June 24 in history

972 Battle of Cedynia, the first documented victory of Polish forces.

1128  Battle of São Mamede, near Guimarães:Portuguese forces led by Alfonso I defeated his mother D. Teresa and D. Fernão Peres de Trava.

1314  First War of Scottish Independence: The Battle of Bannockburnconcluded with a decisive victory of the Scottish forces led by Robert the Bruce, though England did not recognise Scottish independence until 1328 with the signing of the Treaty of Edinburgh-Northampton.

1340  Hundred Years’ War: Battle of Sluys: The French fleet was almost destroyed by the English Fleet commanded in person by Edward III of England.

1374  A sudden outbreak of St. John’s Dance caused people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations and began to jump and twitch uncontrollably until they collapsed from exhaustion.

1441  King Henry VI founded Eton College.

1497  John Cabot landed in North America at Newfoundland; the first European exploration of the region since the Vikings.

1497  Cornish rebels Michael An Gof and Thomas Flamank were executed at Tyburn, London.

1509  Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon were crowned King and Queen of England.

1535  The Anabaptist state of Münster was conquered and disbanded.

1542  St. John of the Cross, Spanish Carmelite mystic and poet, was born (d. 1591).

1571  Miguel Lopez de Legazpi founded Manila, the capital of the Republic of the Philippines.

1597  The first Dutch voyage to the East Indies reached Bantam (on Java).

1604  Samuel de Champlain discovered the mouth of the Saint John River, site of Reversing Falls and the present day city of Saint John, New Brunswick.

1662  The Dutch attempted but failed to capture Macau.

1664  The colony of New Jersey was founded.

1692 Kingston, Jamaica was founded.

1717  The Premier Grand Lodge of England, the first Masonic Grand Lodge in the world (now the United Grand Lodge of England), was founded in London.

1748  John Wesley and his brother Charles Wesley opened the Kingswood School in Bristol.

1771 – Éleuthère Irénée du Pont, French chemist and businessman, founded DuPont, was born (d. 1834).

1793 The first Republican constitution in France was adopted.

1794 Bowdoin College was founded.

1812 Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon’s Grande Armée crossed the Neman River beginning his invasion of Russia.

1813 Henry Ward Beecher, American clergyman and reformer, was born  (d. 1887).

1813  Battle of Beaver Dams : A British and Indian combined force defeat the U.S Army.

1821  The Battle of Carabobo took place – the decisive battle in the war of independence of Venezuela from Spain.

1850 – Herbert Kitchener, 1st Earl Kitchener, Irish field marshal and politician, Governor-General of Sudan, was born (d. 1916).

1859  Battle of Solferino: (Battle of the Three Sovereigns). Sardinia and France defeat Austria in Solferino, northern Italy.

1866  Battle of Custoza: an Austrian army defeats the Italian army during the Austro-Prussian War.

1867 – Ruth Randall Edström, American educator and activist, was born (d. 1944).

1880  First performance of O Canada, the song that became the national anthem of Canada, at the Congrès national des Canadiens-Français.

1893 Roy O. Disney, a founder of the Walt Disney Company, was born  (d. 1971).

1894  Marie Francois Sadi Carnot was assassinated by Sante Geronimo Caserio.

1901  First exhibition of Pablo Picasso‘s work opened.

1902 King Edward VII developed  appendicitis, delaying his coronation.

1905 NZ Truth was launched.

1912 – Mary Wesley, English author , was born (d. 2002).

1914 – Pearl Witherington, French secret agent, was born (d. 2008).

1915 – Fred Hoyle, English astronomer and author, was born (d. 2001).

1916  Mary Pickford became the first female film star to get a million dollar contract.

1916  World War I: The Battle of the Somme began with a week long artillery bombardment on the German Line.

1918  First airmail service in Canada from Montreal to Toronto.

1918 – Mildred Ladner Thompson, American journalist and author, was born (d. 2013).

