Anglo-Ethiopian boundary commission in the Ogaden discovered an Italian garrison at Walwal, well within Ethiopian territory which led to the Abyssinia Crisis.

1936 – The first edition of Life was published.

1940 – World War II: Romania became a signatory of the Tripartite Pact, officially joining the Axis Powers.

1943 – World War II: The Deutsche Opernhaus on Bismarckstraße in the Berlin was destroyed.

1946 – French Navy fire in Hai Phong, Viet Nam, killed 6,000 civilians.

1947 A civis funeral was held for the 41 victims of the Ballantynes Fire.

1949  Sandra Stevens, British singer, member of pop group Brotherhood of Man, was born.

1955 – The Cocos Islands were transferred from the control of the United Kingdom to Australia.

1959 – General Charles de Gaulle,  declared in a speech in Strasbourg his vision for a “Europe, “from the Atlantic to the Urals.”

1963 – The BBC broadcast the first episode of Doctor Who (starring William Hartnell) which is the world’s longest running science fiction drama.

1971 – Representatives of China attended the United Nations, for the first time.

1976 – Apneist Jacques Mayol was the first man to reach a depth of 100 m undersea without breathing equipment.

1979 –  Provisional Irish Republican Army member Thomas McMahon was sentenced to life in prison for the assassination of Lord Mountbatten.

1980 – A series of earthquakes in southern Italy killed approximately 4,800 people.

1981 – Iran-Contra Affair: Ronald Reagan signed the top secret National Security Decision Directive 17 (NSDD-17), giving the Central Intelligence Agency the authority to recruit and support Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1985 – Gunmen hijacked EgyptAir Flight 648,  when the plane landed in Malta, Egyptian commandos stormed the  jetliner, but 60 people died in the raid.

1990 – The first all woman expedition to the south pole (3 Americans, 1 Japanese and 12 Russians), set off from Antarctica on the 1st leg of a 70 day, 1287 kilometre ski trek.

1992  Miley Cyrus, American actress and singer/songwriter, was born.

1993 – Rachel Whiteread won both the £20,000 Turner Prize award for best British modern artist and the £40,000 K Foundation art award for the worst artist of the year.

1996 – Ethiopian Airlines Flight 961 was hijacked, then crashed into the Indian Ocean after running out of fuel, killing 125.

2001 – Convention on Cybercrime was signed in Budapest.

2003 – Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze resigned following weeks of mass protests over flawed elections.

2005 – Ellen Johnson Sirleaf was elected president of Liberia and became the first woman to lead an African country.

2007 – MS Explorer, a cruise liner carrying 154 people, sank in the Antarctic Ocean south of Argentina after hitting an iceberg. There were no fatalities.

2009 – The Maguindanao massacre.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Word of the day

Pleionosis – the exageration of one’s own importance.

Bit late to tell parties to butt out or referendum debate

Pro-MMP campaigner Phillip Temple says politicians should butt out of the referendum on the electoral system.

‘When New Zealanders vote in the referendum on Saturday they need to remember that the voting system is ours, not the politicians”, Philip Temple said.

‘The politicians have already had far too much to say about which electoral system we should be voting for. To have them telling us which voting system we should choose is like asking foxes to design the hen-house.’

It’s a bit late to be saying that when it’s been public knowledge for weeks that Labour and the Green Party registered to campaign on the issue.

‘It is especially reprehensible that the anti-MMP lobby has politicised the referendum debate by using the images of politicians Winston Peters and John Key to further the lobby’s clear sectional self-interest. This reveals their contempt for the neutrality of the voting system and the views of ordinary New Zealanders.’

I’ve heard or read a very few politicians giving their personal opinion they’ll be voting for change but I haven’t come across any actively campaigning for change.

National’s position has been quite clear – it won’t take a stance on the referendum and will work with whichever system voters deliver.

