I Don’t Wanna Play House

Tammy Wynette would have been 68 today.

Those Were The Days

Happy birthday Mary Hopkin – 60 today.

Monty Python

Happy birthday Michael Palin – 67 today.

Tuesday’s poem on Wednesday

This week’s Tuesday’s poem is Come Here At  Once by Emma Barnes.

The sidebar on the left links to other Tuesday’s poems, I particularly enjoyed All Washed Up A dirty conversation between the kids  by Fifi Colston.

9/15

Started well but went astray at about half way through and finished with just an adequate 9/15 in today’s Dominion Post political trivia quiz.

Hoki Mai

Day five of New Zealand Music Month – Hoki Mai by St Josephs Maori Girls’ College.

Wee drop in milk price

The average price of milk in this morning’s globalDairy Trade auction dropped .8% on a Trade Weighted Basis.

 

   The average price for Whole Milk Powder was down slightly (1.2%) to US$3,932 per tonne.

Skim Milk Powder was down 1.4% to US$3,612.

Anhydrous Milk Fat was up 4.4% to US$5,020 per tonne.

   

Guided by conscience

Should MPs be whipped when they vote on alcohol laws?

Tracy Watkins think s not and Kiwiblog agrees with her.

Me too.

There are good reasons for whipping MPs on most matters.

List MPs are there because people voted for their parties not them as individuals. Good electorate MPs will gain some votes in spite of their parties, but the foundation for their support is still the party under whose colours they stand.

However, there are some matters which don’t comfortably fall along party lines, where democracy is better served if MPs are free to vote was they wish, guided by their personal rather than political beliefs.

One example of an issue best left to MPs’ consciences is tobacco. This heartfelt post by Chris Tremain on his father’s death shows why.

May 5 in history

On May 5:

553 The Second Council of Constantinople began.

1215  Rebel barons renounce their allegiance to King John of England.

1260 Kublai Khan became ruler of the Mongol Empire.

1494 Christopher Columbus landed on the island of Jamaica and claimed it for Spain.

1640  King Charles I of England dissolved the Short Parliament.

1762  Russia and Prussia signed the Treaty of St. Petersburg.

1789  In France, the Estates-General convened for the first time since 1614.

 

1809  Mary Kies becomes the first woman awarded a U.S. patent, for a technique of weaving straw with silk and thread.

1809 – The Swiss canton of Aargau denied citizenship to Jews.

1818 Karl Marx, German political philosopher was born (d. 1883).

 

1821  Emperor Napoleon I died in exile on the island of Saint Helena.

 

1830 John Batterson Stetson, American hat manufacturer was born (d. 1906).

 

1833 James Busby  became New Zealand’s official British resident.

1835 The first railway in continental Europe opened between Brusselsand Mechelen.

1862  Cinco de Mayo in Mexico: troops led by Ignacio Zaragoza halted a French invasion in the Battle of Puebla.

1864 American Civil War: The Battle of the Wilderness began in Spotsylvania County, Virginia.

1864 Nellie Bly, American journalist and writer was born  (d. 1922).

1865  In North Bend, Ohio, the first train robbery in the United States took place.

1866  Memorial Day first celebrated in United States at Waterloo, New York.

1877  Indian Wars: Sitting Bull led his band of Lakota into Canada to avoid harassment by the United States Army under Colonel Nelson Miles.

1886  The Bay View Tragedy: A militia fired into a crowd of protesters in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, killing seven.

 

1891 The Music Hall in New York City (later known as Carnegie Hall) had its grand opening and first public performance, with Tchaikovsky as the guest conductor.

1904  Cy Young of the Boston Americans threw the first perfect game in the modern era of baseball.

1914 Tyrone Power, American actor was born (d. 1958).

1916 U.S. marines invaded the Dominican Republic.

1919 Georgios Papadopoulos, Greek dictator was born (d. 1999).

1921 Coco Chanel introduced Chanel No. 5.

1925  Scopes Trial: serving of an arrest warrant on John T. Scopes for teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.

 

1925  The government of South Africa declared Afrikaans an official language.

1936  Italian troops occupied Addis Ababa.

1940  World War II: Norwegian refugees formed a government-in-exile in London

1941  Emperor Haile Selassie returned to Addis Ababa; the country commemorates the date as Liberation Day or Patriots’ Victory Day.

1942 Tammy Wynette, American musician was born (d. 1998).

 

1943 Michael Palin, British writer, actor, and comedian, was born.

1944 John Rhys-Davies, English-born Welsh actor was born.

1945  World War II: Canadian and UK troops liberated the Netherlands and Denmark from Nazi occupation.

1945 – World War II: Prague uprising against German occupying forces in Czechoslovakia.

1945 – World War II: US Army troops liberate the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria

 

1945 – World War II: Admiral Karl Dönitz, President of Germany after Hitler’s death, ordered all German U-boats to cease offensive operations and return to their bases.

1948  Bill Ward, British drummer (Black Sabbath) was born.

1949 The Treaty of London established the Council of Europe in Strasbourg as the first European institution working for European integration.

1950 Bhumibol Adulyadej crownsedhimself King Rama IX of Thailand.

1950 Mary Hopkin, Welsh singer, was born.

1955 West Germany gained full sovereignty.

1961 The Mercury programme: Mercury-Redstone 3 – Alan Shepard became the first American to travel into outer space making a sub-orbital flight of 15 minutes.

1964 The Council of Europe declared May 5 as Europe Day.

 

1980 Operation Nimrod: The British Special Air Service stormed the Iranian embassy in London after a six-day siege.

1981 Bobby Sands died in the Long Kesh prison hospital after 66 days of hunger-striking, aged 27.

1987  Iran-Contra affair: start of Congressional televised hearings in the United States of America

1991 Mt Pleasant riots broke out in the Mt. Pleasant section of Washington, D.C. after police shoot a Salvadoran man.

1994  The signing of the Bishkek Protocol between Armenia and Azerbaijan effectively froze the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

2005  Tony Blair’s Labour Party was elected for a third consecutive term.

2006 The government of Sudan signed an accord with the Sudan Liberation Army.

2007  Kenya Airways Flight KQ 507 crashed in Cameroon.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia