Word of the day

Budget – an estimate of expected income and expenditure for a set period of time; a plan of operations based on such an estimate; an estimate of costs, revenues, and resources over a specified period, reflecting a reading of future financial conditions and goals; an itemized allotment of funds, time, etc., for a given period; the total sum of money set aside or needed for a purpose; a limited stock or supply of something.

Thursday’s quiz

You’ve been doing so well with asking the questions, I’m leaving it up to you again.

An electronic batch of baking will go to any or all who stump us.

Land and Water Forum report has wide support

The Land and Water Forum’s latest report calls for national bottom lines to be set for the state of the country’s waterways.

. . .  the LWF, a group representing iwi and key freshwater stakeholders, said iwi and urban and rural communities should then collaborate to develop specific water quality objectives for each catchment and identify local solutions to achieve them. . . 

. . .  The Forum’s second major report provides a national framework within which Regional Councils will work with their communities and iwi to set freshwater objectives and develop limits for its use.

It provides a consistent and transparent process for setting objectives and limits, and one that will lead to effective and enduring outcomes, including greater certainty for investment and development.

“The way in which water issues have traditionally been decided has ultimately benefited no one,” said Mr Bisley. “We all agree we need to do better for the sake of both the economy and the environment.”

What is remarkable about the report is the degree of consensus achieved on it and Colin James gives the credit for that to the process:

. . . the forum’s report is important in substance. It is also important as process. Federated Farmers and Forest and Bird at the far ends of the spectrum of interest groups have publicly backed it, along with many others. So, too, have Government ministers, Labour, the Greens and the Maori party.  The word is that similar consensus and party backing is close on the allocation report.   

In short, on a matter of vital importance to economic and social life there is a real prospect of settled policy that can transcend changes of government.

This is no small achievement and if memory serves me correctly former Environment Minister Nick Smith and Waitaki MP Jacqui Dean had a lot to do with setting up the forum and ensuring it ran well.

The process has worked well for water, is it too much to hope a similar process could work as well for other important matters?

A link to the report is here.

Those weren’t the good old days

Those of us old enough to remember Budgets long past will recall the great secrecy surrounding them and the attempts to second guess tax increases by stocking up on fuel, alcohol and cigarettes before prices went up.

Budgets nowadays are no less important but hold few surprises.

Finance Minister Bill English had given plenty of warning this will be a “zero” budget.

Major announcements on health, education, prisoner rehabilitation and welfare have already been made.

Any increases in spending will come not from “new” money but “old” money saved or reprioritised.

It might not be as exciting as it used to be, but at least in respect of Budgets, those weren’t the good old days and the modern no-surprises way is better.

 

 

Labour in headlines for all wrong reasons

In Budget week when eyes and ears tend to be on the government, Labour is in the headlines but for all the wrong reasons.

Shane Jones has been referred to the Auditor General over his decision to grant Chinese immigrant Bill Liu citizenship, at last.

He’s also been stood down from his portfolios – for the second time. As Lady Bracknell may be regarded as a misfortune, twice looks like carelessness.

David Shearer said:

“Based on my discussions with Shane Jones, I believe that he followed a proper process. But given the differing statements made in and outside of court and the questions that have been raised publicly, I believe that an independent agency should review the case.

“I’ve asked for the Auditor-General to look into all the departmental as well as ministerial processes involved in this case.

But the problem is about much more than the process. It is possible to make a mistake with the process and arrive and the right decision and to follow the correct process and still reach the wrong decision.

Keeping Stock has a round-up of news stories giving some background.

Kiwiblog asks several valid questions which need to be answered not least of which are the links between Jones’ decision and Liu’s donations to the labour Party.

All of that points to a lot more than a problem with the process.

It also points to Labour’s ongoing challenge to look like a government in waiting. Unless and until it sorts itself out, it will struggle to convince enough voters to give it the support it needs to lead a stable coalition.

If it can’t manage itself, it can’t be trusted to manage a multi-headed coalition.

UPDATE: Keeping Stock has spotted an immigration case where Jones disregarded submissions on humanitarian grounds on the advice of officials. That contrasts with the Liu case where he ignored official advice.

May 24 in history

15 BC  Julius Caesar Germanicus, Roman commander, was born (d. 19).

1218 The Fifth Crusade left Acre for Egypt.

1276  Magnus Ladulås was crowned King of Sweden in Uppsala Cathedral.

1487  Lambert Simnel was crowned as “King Edward VI” at Dublin.

1595  Nomenclator of Leiden University Library appeared, the first printed catalog of an institutional library.

1621  The Protestant Union was formally dissolved.

1626  Peter Minuit bought Manhattan.

1689  The English Parliament passes the Act of Toleration protecting Protestants.

1738  John Wesley was converted, essentially launching the Methodist movement; the day is celebrated annually by Methodists as Aldersgate Day.

1798 Irish Rebellion of 1798 led by the United Irishmen against British rule began.

1819 Queen Victoria was born (d. 1901).

1822  Battle of Pichincha: Antonio José de Sucre secured the independence of the Presidency of Quito.

1830  ”Mary Had a Little Lamb” by Sarah Josepha Hale was published.

1830  The first revenue trains in the United States began service on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad between Baltimore, Maryland and Ellicott’s Mills, Maryland.

1832  The First Kingdom of Greece was declared in the London Conference.

1844  Samuel F. B. Morse sent the message “What hath God wrought” (a Bible quotation, Numbers 23:23) from the Old Supreme Court Chamber in the United States Capitol to his assistant, Alfred Vail, in Baltimore, Maryland.

1846 Mexican-American War: General Zachary Taylor captured Monterrey.

1854 New Zealand’s parliament sat for the first time in Auckland, with 37 MPs.

1856  John Brown and his men murdered five slavery supporters at Pottawatomie Creek, Kansas.

1861 American Civil War: Union troop occupied Alexandria, Virginia.

1870 Jan Christiaan Smuts, Prime Minister of South Africa, was born (d. 1950).

1883 The Brooklyn Bridge  was opened to traffic after 14 years of construction.

1887 Edward “Mick” Mannock, Irish WWI flying ace was born (d. 1918).

1895  Henry Irving became the first person from the theatre to be knighted.

1900 Second Boer War: The United Kingdom annexed the Orange Free State.

1901  Seventy-eight miners died in the Caerphilly pit disaster in South Wales.

1915  World War I: Italy declared war on Austria-Hungary.

1921  The trial of Sacco and Vanzetti opened.

1930  Amy Johnson landed in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly from England to Australia.

1935  The first night game in Major League Baseball history was played in Cincinnati, Ohio, with the Cincinnati Reds beating the Philadelphia Phillies 2-1 at Crosley Field.

1940  Igor Sikorsky performed the first successful single-rotor helicopter flight.

1941 Bob Dylan, American singer and songwriter, was born.

1941  World War II: In the Battle of the Atlantic, the German Battleship Bismarck sank the then pride of the Royal Navy, HMS Hood, killing all but three crewmen.

1943  Josef Mengele became chief medical officer of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

1945 Priscilla Presley, American actress, was born.

1956 Conclusion of the Sixth Buddhist Council on Vesak Day, marking the 2,500 year anniversary after the Lord Buddha’s Parinibbāna.

1956 The first Eurovision Song Contest was held in Lugano, Switzerland.

1958 United Press International was formed through a merger of the United Press and the International News Service.

1960 Kristin Scott Thomas, English actress, was born.

1960 Guy Fletcher, British keyboardist (Dire Straits), was born.

1960  Cordón Caulle began to erupt.

1961  American civil rights movement: Freedom Riders were arrested in Jackson, Mississippi for “disturbing the peace” after disembarking from their bus.