Temple’s problem doesn’t seem to be politicians per se, just those supporting change and his example isn’t politicians campaigning but Vote for Change using politicians in its campaign.

One of MMP’s weaknesses is that it has, and could again, hand a disproportionate amount of power to one man and his bunch of sycophants. What’s wrong with pointing that out?

Real books, stubborness and bad manners

Discussion on Critical Mass with Jim Mora began with:

For their children, many e.book fans insist on paper;

moved on to:

Stubbornness increases the more people tell you wou’re wrong ;

and finished with:

Bad manners are in rude health.

Putting principle ahead of party

A comment Don Brash made on the wee party leaders’ debate last week didn’t get the attention it deserved.

In answer to a question on why he opposes MMP he said he was doing what he believed to be best for New Zealand rather than the interests of his party.

He’s said much the same thing again:

“I recall [former Act leader] Rodney Hide saying Act cares      more about the future of New Zealand than the future of its      own party, and I like to believe that that’s my concern also,” Dr Brash said.

Brash has been criticised, and rightly so,  for not delivering the increased poll support he predicted the party would get if he became leader. But he should get credit for putting principle ahead of the interests of his party in this case.

It’s the party vote that counts

We’ve had MMP since 1996 and still people don’t understand it’s the party vote that counts.

ODT political editor Dene Mackenzie writes:

Labour has made a near-fatal mistake by not having “party vote Labour” on many of its posters.

Having just the candidate’s name and “vote [for whomever]“  does not tell Labour voters they need to tick the Labour      candidate and the party vote boxes to help return as many of  the party’s MPs to Parliament as possible.  

That is correct but then he adds:

In the past, it would not have hurt greatly if voters in Labour-held electorates voted for the candidate and gave their party vote to the Greens to help build a possible post-election coalition.   

That has never been the case. It’s always been the party vote that counts, except in the very few electorates where one of the wee parties might win the seat and bring in other MPs without needing 5% of the vote.

If Labour had lost votes to the Greens in 2005 when the final count between it and National was so close, the left would have had the same number of votes but Labour might not have been the party with the most MPs in parliament which would have weakened its mandate to lead the government.

The ability to lead a government doesn’t come from shifting party votes around between potential coalition partners, it comes from increasing the size of the total vote gained by the major party and its potential coalition partners.

That requires wooing voters from the right towards the left and from the left towards the right not swapping votes from for instance Labour to the Greens and it’s the party vote that does that.

King Canute speaks

Goff demands Peters acts responsibly:

During TV3′s leaders debate on Monday night, Mr Goff said he expects Mr Peters to do the right and responsible thing for New Zealand if he is elected to Parliament and he trusts the former MP will do that.

Either Goff has a very faulty memory or he hasn’t learned from the past.

A responsible Peters is an oxymoron.

In expecting this leopard to change its spots, Goff is channelling King Canute and expecting to hold back the tide.

New Zealand needs strong stable government, less debt and more jobs. It doesn’t need a charlatan propped up by a following of sycophants.

Chch earthquake aid policy helping Tauranga

One of the unheralded acts by the government in the wake of last September’s earthquake was providing money to enable businesses to keep operating in the immediate aftermath.

The same thing was done after the February quake and it was instrumental in protecting jobs and reducing the number of businesses which collapsed.

It has provided a template which has been used in Tauranga after the oil spill from the Rena:

One thing that resonated with business owners in Mount Maunganui was the response from the Government in helping pay      wages. While there were still some who wanted more government handouts, most were strongly supportive of National’s actions. 

Not all contributions from politicians has been appreciated, however:

The Green Party and Labour leader Phil Goff have done themselves no favours in Mt Maunganui.   

Local retailers complained to Taking the Pulse on Saturday that both the Greens and Mr Goff keep drawing attention to  the stricken Rena which hit the Astrolabe Reef on  October 5, spilling oil. . .

Publicity from the oil spill also hurt visitor numbers; people likened it to the Gulf of Mexico spill, which wrecked both tourism and fisheries along the coast of Louisiana.   