1922  The American Professional Football Association formally changed its name to the National Football League.

1923 – Margaret Olley, Australian painter and philanthropist, was born (d. 2011).

1928  With declining business, the International Railway (New York – Ontario) began using one-person crews on trolley operations in Canada.

1932  A bloodless Revolution instigated by the People’s Party ended the absolute power of King Prajadhipok of Siam (Thailand).

1938  Pieces of a meteor, estimated to have weighed 450 metric tons when it hit the Earth’s atmosphere and exploded, land near Chicora, Pennsylvania.

1939  Siam was renamed to Thailand by Plaek Pibulsonggram, the third Prime Minister.

1944 Jeff Beck, English musician (The Yardbirds).

1945  The Moscow Victory Parade took place.

1947 – Clarissa Dickson Wright, English chef, author, and academic was born (d. 2014).

1947  Mick Fleetwood, English musician (Fleetwood Mac), was born.

1947  Kenneth Arnold made the first widely reported UFO sighting near Mount Rainier, Washington.

1947 – Patrick Moraz, Swiss keyboard player (Yes) was born.

1948  Start of the Berlin Blockade. The Soviet Union makes overland travel between the West with West Berlin impossible.

1949 John Illsley, English bassist (Dire Straits) was born.

1949  The first Television Western, Hopalong Cassidy, was aired on NBC starring William Boyd.

1951 – Raelene Boyle, Australian sprinter, was born.

1957  In Roth v. United States, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that obscenity was not protected by the First Amendment .

1961 – Iain Glen, Scottish actor, was born.

1961 Curt Smith, English musician and songwriter (Tears for Fears), was born.

1963  The United Kingdom granted Zanzibar internal self-government.

1975  An Eastern Air Lines Boeing 727 crashed at John F. Kennedy Airport, New York. 113 people died.

1981  The Humber Bridge was opened to traffic, connecting Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

1982  British Airways Flight 9, sometimes referred to as “the Jakarta incident”, flew into a cloud of volcanic ash thrown up by the eruption of Mount Galunggung, resulting in the failure of all four engines.

1985  STS-51-G Space Shuttle Discovery completed its mission.

1993  Yale computer science professor Dr. David Gelernter lost the sight in one eye, the hearing in one ear, and part of his right hand after receiving a mailbomb from the Unabomber.

1994  A United States Air Force B-52 aircraft crashed at Fairchild Air Force Base, killing all four members of its crew.

2002  The Igandu train disaster in Tanzania killed 281, the worst train accident in African history.

2004  In New York state, capital punishment was declared unconstitutional.

2007  The Angora Fire started near South Lake Tahoe, California destroying 200+ structures in its first 48 hours.

2010 – John Isner of the United States defeated Nicolas Mahut of France at Wimbledon, in the longest match in professional tennis history.

2012 – The last known individual of Chelonoidis nigra abingdonii, a subspecies of the Galápagos tortoise, died, making the species extinct.

2013 –  – Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi was found guiltyof abusing his power and having sex with an underage prostitute, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

366 days of gratitude

Ante-natal classes are generally very good at preparing expectant parents for the birth of their babies.

However, there’s no amount of advice from professionals or other parents that can truly prepare you for what follows – bringing up your children, giving them roots and wings, then watching them fly.

No matter how good the theory, it can’t fully ready you for the practice of parenting.

All that not withstanding, what most parents do is good enough, and most children – usually because of though sometimes in spite of – their upbringings, do become good adults.

Today’s post has been prompted by a reminder that the bad examples which make the news do so because they are news and not the norm and I’m grateful for that.

 

 

Word of the day

Hegemonic – ruling or dominant in a political or social context; having influence or control over another country or group of people.

Rural round-up

Retiring prof’s work continues – Sally Rae:

Prof Frank Griffin describes his lengthy career in animal science at the University of Otago in his own inimitable way.

“It’s been absolutely amazing. I’ve had a party every day; it’s really been fun,” he said.

Official retirement might be looming at the end of the month for the popular professor but his association with the university, where he has worked since 1973, is unlikely to end. . . 