1961  Cyprus entered the Council of Europe.

1962 Project Mercury: American astronaut Scott Carpenter orbited earth three times in the Aurora 7 space capsule.

1967  Egypt imposed a blockade and siege of the Red Sea coast of Israel.

1968 FLQ separatists bombed the U.S. consulate in Quebec City.

1970  The drilling of the Kola Superdeep Borehole began in the Soviet Union.

1973  Earl Jellicoe resigned as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the Lords.

1976  The London to Washington, D.C. Concorde service began.

1980  The International Court of Justice called for the release of United States embassy hostagesin Tehran.

1982  Liberation of Khorramshahr, Iranians recapture of the port city of Khorramshahr from the Iraqis during the Iran–Iraq War.

1988  Section 28 of the United Kingdom’s Local Government Act of 1988, a controversial amendment stating that a local authority cannot intentionally promote homosexuality, was enacted.

1989 Sonia Sutcliffe, wife of the Yorkshire Ripper, was awarded  £600,000 in damages (later reduced to £60,000 on appeal) after winning a libel action against Private Eye.

1990  A car carrying American Earth First! activists Judi Bari and Darryl Cherney exploded in Oakland, California, critically injuring both.

1991  Eritrea gained its independence from Ethiopia.

1991  Israel conducted Operation Solomon, evacuating Ethiopian Jews to Israel.

1992 The last Thai dictator,  General Suchinda Kraprayoon, resigned following pro-democracy protests.

1994  Four men convicted of bombing the World Trade Center in New York in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

2000  Israeli troops withdrew from southern Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

2001 Fifteen-year-old Sherpa Temba Tsheri became  the youngest person to climb to the top of Mount Everest.

2001  The Versailles wedding hall disaster in Jerusalem, killed 23 and injured over 200 in Israel’s worst-ever civil disaster.

2002  Russia and the United States signed the Moscow Treaty.

2004  North Korea banned mobile phones.

Sourced from NZ History Online and Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Ostrobogulous – slightly risqué or indecent; bizarre,  interesting, unusual or weird.

Rural round-up

The message gets through to US milk producers – Xcheque:

A week ago we published this chart which shows the margin over feed cost for US class III milk. It is an ugly sight and is only going to get worse if you believe that the futures market is a guide.

Current margins are down to the critical lower limit of $5/cwt. Beyond this the short term futures for feed and milk price take us back to the depths of 2009 and no sign of a recovery anytime soon. . .

Fonterra Payout a Global Economy Reality Check:

The second payout revision downwards by Fonterra Cooperative Group in just over two months, is the reason why Federated Farmers warns farmers to budget conservatively.  It is estimated this revision will see around $500 million less come into the economy.

“When the last revision took place in March, we warned it might not be the final one before the end of the 2011/12 season.  Since then, international dairy prices have fallen to levels last seen in August 2009,”says Willy Leferink, Federated Farmers Dairy chairperson.

“While this is due to increased global milk supply, it also coincides with major uncertainties over the direction of the world’s economy.  We may be an island but economically we’re not.  . .

Meat industry faces challenges positively – Allan Barber:

This season is more of a challenge for the meat industry than last, although suppliers are still reasonably comfortable in spite of the lower lamb price which has now dipped below the $100 mark.

Good growing conditions in most of the country, especially the North Island, have removed the summer stress that always comes with drought and enabled suppliers to put a bit more weight on to compensate. But for processors the combination of extremely high procurement prices, over $6 a kilo for lamb until end March, the exchange rate and low plant throughputs has meant a very challenging first half year. . .

“Team Talk” the best farm amangement tool I’ve seen for decades – Pasture to Profit:

“TEAM TALK….I believe this on-farm staff/team communication system to be the most innovative development I’ve seen in Farm Business Management for decades”

TEAM TALK is a very exciting new on-farm computer communication system that is simple to use and empowers all staff members to take responsibility for their individual roles on the farm. It permanently records what has previously been keep on hundreds of bits of paper, whiteboards and shed notice boards. . .

