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Today in History

1871 – Britain annexes the diamond fields of Kimberley, South Africa.

1873 – Illinois farmer Joseph Glidden applies for a patent on his barbed wire design.

1904 – The first rapid transit subway opens in New York City.

1922 – Southern Rhodesia referendum rejects joining Union of South Africa.

1938 - US company DuPont announces the invention of nylon.

1943 – NZ troops land on Mono Island in the Solomons and face heavy fire from Japanese forces, in the Kiwis’ first opposed landing since Gallipoli.

1961 – US and Soviet tanks face each other at the border between East and West Berlin after officials begin to deny US diplomats the unhindered access to East Berlin that was part of the post-World War II agreement.

1962 – Tension-filled negotiations between the US and Soviet Union finally result in a plan to end the two-week-old Cuban Missile Crisis.

1987 – South Korean voters approve a new constitution, clearing the way for the first direct presidential elections in 16 years.

2002 – Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, left, wins Brazil’s presidential runoff election, becoming the nation’s first leftist president.

2007 – Astronauts add a new room to the international space station, attaching a bus-sized living compartment named Harmony. 2010 – Warner Bros agrees to film

The Hobbit in New Zealand after weeks of uncertainty capped by negotiations with Prime Minister John Key.

Birthdays

Donald McLean, NZ politician (1820-77); Theodore Roosevelt, US president (1858-1919); Dylan Thomas, Welsh poet, writer (1914-53); Sylvia Plath, US poet, writer (1932-63); Albert Wendt, Samoan poet, writer (1939-); John Cleese, UK actor (1939-); John Gotti, US Mafia boss (1940-2002); Simon Le Bon, UK pop singer (1958-).

Obituaries

en-nz

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https://stuff.pressreader.com/article/281998970667104

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