Port dairy cows spared – Sally Rae:

Port Chalmers dairy farmer Merrall MacNeille is looking at various options to get his milk back on the market.

He was recently ordered to stop selling raw milk after a tuberculosis-positive heifer was discovered on his property.

He was able to supply milk for pasteurisation and, using a small pasteuriser, hoped to have “something on the shelf” by the end of August.

Other options were also being explored and Mr MacNeille said they would “get there one way or another”. . . 

Zespri raises profit forecast range to recognise $50M of Gold3 licence revenue :

(BusinessDesk) – Zespri International, the kiwifruit marketer, raised its full-year profit forecast to take into account licence revenue of $50 million from the release of 400 hectares of Gold3 licence in 2016.

Zespri is now forecasting profit of $70 million to $75 million for the 2016/17 year, up from the range of $25 million to $30 million it gave in April. The earlier forecast excluded revenue from the release of Gold3 licences that were tendered in May.

The closed tender bid process attracted broad participation from the industry with 1,376 hectares bid and 266 successful bidders for the 400 hectares of the SunGold licence, Zespri said. Half the hectares were restricted to Green and Green14/Sweet Green growers to provide an opportunity for existing green growers to convert over to SunGold, it said. . . 

Seeka handles record volumes:

Seeka Kiwifruit Industries Limited advises that it has completed kiwifruit packing operations in Australia and New Zealand for the 2016 season. The Company has handled record volumes in the packing season, with more than 30M trays handled in New Zealand for the first time. Seeka now heads into the storage and inventory management portion of the season in New Zealand, while at the same time it completes its kiwifruit sales program in Australia. The Australian pear selling season is anticipated to complete in October.

New Zealand volumes handled by Seeka were up by 16.6% at 30.8m trays. This figure includes approximately 700k trays that will be removed from the inventory or at time of packing, through crop management. All volumes have been handled within the company’s infrastructure, and Seeka now moves to managing more than 16M trays in store. . . 

Police investigate ‘dear old lady’s’ pet sheep:

An elderly Waikato woman has been left distressed after four of her pet sheep were killed and their body parts strewn across her paddock.

Cambridge police say someone jumped the “dear old lady’s” farm fence on Tirau Road on Friday night and killed the four pregnant ewes.

“They left the offal and heads in the paddock for her to find the next morning,” police said on their Facebook page. . .

Greenpeace launches legal challenge against controversial $1b dam plan:

Greenpeace NZ is launching a legal challenge against a controversial plan to build a dam that’s set to cost close to $1 billion and will pollute a region’s rivers.

Today, Greenpeace will file a judicial review of resource consents granted by the Hawke’s Bay Regional Council to extend the area of land area that can be irrigated by the Ruataniwha scheme, which will aid the expansion of dairy farms in the region. 

The motion, to be lodged at the High Court in Napier, challenges two resource consents given to the Hawke’s Bay Regional Investment Company in January, which were granted without public notification on the basis of a Council assessment that any environmental effects would be no more than “minor”. . . 

Thursday’s quiz

You are invited to pose the questions.

Anyone who stumps everyone will win a virtual batch of citrus slice.

Brexit – stay or go?

Tonight, New Zealand time, the polls open to allow people in the UK to vote on whether or not they stay in the European Union.

The euro makes life easier for people travelling between the countries which use it. But monetary union doesn’t work properly when the parties to it don’t have economic union.

The UK was sensible to retain its own currency.However, the rush to swap pounds for euro shows people believe victory for the leave campaign would result in a substantial fall in the value of the pound.

The theory of the EU has a lot to commend it  – a single market with free movement of people and trade. But politics and a bloated bureaucracy have too often meant the promise hasn’t been realised.

Whatever the people of Britain and Northern Ireland vote for or against Brexit, the EU needs major reform.

 

 

Quote of the day

There are no mistakes. The events we bring upon ourselves, no matter how unpleasant, are necessary in order to learn what we need to learn; whatever steps we take, they’re necessary to reach the places we’ve chosen to go. – Richard Bach who celebrates his 80th birthday today.

