On This Day In History

[Bikkie]

1843-First Auckland A and P Show
Agricultural and pastoral shows celebrating excellence in agriculture and animal husbandry became annual events in communities around New Zealand.


1879-Universal male suffrage introduced
The Qualification of Electors Act extended the right to vote (the franchise) to all European men aged 21 or over, regardless of whether they owned or rented property.


1941-HMS Neptune lost in Mediterranean minefield
In New Zealand’s worst naval tragedy, the Royal Navy cruiser HMS Neptune struck enemy mines and sank off Libya. Of the 764 men who lost their lives, 150 were New Zealanders.



In Music History

2016-Country songwriter Andrew Dorff, brother of actor Stephen Dorff, dies at age 40. Penned hits for artists such as Martina McBride ("Ride"), Kenny Chesney ("Save It for a Rainy Day"), Blake Shelton ("Neon Light") and Hunter Hayes ("Somebody's Heartbreak").

2012-Madonna gets angry at fans at a concert in Santiago, Chile, for smoking cigarettes near her against her wishes. The singer lectures the audience: "If you're going to smoke cigarettes, I'm not doing a show. You don't care about me, I don't care about you. All right? Are we going to play that game? I'm not kidding. I can't sing if you smoke." Did we mention this is out in the open air in the rain and she is about 10 feet above everybody onstage?

2003-Tori Amos makes her film debut in the Julia Roberts movie Mona Lisa Smile. In her cameo as a '50s big band singer at a wedding reception, she sings the standards "You Belong To Me" and "Murder, He Says," which also appear on the movie's soundtrack.

2000-Roebuck "Pops" Staples (of The Staple Singers) dies at age 85 after a bad fall leaves him with a concussion.

Titanic Opens In Theaters
1997-Titanic opens in theaters. It becomes the top-grossing movie of all time, with a soundtrack that sells about 15 million copies, thanks mostly to the Celine Dion hit, "My Heart Will Go On."

1996-Avenue H in Lubbock, Texas, is renamed Buddy Holly Avenue in honor of the city's hometown hero.

1993-Michael Clarke (drummer for The Byrds, Flying Burrito Brothers) dies of liver failure at age 47 after decades of alcohol abuse.

1985-Johnny Paycheck is drinking at a bar in Hillsboro, Ohio, when two guys recognize him and sit near him. Things get tense, and Paycheck pulls out a .22 pistol and shoots one of them, grazing his head. That man, Larry Wise, claims that Paycheck got testy after they offered him a meal of deer meat and turtle soup. Wise says Paycheck yelled, "What do you think I am, a country hick?," and shot him.

The country singer is convicted and serves 22 months in jail.

Dolly Parton Is Workin' 9 To 5
1980-9 to 5, starring Dolly Parton and featuring the classic theme song by the singer (where she uses her fingernails as an instrument), opens in theaters. Parton, in her first acting role, stars alongside Lily Tomlin and Jane Fonda as disgruntled secretaries who get even with their sexist boss.

1978-The Carpenters: A Christmas Portrait airs on ABC.

1976-Al Green, recently ordained as a minister, opens the Full Gospel Tabernacle Church in Memphis, where he preaches most Sundays.

1968-The Friends of Distinction record "Grazin' In The Grass."

1968-Kevin Shepard (drummer for Tonic) is born in Southern California.

1967-For the second time, Joan Baez is arrested for leading a sit-in at the Armed Forces Induction Center in Oakland, California to protest the Vietnam War. She's sentenced to 45 days in prison but released after 31.

1965-Keith Moon collapses during a Who concert in Ontario.

1960-The Four Preps record "More Money For You And Me" live at North Hollywood High School.

1958-Pop singer Limahl (lead singer of Kajagoogoo) is born Christopher Hamill in Pemberton, Wigan, England.

1957-Doug Johnson (keyboardist for Loverboy) is born in New Westminster, British Columbia.

1955-Carl Perkins records "Blue Suede Shoes" two days after writing the song.

1945-Folk musician John McEuen (of Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) is born in Oakland, California.

1944-Alvin Lee (lead guitarist for Ten Years After) is born Graham Anthony Barnes in Nottingham, England.

1944-Zal Yanovsky (lead guitarist for The Lovin' Spoonful) is born in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

1941-Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White is born in Memphis, Tennessee.

1918-Blues singer Henry Roeland "Roy" Byrd, better known as Professor Longhair, is born in Bogalusa, Louisiana.

1915-Charlie Ryan, who co-wrote and was the first to record the 1955 rockabilly hit "Hot Rod Lincoln," is born in Graceville, Minnesota.

1894-Composer/conductor Paul Dessau is born in Hamburg, Germany.

[Bikkie]

1832-New Zealand’s first cricket match
Church Missionary Society (CMS) leader Henry Williams gave the male pupils (Māori and Pākehā) of his mission school at Paihia in the Bay of Islands a rare day off.

Māori men and women congregate at Rotorua on election day, c 1908.
1893-Women vote in Māori seats for first time
Just over three weeks after New Zealand women became the first in the world to vote in a national parliamentary election, voting was held in the four Māori electorates.