Collectively Owned Māori Farms Much Larger than the Average New Zealand Farms:

At nearly 2,000 hectares (ha), the average collectively owned Māori farm is about eight times the size of the average New Zealand farm, Statistics New Zealand said today.

The figures come from a survey of farms owned by members of the Federation of Māori Authorities (the Federation), which are a sub-set of all farm and forestry land that is collectively owned by Māori.

“The 140 Federation members’ farms have a total of 272,200ha of farm and forestry plantation land that members directly own and manage. It’s an area that’s more than one and a half times the size of Stewart Island. Altogether these Federation members’ farms occupy nearly 2 percent of New Zealand’s total farming and forestry area,” agricultural statistics manager Hamish Hill said. . .

 Study suggests eating organic foods leads to moral depravity –

Science can be a wonderfully vindictive thing, especially when it suggests that people who self-righteously purchase and consume organic foods are more likely to not help you jump your dead car battery, hold the door open for you, or volunteer to coach a community little league team. That’s right, everyone — organic foodies would sooner run a child down on her way to softball practice with their Schwinns than help that child learn how to catch a flyball, and that’s more or less a scientific fact.This is because, according to a new study published this week in Social Psychology & Personality Science, people who eat organic foods are more likely to think that eating those pesticide and hormone-free foods gives them the moral latitude to be super judgey about other peoples’ behavior and skimp on altruistic deeds . . . Hat Tip: Quote Unquote

Govt taking lead from NZers

Quote of the day:

 Yes, I did. Most New Zealanders actually have a pretty practical attitude about how to deal with these uncertain times. They are saving more, they are being careful about their spending, they are borrowing a good deal less in some cases than they were before, and, in fact, the Government is taking its lead from New Zealand households. It needs to do the same thing, which is to spend very carefully, borrow less, get our debt down, and be choosy about where we invest our capital. Bill English

It’s not a glamorous recipe but it’s an effective one.

We’ve been spending more than we earned for too long and are now having to take a much more Presbyterian approach to life – saving more and spending less.

That’s the way it was for most people when I was a child – you saved before you spent and if you wanted something you waited until you could afford it.

In those days, tariffs and import controls meant there was a lot less to buy than there is now and most things were relatively more expensive.

But having more choices and greater temptations doesn’t alter the fact that we’re in very uncertain times and it makes good sense  to save more and spend less.

Reducing reoffending

If prisons worked properly there would be no re-offending.

Making life inside so awful people would be too scared to reoffend is impossible without draconian measures a civilised society wouldn’t contemplate.

Addressing the causes of crime including alcohol and drug addiction and equipping inmates for life outside  as Corrections Minister Anne Tolley has announced is a much better idea.

A boost in alcohol and drug treatment, alongside increased education, skills training and employment programmes for prisoners, including remand prisoners, will lead to safer communities and better value for money for taxpayers.

From 2017, there will also be 600 fewer prisoners in jail than in 2011, and 4,000 fewer community offenders.

“It’s time to get serious about breaking this vicious cycle of prison and reoffending,” Mrs Tolley says.

“Offenders need to be made accountable for their crimes. But while they are in prison and upon their release, we must do more to rehabilitate, and then reintegrate, if they are to avoid a return to crime.”

People leaving prison still addicted or without the skills to earn a living are almost certain to return.

Treating addiction and addressing poor literacy and numeracy while people are in prison and giving more support to help them reintegrate are the best ways to reduce the chances of reoffending.

It is very expensive to keep someone in prison, it is better for prisoners, their families and wider society to spend money on preventative measures.

Where’s the Wally?

Labour list MP Andrew Little is cyring foul over the way he was served defamation papers.

It’s hard to have any sympathy when he and fellow MP Trevor Mallard who is also being sued were silly enough to say they wouldn’t co-operate:

The MPs said they wouldn’t cooperate because the proceeding were vexatious, politically motivated and lacked principle.

They are inviting Collins to employ ”thuggish characters” to serve proceedings on them.