June 23 in history

1180 First Battle of Uji, starting the Genpei War in Japan.

1280 – – The Battle of Moclín took place in the context of the Spanish Reconquista pitting the forces of the Kingdom of Castile against theEmirate of Granada. The battle resulted in a Granadian victory.

1305 The Flemish–French peace treaty was signed at Athis-sur-Orge.

1314  First War of Scottish Independence The Battle of Bannockburn, south of Stirling, began.

1532  Henry VIII and François I signed a secret treaty against EmperorCharles V.

1565  Turgut Reis (Dragut), commander of the Ottoman navy, died during the Siege of Malta.

1611  The mutinous crew of Henry Hudson‘s fourth voyage set Henry, his son and seven loyal crew members adrift in an open boat in what is now Hudson Bay; they were never heard from again.

1661  Marriage contract between Charles II of England and Catherine of Braganza.

1683  William Penn signed friendship treaty with Lenni Lenape Indians in Pennsylvania.

1713  The French residents of Acadia were given one year to declare allegiance to Britain or leave Nova Scotia.

1757 Battle of Plassey – 3,000 British troops under Robert Clive defeated a 50,000 strong Indian army under Siraj Ud Daulah at Plassey.

1758  Seven Years’ War: Battle of Krefeld – British forces defeated French troops at Krefeld in Germany.

1760 – Seven Years’ War: Battle of Landeshut – Austria defeated Prussia.

1780 American Revolution: Battle of Springfield.

1794  Empress Catherine II of Russia granted Jews permission to settle in Kiev.

1810  John Jacob Astor formed the Pacific Fur Company.

1812  War of 1812: Great Britain revoked the restrictions on American commerce, thus eliminating one of the chief reasons for going to war.

1812 – Napoleonic Wars: Napoleon I of France invadesd Russia.

1860  The United States Congress established the Government Printing Office.

1865  American Civil War: At Fort Towson in the Oklahoma Territory, Confederate Brigadier General Stand Watie surrendered the last significant rebel army.

1868  Christopher Latham Sholes received a patent for Type-Writer.

1887 The Rocky Mountains Park Act became law in Canada, creating the nation’s first national park, Banff National Park.

1894 – Harold Barrowclough, New Zealand military leader, lawyer and Chief Justice , was born(d. 1972).

1894 King Edward VIII was born (d. 1972).

1894  The International Olympic Committee was founded at the Sorbonne, at the initiative of Baron Pierre de Coubertin.

1914  Mexican Revolution: Francisco Villa took Zacatecas from Victoriano Huerta.

1917  In a game against the Washington Senators, Boston Red Sox pitcherErnie Shore retired 26 batters in a row after replacing Babe Ruth, who had been ejected for punching the umpire.

1919  Estonian Liberation War: The decisive defeat of German Freikorps (Baltische Landeswehr) forces in the Battle of Cesis (Võnnu lahing). This day is celebrated as Victory Day in Estonia.

1926 The College Board administered the first SAT exam.

1929  – June Carter Cash, American singer-songwriter and actress (Carter Family and The Carter Sisters), was born (d. 2003).

1931 Wiley Post and Harold Gatty took off from Roosevelt Field, Long Island in an attempt to circumnavigate the world in a single-engine plane.

1936 – Richard Bach, American pilot and author, was born.

1937  Niki Sullivan, American guitarist (The Crickets), was born  (d. 2004) .

1938 The Civil Aeronautics Act was signed into law, forming the Civil Aeronautics Authority in the United States.

1940 Adam Faith, English singer and actor was born, (d 2003).

1940 Stuart Sutcliffe, English musician (The Beatles) , was born (d. 1962).

1940 – World War II: German leader Adolf Hitler surveys newly defeated Paris in now occupied France.

1941 Roger McDonald, Australian author, was born.

1941 The Lithuanian Activist Front declared independence from the Soviet Union and formed the Provisional Government of Lithuania.