The damage caused by the negative publicity during the election campaign is starting to worry a few. . .

But the main political issue that annoyed nearly everyone spoken to in about two hours was grandstanding – both in Mt  Maunganui and Epsom. Voters were absolutely over the side issues and complained it reminded them of when New Zealand First leader Winston Peters was in full flight. Then, they remembered that Mr Peters was again in full flight.   

There was no love lost on the Mount for Mr Peters. No particular reason could be nailed down, but the dislike was palpable.  

 Obviously people of good sense and discernment.

Diary of a political tragic

7pm: iPad and phone armed with the reactor worm, tune into TV3 leaders’ debate.

Moments later: wonder how many others are doing this – sliding reactor to 100 when preferred leader speaks and to zero when it’s the other’s turn.

More  moments later: track progress of audience worm, lukewarm reaction to John Key and positive for Phil Goff, mostly doesn’t reflect what either is saying. Wonder if audience is biased. (Later confirmed was  infiltrated by at least three Labour activists, about which TV3 is sorry but what can they expect when it was anything but a random selection of undecided voters.)

More moments later: Reactor on phone sticks on 100 when I want it at zero and zero when I want it at 100.

More moments later: decide if wasn’t a political tragic would have given up by now.

Yet more moments later: audience reacts in first obviously spontaneous reaction - worm plummets as Goff tries to justify not ruling out Winston Peters.

More moments later: All over bar the panel which declares it a draw by 2:1. Wonder if wasting an hour on this is going above and beyond call of duty, even for a political tragic.

November 22 in history

498 – Symmachus was elected Pope in the Lateran Palace, while Laurentius was elected Pope in Santa Maria Maggiore.

845 – The first King of all Brittany, Nominoe defeated the Frankish king Charles the Bald at the Battle of Ballon near Redon.

1307 – Pope Clement V issued the papal bull Pastoralis Praeeminentiae which instructed all Christian monarchs in Europe to arrest all Templars and seize their assets.

1574 – Discovery of the Juan Fernández Islands off Chile.

1635 – Dutch colonial forces on Taiwan launched a pacification campaign against native villages, resulting in Dutch control of the middle and south of the island.

1718 –  British pirate Edward Teach ( “Blackbeard“) was killed in battle with a boarding party led by Lieutenant Robert Maynard.

1808  Thomas Cook, British travel entrepreneur, was born.

1812 – War of 1812: 17 Indiana Rangers were killed at the Battle of Wild Cat Creek.

1819  George Eliot, (Mary Ann Evans) British novelist, was born (d. 1880).

1830 – Charles Grey, (2nd Earl Grey), became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.

1837 – Canadian journalist and politician William Lyon Mackenzie called for a rebellion against Great Britain in his essay “To the People of Upper Canada”, published in his newspaper The Constitution.

1869 – In Dumbarton, Scotland, the clipper Cutty Sark was launched – one of the last clippers ever to be built, and the only one still surviving to this day.

1890 Charles de Gaulle, President of France  was born (d. 1970).

1899 Hoagy Carmichael, American composer, was born (d. 1981).

1908 – The Congress of Manastir established the Albanian alphabet.

1913 – Benjamin Britten, British composer, was born (d. 1976).

1917 Jon Cleary, Australian author, was born (d 2010).

1928 – The premier performance of Ravel’s Boléro in Paris.

1932 – Robert Vaughn, American actor, was born.

1935 – The China Clipper took off from Alameda, California for its first commercial flight, reaching its destination, Manila, a week later.

1939 General Bernard Freyburg took command  of the British Expeditionary Force.

1940 –  Following the initial Italian invasion, Greek troops counterattack into Italian-occupied Albania and capture Korytsa.

1943  Billie Jean King, American tennis player, was born.

1943 – Lebanon gained independence from France.

1954 – The Humane Society of the United States was founded.