That is conduct unbecoming of MPs. They’re supposed to be making laws, not providing examples of how to avoid it by playing a silly game of “where’s the wally?”.

Photo from WhaleOil

May 23 in history

1430 Siege of Compiègne: Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians while leading an army to relieve Compiègne.

1498 Girolamo Savonarola was burned at the stake in Florence on the orders of Pope Alexander VI.

1533 The marriage of King Henry VIII to Catherine of Aragon was declared null and void.

1568 The Netherlands declared their independence from Spain.

1568  Dutch rebels led by Louis of Nassau, brother of William I of Orange, defeated Jean de Ligne, Duke of Aremberg and his loyalist troops in the Battle of Heiligerlee, opening the Eighty Years’ War.

1618 The Second Defenestration of Prague precipitated the Thirty Years’ War.

1701  After being convicted of piracy and of murdering William Moore, Captain William Kidd was hanged.

1706 Battle of Ramillies: John Churchill, the 1st Duke of Marlborough, defeated a French army under Marshal Villeroi.

1805 Napoleon Bonaparte was crowned King of Italy with the Iron Crown of Lombardy in the Cathedral of Milan.

1810 Margaret Fuller, American journalist and feminist, was born  (d. 1850).

1813  Simón Bolívar entered Mérida, leading the invasion of Venezuela, and was proclaimed El Libertador (“The Liberator”).

1820 James Buchanan Eads, American engineer and inventor, was born  (d. 1887).

1829 Accordion patent granted to Cyrill Demian.

1844  Declaration of the Báb: a merchant of Shiraz announced that he was a Prophet and founded a religious movement. He is considered to be a forerunner of the Bahá’í Faith, and Bahá’ís celebrate the day as a holy day.

1846 Mexican-American War: President Mariano Paredes of Mexico unofficially declared war on the United States.

1855 Isabella Ford, English socialist, feminist, trade unionist and writer, was born (d. 1924).

1863 Organisation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Battle Creek, Michigan.

1863  The Siege of Port Hudson.

1863  American Civil War: Sergeant William Harvey Carney became the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor, for his heroism in the Assault on the Battery Wagner.

1873  The Canadian Parliament established the North West Mounted Police, the forerunner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

1875 Alfred P. Sloan, American long-time president and chairman of General Motors, was born  (d. 1966).

1907  The unicameral Parliament of Finland gathered for its first plenary session.

1911 The New York Public Library was dedicated.

1915  World War I: Italy joined the Allies after they declared war on Austria-Hungary.

1923  Launch of Belgium’s SABENA airline.

1928 Nigel Davenport, English actor, was born.

1929 The first talking cartoon of Mickey Mouse, “The Karnival Kid“, was released.

1933 Joan Collins, English actress, was born.

1934  American bank robbers Bonnie and Clyde were ambushed by police and killed in Black Lake, Louisiana.

1934 The Auto-Lite Strike culminated in the “Battle of Toledo”, a five-day melée between 1,300 troops of the Ohio National Guard and 6,000 picketers.

1939  The U.S. Navy submarine USS Squalus sank  during a test dive, causing the death of 24 sailors and two civilian technicians.

1945 World War II:  Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS, committed suicide while in Allied custody.

1945  World War II: The Flensburg government under Reichspräsident Karl Dönitz was dissolved when its members are captured and arrested by British forces at Flensburg in Northern Germany.

1949 Alan Garcia, President of Peru, was born.

1949  The Federal Republic of Germany was established and the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany was proclaimed.

1951 Tibetans signed the Seventeen Point Agreement for the Peaceful Liberation of Tibet with China.

1956 Mark Shaw, New Zealand rugby footballer, was born.

1958  Explorer 1 ceased transmission.

1966   Te Arikinui Dame Te Atairangikaahu, the first Maori Queen,  was crowned.

1967 Egypt closed the Straits of Tiran and blockaded the port of Eilat at the northern end of the Gulf of Aqaba to Israeli shipping, laying the foundations for the Six Day War.