1942 World War II: The first selections for the gas chamber at Auschwitz took place on a train load of Jews from Paris.

1942  World War II: Germany’s latest fighter, a Focke-Wulf FW190 was captured intact when it mistakenly landed at RAF Pembrey in Wales.

1943  World War II: British destroyers HMS Eclipse and HMS Laforey sank the Italian submarine Ascianghi in the Mediterranean after she torpedoed the cruiser HMS Newfoundland.

1945 World War II: The Battle of Okinawa ended when organised resistance of Imperial Japanese Army forces collapsed.

1946  The 1946 Vancouver Island earthquake struck Vancouver Island.

1947  The United States Senate followed the United States House of Representatives in overriding U.S. President Harry Truman’s veto of the Taft-Hartley Act.

1949 – Sheila Noakes, Baroness Noakes, English accountant and politician, was born.

1956  Gamal Abdel Nasser was elected president of Egypt.

1958  The Dutch Reformed Church accepted women ministers.

1959  Convicted Manhattan Project spy Klaus Fuchs was released after only nine years in prison and allowed to emigrate to Dresden.

1959  A fire in a resort hotel in Stalheim, Norway killed 34 people.

1961 Cold War: The Antarctic Treaty, which set aside Antarctica as a scientific preserve and banned military activity on the continent, came into force after the opening date for signature set for the December 1, 1959.

1965 Paul Arthurs, British guitarist (Oasis), was born.

1967  Cold War: U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson met with Soviet Premier Aleksei Kosygin in Glassboro, New Jersey for the three-day Glassboro Summit Conference.

1969 Warren E. Burger was sworn in as chief justice of the United States Supreme Court by retiring chief justice Earl Warren.

1972  Watergate Scandal: U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and White House chief of staff H. R. Haldeman were taped talking about using the Central Intelligence Agency to obstruct the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s investigation into the Watergate break-ins.

1972 45 countries left the Sterling Area, allowing their currencies to fluctuate independently of the British Pound.

1973   The International Court of Justice condemned French nuclear tests in the Pacific.

1973 A fire at a house in Hull, England, which killed a six year old boy was passed off as an accident; it later emerged as the first of 26 deaths by fire caused over the next seven years by arsonist Peter Dinsdale.

1985  A terrorist bomb aboard Air India flight 182 brought the Boeing 747 down off the coast of Ireland, killing all 329 aboard.

1988 James E. Hansen testified to the U.S. Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources that it is 99% probable that global warming had begun.

1989 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a law passed by the U.S. Congress banning all sexually oriented phone message services was unconstitutional.

1991 Moldova declared independence.

1998 – Paul Reitsma resigned his seat in the British Columbia legislature; the first elected politician in the British Commonwealth to be removed from office by legally-binding petition.

2012 – Ashton Eaton broke the decathlon world record at the United States Olympic Trials.

2013 – Nik Wallenda became the first man to successfully walk across the Grand Canyon on a tight rope.

2014 –  – The last of Syria’s declared chemical weapons were shipped out for destruction.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

366 days of gratitude

Two German visitors told us they were the first in four generations of their families who had not fought in a war.

Their fathers had fought in World War II, their grandfathers in World War I, and their great-grandfather had fought in a war before him.

I think that was in the 1860s because my farmer’s great-grandfather and his brother left Germany then to escape conscription into the Prussian army.

New Zealand and New Zealanders aren’t untouched by the various conflicts around the world but musing on our visitors’ comments made me very grateful to be living here and now in a time and place of peace.

 

Word of the day

Apatetic – relating to, or characterised by, colouration serving as natural camouflage; assuming colors and forms that effect deceptive camouflage;  imitative in color or form.

Quote of the day

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere. Anne Morrow Lindbergh who was born on this day in 1906.

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 SirGeorge 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.

1941  Germany invaded the Soviet Union in Operation Barbarossa. RussianThe 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.