1958  Jamie Lee Curtis, American actress, was born.

1963 – In Dallas, Texas, US President John F. Kennedy was killed and Texas Governor John B. Connally seriously wounded.

1963 – US Vice-President Lyndon B. Johnson was sworn in as the 36th President of the United States.

1967 – UN Security Council Resolution 242 is adopted by the UN Security Council, establishing a set of the principles aimed at guiding negotiations for an Arab-Israeli peace settlement.

1973 – The Italian Fascist organization Ordine Nuovo was disbanded.

1974 – The United Nations General Assembly granted the Palestine Liberation Organization observer status.

1975 –  Juan Carlos was declared King of Spain following the death of Francisco Franco.

1977 – British Airways started a regular London to New York City supersonic Concorde service.

1986 – Mike Tyson defeated Trevor Berbick to become youngest Heavyweight champion in boxing history.

1987 – Two Chicago television stations were hijacked by an unknown pirate dressed as Max Headroom.

1988 – The first prototype B-2 Spirit stealth bomber was revealed.

1989 – In West Beirut, a bomb exploded near the motorcade of Lebanese President Rene Moawad, killing him.

1990 – British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher withdrew from the Conservative Party leadership election, confirming the end of her premiership.

1995 – Toy Story was released as the first feature-length film created completely using computer-generated imagery.

2002 – In Nigeria, more than 100 people were killed at an attack aimed at the contestants of the Miss World contest.

2004 – The Orange Revolution began in Ukraine, resulting from the presidential elections.

2005 – Angela Merkel became the first female Chancellor of Germany.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Another state house scare letter

Stuff’s report on the awful letter sent to a beneficiary has attracted 214 comments including this one (the 20th at 1:43):

We’ve received a Labour flyer all (with my name and address on it) about not losing the “family home”. Apparently the house we’ve owned for years is actually a state house, and National will sell it out from under us. Go Labour, we’ll be rethinking our options if they get in power. Australia or England?

And the 57th at 1:54:

I received something similar over the weekend. printed label with my name on the envelope stating that if I choose to vote national I will loose my state house. The funny thing is is that I dont live in a state house. Somehow Labour have obtained my details and possibly my social welfare history and placed their own meaning on it. These tactics just make me ashamed for the Labour party

Just this morning Keeping Stock had an excerpt from the States Services Commission on what happened last time labour tried that:

This flyer reminds us of a letter sent to state house tenants by the Labour Party prior to the 2005 election. Then, as is now, dire predictions were made; in that case the letter took the form of a fake eviction notice. In his report to Parliament for that year, the State Services Commissioner noted:

 Eviction notices

The last issue I wish to raise is the unintended and complex consequences for State servants of actions taken during political campaigns. In this election period, the Labour Party sent fake “eviction notices” to several thousand individual State house tenants as part of a housing policy promotion. This action had two consequences for the State Services. Firstly, it raised trust issues as tenants were suspicious that a government agency had given their private information to a political party, and, secondly, Housing New Zealand staff had to manage calls from worried and scared tenants.

Housing New Zealand confirms that it did not release its tenants’ mailing list. Labour Party president Mike Williams stated the party “constructed its own list” from publicly available information (New Zealand Herald, 10 September 2005). However, the outcome of this communication meant that Housing New Zealand call centre staff were placed in the potentially difficult predicament of managing calls from concerned tenants. Call centre staff were given guidance that they must remain neutral and not get into the position where they are discussing the pros and cons of various party policies on housing with tenants.

Repeating the same lies when they know the distress it causes recipients and extra work it causes state servants is despicable.

Kiwiblog has the letter and the facts on National’s record:

The reality under National is has increased the housing stock, with the only sales (a few dozen) being to existing tenants, and the capital used to buy more houses. In fact the total number of state houses has increased by more than 1,000 under National. National has also renovated or upgraded 50,000 state houses.

It is an absolute lie to say National is reviewing all state house tenancies. The policy clearly says only *new* tenancies will be placed on periodic review.

Whaleoil also has a copy of the letter and states the obvious: Labour is the nasty party.

National’s policy is here.

 

Law lags behind life

The Electoral Commission advises no campaigning is permitted on election day and says:

News stories posted on websites before election day can remain, as long as the website is not advertised on election day. Comment functions should be disabled on all websites, including social media sites, until after 7pm on election day to avoid readers posting statements that could influence voters.

That is the law but it is lagging behind life with so much communication taking place on social media.

Texting (which I don’t think is included), Facebook and Twitter are modern versions of letters and phone calls.

It would be impossible to police all Facebook and Twitter interaction and the idea that someone might be falling foul of the law for telling their friends something which might be construed as influencing their votes is ridiculous.

 

Where are your principles Pita?

Pita Sharples says the Maori Party opposes National’s plan to sell a minority share in a few state assets but:

He says the Maori Party could support the policy if iwi groups would be able to have priority access to the shares.

What’s happened to his principles? 

The policy is either worth supporting or not. 

I believe it is and that it is a necessary part of much-needed policy to reduce debt.  Some iwi agree and have shown interest in buying shares.

But supporting the policy only if iwi, or anyone else, has priority access is completely unprincipled.  

John Key has ruled out preferential treatment for anyone, saying all New Zealanders would be treated equally.

 

Look at the people who are telling you not to

Campaigners for MMP are telling us to support them because of the people who are telling us not to.

The same argument can be made for voting for change.

Look who’s telling us not to:

Green Party, New Zealand Council of Trade Unions (NZCTU), the Public Services Association (PSA), New Zealand Dairy Workers Union (NZDWU), Service and Food Workers Union (SFWU), New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI), The New Zealand Nurses Organisation, First Union Incorporated, Campaign for MMP Incorporated, Labour Party, Rail and Maritime Transport Union Inc (RMTU), Maritime Union of New Zealand (MUNZ), New Zealand Amalgamated Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Inc (EPMU), Unite Union, New Zealand Union of Students’ Associations (NZUSA).

Online hlep to get off the fence

A group of Massey University students have  launched a non-partisan web based tool to encourage young New Zealander’s to vote in the Election:

As part of a third year Massey University Design & Business project, five design students from various disciplines were challenged to design and develop a simple web-based tool to aid voters’ decision making in the 2011 New Zealand General Election. Moving beyond the classroom, the students believe it will make a difference to the way their peers engage with politics.

The interactive tool matches the users’ values with the values of different parties, as assessed by a panel of experts. A best match is then calculated to narrow down the options to present the most compatible parties. The tool doesn’t tell a user how to vote or specifically who to vote for, but does provide a sense of direction for further independent research. It aims to help put trainer wheels on the future for many young people who believe that politics has no shaping influence in their lives.

On the Fence Project Manager Kieran Stowers said: “A huge number of young people feel peer pressured when voting, either by going along with what their friends think or voting for a particular party just because that’s what their parents do. Or even worse, they don’t vote at all! It shouldn’t be seen as a chore, voting is a way of expressing yourself as an individual and we wanted to help people find their voice”.

You’ll find out more at On The Fence (though when I clicked on both launch it and tutorial my screen froze).

WIll the worm turn again?

The worm used for a telelvision debate between party leaders in 2002 influenced the result of the election.

Peter Dunne made a few sensible comments which the worm, recording reactions of undecided voters in the qudience, responded to positively.

That got media coverage and whatever his party was called then got its best result.

An updated version of the worm, the Ray Morgan Reactor,  is being used for tonight’s debate between John Key and Phil Goff on TV3.

Given that people self-select its results will be unreliable and a distraction from the debate. Just another example of media focussed more on entertainment than enlightenment.

That said, it you want to play the game you can download the reactor for iPhones here and for androids here.

Desperate lies

How much lower will Labour stoop in its desperation?