1995  Oklahoma City bombing: The remains of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building were imploded.

1995  The first version of the Java programming language was released.

1998 The Good Friday Agreement was accepted in a referendum in Northern Ireland with 75% voting yes.

2002  The “55 parties ca;use”of the  Kyoto protocol was reached after its ratification by Iceland.

2004 Part of Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport‘s Terminal 2E collapsed, killing four people and injuring three others.

2005 The fastest roller coaster in the world, Kingda Ka opened at Six Flags Great Adventure.

2006  Alaskan stratovolcano Mount Cleveland erupted.

2008  The International Court of Justice (ICJ) awarded Middle Rocks to Malaysia and Pedra Branca (Pulau Batu Puteh) to Singapore, ending a 29-year territorial dispute between the two countries.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Word of the day

Visceral – of, pertaining to or affecting the viscera; characterised by or proceeding from instinct rather than intellect; characterised by or dealing with coarse or base emotions; earthy.

Books, adjectives and icons

Websites discussed with Jim Mora on Critical Mass today were:

How a book is born (warning might be depress you if you’ve got a good idea). Hat tip: Beattie’s Book Blog

The hierarchy of adjectives – scroll down to the last paragraph to find one of those things-you-know-but-didn’t-know-you-knew. Hat tip: Quote Unquote

And one we didn’t discuss because Jim had discussed it with someone else recently but I missed it and you might have too: Icons that don’t make sense anymore – only people of a certain age will recognise the origins of most of them.

Fonterra forecast payout down 30c

Fonterra has revised its forecast payout for this season down by 30 cents to $6.45- $6.55 before rententions.

It’s also announced an opening forecast of $5.95 – $6.05 before retentions for next season.

The updated forecast Payout range for this year comprises a lower forecast Farmgate Milk Price of $6.05 per kgMS and a forecast Net Profit after Tax range of $570-720 million, equating to 40-50 cents per share.

As a consequence, Fonterra forecasts that a 100 per cent share-backed farmer will earn on average in the range $6.45-$6.55 per kgMS before retentions.

CEO Theo Spierings said the lower forecast Farmgate Milk Price was due to continued softening of commodity prices.

“The Global Dairy Trade trade weighted index has declined 20.3% since our last Farmgate Milk Price forecast of $6.35 in April,” said Mr Spierings.

“Dairy production levels in the US and Europe are high, while we continue to have higher-than-normal production levels from New Zealand. All this is occurring at a time of heightened uncertainties in global markets.”

Mr Spierings said with the softening of global commodity prices, operating earnings were expected to be marginally ahead of 2011.

The grapevine has been suggesting next season’s payout could have been as low as $4.50. the opening forecast of more than a dollar higher than that is a relief but nothing is certain and that will put pressure on budgets.

On mice and moths

When we got home after five days away on Sunday I checked the mouse traps.

The ones in the laundry, kitchen and living room were empty but the three in the hall cupboard had all done what they’re designed to do.

I disposed of the bodies, reset the traps and within an hour had caught another mice.

Since then the traps have been untouched and there’s been no fresh signs of mice.

My war against unwanted visitors has opened on a new front though – I’ve discovered holes in a couple of woollen garments which point to the presence of moths in my wardrobe.

They seem to have a taste for merino and have chewed through in places it will be difficult to repair.

Why save what few watch?

Grey Power has added its voice to the individuals and groups calling on the government to save the free-to-air channel TV7.

There is a case for public broadcasting but TV1, 2 and 7 are poor models. The first two are indistinguishable from other commercial channels and TV7 has such a tiny number of viewers.

Maori TV is a better model, but it rarely attracts much of an audience either.

Rather than wasting time and energy trying to save a channel hardly anyone watches, people should be trying to find ways to get the best of the channel’s programmes on TV1 where they’d have a better chance of attracting a greater audience.