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 would discontinue sales of the Kodachrome Color Film, concluding its 74-year run as a photography icon.

2012 – Paraguayan President Fernando Lugo is removed from office byimpeachment and succeeded by Federico Franco.

2012 – A Turkish Air Force McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II fighter plane was shot down by the Syrian Armed Forces, killing both of the plane’s pilots and worsening already-strained relations between Turkey and Syria.

2015  – The Afghan National Assembly building was attacked by gunmen after a suicide bombing. All 6 of the gunmen were killed, with 18 people injured.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

366 days of gratitude

Today is the winter solstice when the sun reaches it’s northern most point.

We often get the coldest and stormiest weather after the solstice, but today is the day with the shortest time between sunrise and sunset.

Now each day we can look forward to more light, if only by minutes, as the sun makes its way south again and I’m very grateful for that.

Word of the day

Parapraxis – a Freudian slip; an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of an unconscious subdued wish or internal train of thought; a slip of the tongue or pen, forgetfulness, misplacement of objects, or other error thought to reveal unconscious wishes or attitudes or a repressed motive.

Quote of the day

Man is condemned to be free; because once thrown into the world, he is responsible for everything he does. Jean-Paul Sartre who was born on this day in 1905.

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?

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 Passagebegan 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 andMickey 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, indicted 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.

2009 – Greenland assumed self-rule.

2012 – A boat carrying more than 200 refugees capsised in the Indian Ocean between Java and Christmas Island, killing 17 people and leaving 70 other missing,

2013  – A suicide bomber killed 15 and injured 20 in a Shi’ite mosque in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia

366 days of gratitude

Sometimes the right words come from within and sometimes they come from somewhere else.

Today I’m grateful for the people who manage to express, in poetry or prose, what I’m feeling when I can’t find the words to express myself.

Word of the day

 Interlocutor – a person who takes part in a dialogue or conversation; the man in the middle of the line of performers in a minstrel troupe, who acts as the announcer and banters with the end men;  a person who questions; interrogator.

Who am I?

Who am I?

That is a fundamental question of identity and ethnicity plays a big part in the answer.

But when we are asked to give our ethnicity, this is typical of the choices we are given:

	New Zealander/New Zealander of European Descent
	Maori/ New Zealander of Maori descent
	European
	Pacific Islander
	Japanese
	Chinese
	Korean
	Indian
	Middle Eastern
	Eastern European
	Other Asian
	Or another ethnicity (please type in)

If the form had only New Zealander it would be inclusive.

As it is, it excludes anyone who isn’t of European or Maori descent.

Why does being descended from Scots allow me to claim New Zealander as my ethnicity but deny that to someone who identifies just as strongly as a New Zealander but whose ancestors happened to come from somewhere else?

Someone of Pacific, Asian, African or Latin American descent could be just as much an ethnic New Zealander as those of us whose antecedents were Maori or European.

Ethnicity is much more than race but having European as an option is reducing it to that.

I doubt anyone from the many and diverse countries and cultures in Europe would put European as their ethnicity.

The ancestors of most of us who are of European descent would have come not from the continent but the islands west of it. I don’t think anyone from England, either of the Irelands, Scotland or Wales would put Eorpean as their ethnicity. They probably wouldn’t put British either or even claim to be British unless perhaps an individual or team from one of the other countries but theirs had done something noteworthy and they wanted to share the reflected glory.

European isn’t who we are, it’s shorthand for who we aren’t – Maori and any other people whose skin isn’t white which excludes a whole lot of New Zealanders.

Officialdom needs to move into the 21st century, start recognizing New Zealanders of any descent and counting all Kiwis as Kiwis regardless of the colour or creed of our ancestors.

 

Quote of the day

Everyone sort of sees his own life and times as being ephemeral. One thinks that everything good or important that happened, happened in the past. But I think that seeing scenes that you are used to, but with the heightening effects of poetry, perhaps makes you value your life and times more than you might otherwise do. – Vikram Seth who celebrates his 64th birthday today.