Cactus Kate calls it  cataclysmic in vileness and she’s right.

Imagine how you’d feel reading this  if you, your partner or you child were ill.

Imagine how you’d feel reading this if your marriage or partnership was rocky.

Imagine how you’d feel if you were on a benefit and didn’t know this is lies.

Imagine how you’d feel if you had a young child, already working and feeling guilty about not being with your baby most of the time.

The woman who received it sent it to Whaleoil and said:

A very ‘classy’ threat from Labour (see attached), it makes me wonder how do they get information about my child… and even if info is accessible, the use of it is rather inappropriate.

Political parties have access to electoral rolls which gives occupations and that could show someone is a beneficiary. But to the best of my knowledge they don’t have access to information on which benefit someone receives or the age of their children.

Regardless of where they obtained the information it is inappropriate use of it, especially when they are lying.

Labour has form for this type of lie-based campaigning. Keeping Stock reminds us of their letter to state house tennents in 2005 and the impact that had on state servants who had to deal with worried recipients.

That letter was full of lies and so is this.

For the record, National’s welfare policy is to introduce the obligation to seek part-time work when the youngest child turns  six five.

UPDATE: As Deborah points out in  the comments the policy also says someone on a benefit who has a subsequent child will have a part-time work expectation when that child turns one.

Note the words part-time and expectation.

That is very different from: under National’s new welfare policy beneficiaries who get pregant will be forced to find work when their baby turns 1 which is what the letter says.

The policy applies only to those who have a child while already on a sole parent benefit and the expectation is for the recipient to seek only part-time work.

13 more reasons to vote for change

The notoriously inaccurate* Horizon poll gives 13 more reasons to ditch MMP:

A Horizon poll of 2874 people is projecting National on 46 seats in a 122-seat parliament, and Labour and the Greens on 50.

That leaves 26 seats to decide the government and, according to Horizon, Winston Peters’ New Zealand First is on track to take up to 13 of them.

The 13 are: 1 a charlatan, 2 who? 3 a man best known for alcohol induced bladder weakness. 4 who?, 5 who? 6 who? 7 who? 8 who?, 9 who? 10 who? 11 who?, 12 who?, 13  who?

* The poll’s results are very different form all others and Keeping Stock and Whaleoil explain how easy it is to manipulate them.

November 21 in history

164 BC – Judas Maccabaeus restored the Temple in Jerusalem, an event commemorated each year by the festival of Hanukkah.

235 – Pope Anterus succeeded Pontian as the nineteenth pope.

1272 – Prince Edward became King of England.

1620 – Plymouth Colony settlers signed the Mayflower Compact.

1694 Voltaire, French philosopher, was born (d. 1778).

1783 – Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d’Arlandes, made the first untethered hot air balloon flight.

1787 Samuel Cunard, Canadian-born shipping magnate, was born.

1789 – North Carolina ratified the United States Constitution and is admitted as the 12th U.S. state.

1791 – Colonel Napoléon Bonaparte was promoted to full general and appointed Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of the French Republic.

1863 Maori surrendered at Rangiriri.

1877 – Thomas Edison announced his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound.

1894 – Port Arthur massacre: Port Arthur, Manchuria fell to the Japanese, a decisive victory of the First Sino-Japanese War.

1905 – Albert Einstein‘s paper, Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?, was published in the journal “Annalen der Physik”. This paper revealed the relationship between energy and mass which led to the mass–energy equivalence formula E = mc².

1910 – Sailors onboard Brazil’s most powerful military units, including the brand-new warships Minas Geraes, São Paulo, and Bahia, violently rebelled in what is now known as the Revolta da Chibata (Revolt of the Whip).

1916 – World War I: A mine exploded and sank HMHS Britannic in the Aegean Sea, killing 30 people.

1918 – Flag of Estonia, previously used by pro-independence activists, is formally adopted as national flag of the Republic of Estonia.