Labour cops debt-blame

Labour is copping the blame for the country’s debt:

Almost half of those in the survey saw it as effectively ”a plague on both their houses”, with 44 per cent blaming a combination of the Clark and Key governments.

But among those who singled out one or the other, 33 per cent saw Labour as being more at fault, while only 18 per cent blamed National more.

Debt has increased under National but among the reasons for that are expensive policies enacted by Labour and factors outside any government’s control:

The National-led Government has pointed to a number of main drivers of the soaring debt:

 Costly programmes put in place by Labour, including KiwiSaver, Working for Families and interest free student loans  All were endorsed by National, though it has taken the pruning shears to them, especially KiwiSaver.

– The global financial crisis in 2008-09 and the slowing of the New Zealand economy.

– The Canterbury earthquakes, which has cost the Government more than $9b..

The road back to surplus is a bit rocky but it is the right one to follow.

Had we continued on the path Labour wanted to lead us had they won the 2008 election we might well be little if any better off than the likes of Spain and Greece.

As it is, the government is determined to lead by example and is doing all it can to reduce costs without slashing services.

Some would argue it hasn’t gone far enough, but if it goes too far, too fast it will outpace public tolerance.

 

May 22 in history

334 BC The Macedonian army of Alexander the Great defeated Darius III of Persia in the Battle of the Granicus.

1176 The Hashshashin (Assassins) attempted to murder Saladin near Aleppo.

1377  Pope Gregory XI issued five papal bulls to denounce the doctrines of English theologian John Wycliffe.

1455 Wars of the Roses: at the First Battle of St Albans, Richard, Duke of York, defeated and captured King Henry VI of England.

1724 Marc-Joseph Marion du Fresne, French explorer  was born (d. 1772).

1762 Sweden and Prussia signed the Treaty of Hamburg.

1807 A grand jury indicted former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr on a charge of treason.

1807 Most of the English town of Chudleigh was destroyed by fire.

1809 On the second and last day of the Battle of Aspern-Essling (near Vienna), Napoleon was repelled by an enemy army for the first time.

1813 Richard Wagner, German composer, was born (d. 1883).

1819 The SS Savannah left port at Savannah, Georgia, on a voyage to become the first steamship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.

1826  HMS Beagle departed on its first voyage.

1840 The transporting of British convicts to the New South Wales colony was abolished.

1842 Farmers Lester Howe and Henry Wetsel discovered Howe Caverns when they stumbled upon a large hole in the ground.

1843 Thousands of people and their cattle headed west via wagon train from Independence, Missouri to what would later become the Oregon Territory . They were part of the Great Migration.

1844 Persian Prophet The Báb announced his revelation, founding Bábism. He announced to the world the coming of “He whom God shall make manifest”.

1848 Slavery was abolished in Martinique.

1856  Congressman Preston Brooks of South Carolina beat Senator Charles Sumner with a cane in the hall of the United States Senate for a speech Sumner had made attacking Southerners who sympathized with the pro-slavery violence in Kansas (“Bleeding Kansas“).

1859  Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, British physician and writer, was born  (d. 1930).

1871  The U.S. Army issued an order for abandonment of Fort Kearny in Nebraska.

1872  Reconstruction: U.S. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the Amnesty Act of 1872 into law restoring full civil rights to all but about 500 Confederate sympathizers.

