February 6 in history

On February 6:

1664 Mustafa II, Ottoman Sultan, was born

1685 – James II of England and VII of Scotland became King upon the death of his brother Charles II.

1778 In Paris the Treaty of Alliance and the Treaty of Amity and Commerce were signed by the United States and France signaling official recognition of the new republic.

1815  New Jersey granted the first American railroad charter to John Stevens.

1817 José de San Martín crossed the Andes with an army in order to liberate Chile from Spanish rule.

1819 Sir Thomas Stamford Raffles founded Singapore.

1820 The first 86 African American immigrants sponsored by the American Colonization Society started a settlement in present-day Liberia.

1840 Around 40 Maori chiefs, led by Hone Heke, signed a treaty with the British Crown at Waitangi.

1842 Mary Rudge, English chess master, was born.

 1843  The first minstrel show in the United States, The Virginia Minstrels opened in Bowery Amphitheatre in New York City.

 

1848 Walter B. Pitkin, American lecturer in philosophy and psychology, was born.

1862 Ulysses S. Grant gives the United States ts first victory of the Amnerican Civil War war in the Battle of Fort Henry by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee.

1894 Eric Partridge, New Zealand lexicographer, was born.

1895  Babe Ruth, American baseball player, was born.

1899 The Treaty of Paris, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain, was ratified by the United States Senate.

1900 The international arbitration court at The Hague was created when the Netherlands’ Senate ratified an 1899 peace conference decree.

1911 Ronald Reagan, 40th President of the United States, was born.

1912  Eva Braun, wife of Adolf Hitler, was born.

1917 Zsa Zsa Gábor, Hungarian-born actress, was born.

1922 Denis Norden, British radio and television personality, was born.

1922 The Washington Naval Treaty was signed, limiting the naval armaments of United States, Britain, Japan, France, and Italy.

Guns from battleships being scrapped in Philadelphia Navy Yard in December 1923

1933 The 20th Amendment to the United States Constitution went into effect.

1934 Far right leagues rally in front of the Palais Bourbon in an attempted coup against the French Third Republic, creating a political crisis in France.

1945 Bob Marley, Jamaican musician, was born.

1947 The trans-Tasman liner Wanganella was refloated after 18 days stuck on Barrett Reef.

1950 Natalie Cole, American singer, was born.

1951 The Broker, a Pennsylvania Railroad passenger train derailed near Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, killing 85 people and injuring over 500 more.

1952 Elizabeth II became Queen upon the death of her father George VI.

 

 

1958 Eight Manchester United F.C. players were killed in the Munich air disaster.

1959 Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments filed the first patent for an integrated circuit.

       

1959 – At Cape Canaveral, the first successful test firing of a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile was accomplished.

1962 W. Axl Rose, American singer (Guns N’ Roses), was born.

1976 Princess Marie of Denmark, was born.

1978 The Blizzard of 1978, one of the worst Nor’easters in New England history, hit the region, with sustained winds of 65 mph and snowfall of 4″ an hour.

1987 Justice Mary Gaudron became the first woman appointed to the High Court of Australia.

1989 The Roundtable talks started in Poland marking the beginning of overthrow of communism in Eastern Europe.

 

1992 The Saami people of the Nordic countries had an official day celebrating their existence.

 

 

 Mari Boine • Lars Levi Læstadius • Lisa Thomasson • Helga Pedersen • Renée Zellweger • Ole Henrik Magga

2004 Princess Louise of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Princess of Belgium, was born.

Sourced from NZ History Online & WIkipedia.

October 17 in history

On October 17:

539 BC King Cyrus The Great of Persia marched into the city of Babylon, releasing the Jews from almost 70 years of exile and made the first Human Rights Declaration

1662 Charles II of England sold Dunkirk to France for 40,000 pounds.

1814 The London Beer Flood killed nine people.

1877 Chief Justice Sir James Prendergast declared the Treaty of Waitangi “worthless” and a “simple nullity”.

1888 Thomas Edison filed a patent for the Optical Phonograph (the first movie).

1907 – Guglielmo Marconi‘s company began the first commercial transatlantic wireless service between Glace Bay, Nova Scotia, Canada and Clifden, Ireland.

1915 US playwright – Arthur Miller was born.

1918 US actress Rita Hayworth was born.

1930 US nutritionist Robert Atkins was born.

1942 US musician Gary Puckett was born.

 

1969 Ernie Els, South African golfer, was born.

1979 – Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

2007 The Dalai Lama received the United States Congressional Gold Medal.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

October 10 in history

On October 10:

1813 – Giuseppe Verdi, Italian composer, was born.

Giuseppe Verdi. Portrait by Giovanni Boldini, 1886

 

1830 Queen Isabella II of Spain was born.

1900 US actress Helen Hayes was born.

In the film What Every Woman Knows (1934)

1919 Richard Strauss‘ opera Die Frau ohne Schatten had its debut performance in Vienna.

 

1923 Nicholas Parsons, English actor, radio & TV presenter was born.

Parsons recording Just a Minute at the Pleasance Grand, Edinburgh.

1930 Harold Pinter, English playwright and Nobel laureate was born.

1950 Us author Nora Roberts was born.

1957 The Windscale fire in Cumbria took place, it was the world’s first major nuclear accident.

1970 Fiji  gained its independence.

1971 the London Bridge reopened in Lake Havasu City, Arizona

1975 The Treaty of Waitangi Act was passed.

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Forget the trophies, solve the problems

Maori parliamentary seats were established in 1867. That was the result of more than a decade of pressure for political representation from Maori who were granted the same rights and protections as other New Zealanders under the Treaty of Waitangi.

At that time there were three special seats for Otago and Westland gold miners and one for an Auckland Pensioners’ Settlement. Those seats went when the need for them ended, Maori seats continued, not for their benefit but from discrimination.

All Maori men aged 21 or more were granted the right to vote 12 years earlier than European men who, until 1879, had to own or lease property of a certain value before they could vote.

However, one of the reasons for establishing separate seats was a fear that Maori would swamp the Pakeha vote in some areas and their size meant second class representation from the start.

This was not the only discriminatory aspect of Maori franchise. Secret ballots had been introduced for general electorate in 1870 but Maori were required to vote by show of hands. This continued until 1910 when voting by show of hands was no longer compulsory however, it was not until 1937 that the requirement for secret ballot became law in Maori electorates.

From 1919 until 1951 Maori had to vote on a different day from the general election. They were not permitted to stand in European electorates until 1967, and they were then only able to register to vote in them if they identified themselves as “half-castes”.

The Royal Commission on MMP recommended that Maori seats be discontinued when the new voting system was introduced. That was disregarded and the number of seats has grown as more people choose to go on the Maori roll.

 There hasn’t been a corresponding improvement in statistics for Maori people. In too many social and economic measures they are still over represented in the negative ones and under represented in the positive ones

That isn’t because they are Maori. It’s because they are poorly educated, in poor health and have lower incomes.

If the Maori Party put their energy into addressing the root causes of those problems instead of worrying about trophies like Maori seats on a council, their people and our country would all be better for it.