1920 – Irish War of Independence: In Dublin, 31 people were killed in what became known as “Bloody Sunday“.

1922 – Rebecca Latimer Felton of Georgia took the oath of office, becoming the first female United States Senator.

1927 – Columbine Mine Massacre: Striking coal miners were allegedly attacked with machine guns by a detachment of state police dressed in civilian clothes.

1936 Victor Chang, Australian physician, was born.

1941 Juliet Mills, British actress, was born.

1942 – The completion of the Alaska Highway (also known as the Alcan Highway) was celebrated (however, it was not usable by general vehicles until 1943).

1945 Goldie Hawn, American actress, was born.

1948 George Zimmer, American entrepreneur, was born.

1953 – The British Natural History Museum announced that the “Piltdown Man” skull, initially believed to be one of the most important fossilized hominid skulls ever found, is a hoax.

1962 – The Chinese People’s Liberation Army declares a unilateral cease-fire in the Sino-Indian War.

1964 – The Verrazano-Narrows Bridge opened to traffic.

1964 – Second Vatican Council: The third session of the Roman Catholic Church’s ecumenical council closed.

1969 – U.S. President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agreed on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972.

1969 – The first permanent ARPANET link is established between UCLA and SRI.

1970 – Vietnam War: Operation Ivory Coast – A joint Air Force and Army team raided the Son Tay prison camp in an attempt to free American prisoners of war thought to be held there.

1971 – Indian troops, partly aided by Mukti Bahini (Bengali guerrillas), defeat the Pakistan army in the Battle of Garibpur.

1974 – The Birmingham Pub Bombings killed 21 people.

1977 – Minister of Internal Affairs Allan Highet announced that ‘the national anthems of New Zealand would be the traditional anthem “God Save the Queen” and the poem “God Defend New Zealand“, written by Thomas Bracken, as set to music by John Joseph Woods, both being of equal status as national anthems appropriate to the occasion.

1979 – The United States Embassy in Islamabad, was attacked by a mob and set on fire, killing four.

1980 – A fire broke out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Paradise, Nevada (now Bally’s Las Vegas). 87 people were killed and more than 650 injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history.

1980 – Lake Peigneur drained into an underlying salt deposit. A misplaced Texaco oil probe had been drilled into the Diamond Crystal Salt Mine, causing water to flow down into the mine, eroding the edges of the hole. The resulting whirlpool sucked the drilling platform, several barges, houses and trees thousands of feet down to the bottom of the dissolving salt deposit.

1985 – United States Navy intelligence analyst Jonathan Pollard was arrested for spying after being caught giving Israel classified information on Arab nations.

1986 – Iran-Contra Affair: National Security Council member Oliver North and his secretary start to shred documents implicating them in the sale of weapons to Iran and channeling the proceeds to help fund the Contra rebels in Nicaragua.

1990 – The Charter of Paris for a New Europe refocused the efforts of the Conference for Security and Co-operation in Europeon post-Cold War issues.

1995 – The Dayton Peace Agreement was initialed ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

1996 – A propane explosion at the Humberto Vidal shoe store and office building in San Juan, Puerto Rico killed 33.

2002 – NATO invited Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia to become members.

2004 – The second round of the Ukrainian presidential election led to massive protests and controversy over the its integrity.

2004 – The island of Dominica was hit by the most destructive earthquake in its history.

2004 – The Paris Club agreed to write off 80% (up to $100 billion) of Iraq’s external debt.

2006 – Anti-Syrian Lebanese Minister and MP Pierre Gemayel was assassinated in suburban Beirut.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Which is worse?

Europe is teetering on the brink of financial meltdown, we’re just six days away from an election, and TV3 wants to know how sexy party leaders are:

I don’t know which is worse, that they’ve wasted time and money and insulted the intelligence of viewers with such a survey or that having done so they didn’t include the two female co-leaders.

Or would it have been worse if they had included them?