1884  The first representative New Zealand rugby team played its first match, defeating a Wellington XV 9-0.

1897 The Blackwall Tunnel under the River Thames was officially opened.

1903 Launch of the White Star Liner,  SS Ionic.

1906 The 1906 Summer Olympics, not now recognized as part of the official Olympic Games, opened in Athens.

1906  The Wright brothers were granted U.S. patent number 821,393 for their “Flying-Machine”.

1907 Laurence Olivier, English stage and screen actor, was born  (d. 1989).

1915 Lassen Peak eruptsed.

1915 Three trains collided in the Quintinshill rail crash near Gretna Green,, killing 227 people and injuring 246.

1936 Aer Lingus (Aer Loingeas) was founded by the Irish government as the national airline of the Republic of Ireland.

1936  M. Scott Peck, American psychiatrist and writer, was born  (d. 2005).

1939 World War II: Germany and Italy signed the Pact of Steel.

1942  Mexico entered World War II on the side of the Allies.

1942 The Steel Workers Organizing Committee disbanded, and a new trade union, the United Steelworkers, was formed.

1946  George Best, Northern Irish footballer, was born  (d. 2005).

1947  Cold War: in an effort to fight the spread of Communism, U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the Truman Doctrine granting $400 million in military and economic aid to Turkey and Greece, each battling an internal Communist movement.

1958  Sri Lankan riots of 1958: a watershed event in the race relationship of the various ethnic communities of Sri Lanka. The total number of deaths is estimated to be 300, mostly Sri Lankan Tamils.

1950 Bernie Taupin, English songwriter, was born.

1955 Iva Davies, Australian rock star (Icehouse), was born.

1960 An earthquake measuring 9.5 on the moment magnitude scale, now known as the Great Chilean Earthquake, hit southern Chile – the most powerful earthquake ever recorded.

1962  Continental Airlines Flight 11 crashed after bombs explode on board.

1963  Assassination attempt of Greek left-wing politician Gregoris Lambrakis.

1964 U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson announced the goals of his Great Society social reforms to bring an “end to poverty and racial injustice” in America.

1967  The L’Innovation department store in the centre of Brussels burned down -the most devastating fire in Belgian history, resulting in 323 dead and missing and 150 injured.

1968 The nuclear-powered submarine the USS Scorpion sank with 99 men aboard 400 miles southwest of the Azores.

1969  Apollo 10‘s lunar module flew within 8.4 nautical miles (16 km) of the moon’s surface.

1970 Naomi Campbell, British model and actress, was born.

1972  Ceylon adoptseda new constitution, ecoming a Republic, changed its name to Sri Lanka, and joined the Commonwealth of Nations.

1980  Namco released the arcade game Pac-Man.

1990  Microsoft released the Windows 3.0 operating system.

1992  After 30 years, 66-year-old Johnny Carson hosted The Tonight Show for the last time.

1997  Kelly Flinn, US Air Force’s first female bomber pilot certified for combat, accepted a general discharge in order to avoid a court martial.

1998 Lewinsky scandal: a federal judge ruled that United States Secret Service agents could be compelled to testify before a grand jury.

2002 – A jury in Birmingham, Alabama, convicted former Ku Klux Klan member Bobby Frank Cherry of the 1963 murders of four girls in the bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church.

2003 Annika Sörenstam became the first woman to play the PGA Tour in 58 years.

2004  Hallam, Nebraska, was wiped out by a powerful F4 tornado (part of the May 2004 tornado outbreak sequence) that broke a width record at 2.5 miles (4.0 km) wide, and killed one resident.

2008  The Late-May 2008 tornado outbreak sequence unleashed 235 tornadoes, including an EF4 and an EF5 tornado, between 22 May and 31 May 2008. The tornadoes struck 19 US states and one Canadian province.

2011– An EF5 Tornado struck the US city of Joplin, Missouri killing 161 people, the single deadliest US tornado since modern record keeping began in 1950.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

Robin Gibb 1949 – 2012

British born, Australian singer Robin Gibb has died.

Robin enjoyed a musical career spanning six decades, from humble beginnings in the 1950s singing with his brothers in cinemas, to his recent first classical venture, The Titanic Requiem, penned with his son Robin-John.

Gibb was too ill to attend the April 10 premiere, where he had been due to perform the song Don’t Cry Alone.

“It’s not about how complicated music is; it’s about how simple and relative to the human spirit it is,” Gibb said on his new composition.

Robin’s twin Maurice died in 2003. Robin’s death leaves Barry as the only surviving brother of the Bee Gees.

Theirs was the music which backgrounded my teens and twenties.