Strikers' meeting in Dunedin
1913-Waterfront strike ends
The Great Strike of 1913, which had begun in late October when Wellington waterside workers stopped work, finally ended when the United Federation of Labour conceded defeat.


In Music History

2019-My Chemical Romance return after a seven-year absence with a show at the Shrine Expo Hall in Los Angeles.

2016-On a flight from Vietnam to South Korea, Richard Marx helps subdue a mentally unhinged passenger who starts attacking flight attendants and fellow passengers. Marx and wife Daisy Fuentes had been vacationing in Hanoi all week before boarding the chaotic four-hour flight.

2012-Rapper Fat Joe pleads guilty in federal court in New Jersey to tax evasion charges. He is charged with failing to pay taxes on over $1 million of income in both 2007 and 2008 and is expected to serve about two years.

2010-Bret Michaels, lead singer of Poison, winds up his VH1 reality TV show Bret Michaels: Life As I Know It by sticking a rock on the finger of Kristi Gibson, his on-and-off girlfriend of 18 years. She was not one of the 25 contestants competing for his affections on Michaels' previous reality show, Rock of Love.

2009-James Gurley (guitarist for Big Brother & the Holding Company) dies of a heart attack in Palm Desert, California, at age 69.

2006-Nearly 40 years after it was recorded, Procol Harum organist Matthew Fisher is awarded 40% of the songwriting credit for "A Whiter Shade Of Pale" by a London court. The judgment is reduced on appeal in 2008.

2005-Tejano pop singer René Herrera (of René & René) dies of cancer at age 70.

2004-Paula Abdul gets caught in a hit-and-run when she clips another car with her Mercedes and drives off. In March 2005, she is charged with leaving the scene of an accident.

2003-Producer/composer Charles Randolph Grean dies at age 90. Wrote the Phil Harris hit "The Thing" (1950) and arranged Nat King Cole's "The Christmas Song."

1986-Thanks to its use in the movie of the same name, Ben E. King's "Stand By Me," originally released in 1961, reaches #9 in the US.

1990-JoJo is born Joanna Noëlle Blagden Levesque in Brattleboro, Vermont. She is raised in Foxborough, Massachusetts.

1980-"(Just Like) Starting Over" gives John Lennon his first #1 single as a solo artist in the UK, 12 days after his murder.

1976-Ned Washington, who co-wrote "When You Wish Upon A Star," dies at 75.

1975-Joe Walsh replaces Bernie Leadon in the Eagles. Walsh was previously a member of the James Gang.

1971-The Main Ingredient records "Everybody Plays The Fool."

1971-The live album from the Concert For Bangladesh, held six months earlier in Madison Square Garden, is released in America. The 3-disc set, which includes Bob Dylan's only performance from the 1970-1973 time period, wins the Grammy for Album of the Year.

1971-The Rolling Stones release their compilation Hot Rocks 1964–1971.

1969-Peter, Paul and Mary's "Leaving On A Jet Plane" hits #1, where it stays for one week.

1967-Joan Baez and her mother are sentenced to 45 days in prison for the singer's part in the Oakland Demonstration, where she protested the draft. They're abruptly released after serving 31 days.

1966-Chris Robinson (lead singer for The Black Crowes) is born in Marietta, Georgia. His dad, Stanley "Stan" Robinson, had a 1959 hit with "Boom-A-Dip-Dip."

1965-Wilson Pickett records "634-5789" with Booker T. & the MG's, sans Booker (with Isaac Hayes filling in for him on piano).

1962-The Osmond Brothers (later The Osmonds), minus 5-year-old Donny, make their first appearance on the Andy Williams Show.

1960-Elvis Presley's movie Flaming Star opens.

1959-Jackie Fox is born Jacqueline Fuchs in California. She gives up a promising career in mathematics when she joins The Runaways as bass player at the age of 15, rather than taking early entry into UCLA. After leaving the band, she returns to her studies, graduating from UCLA and then Harvard - where she is a classmate of Barack Obama - and goes on to work as an entertainment lawyer.

1948-Alan Parsons (of The Alan Parsons Project) is born in London, England. He starts his music career as an assistant engineer at Abbey Road Studios, where he engineers Paul McCartney's Wild Life and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon.

1947-Little Stevie Wright (lead singer for The Easybeats) is born in Leeds, England, but would be raised in Australia (Melbourne and Sydney).

1945-Peter Criss is born George Peter John Criscuola in Brooklyn, New York. He will become the drummer for Kiss and write their song "Beth."

1944-Bobby Colomby (drummer for Blood, Sweat & Tears) is born in New York.

1939-Soul singer Kim Weston is born Agatha Nathalia Weston in Detroit, Michigan. She signs with Motown Records in 1961.

1898-Actress and singer Irene Dunne is born in Louisville, Kentucky. Known for her Academy Award-nominated performances in the '30s and '40s, including Cimarron, Theodora Goes Wild, The Awful Truth, Love Affair and I Remember Mama.

1871-Composer/conductor Henry Kimball Hadley is born in Somerville, Massachusetts.

[Bikkie]

1620 - William Bradford and the Mayflower Pilgrims land near what is now known as Plymouth Rock in Plymouth, Massachusetts.

1835 - HMS Beagle, whose crew includes naturalist Charles Darwin, anchors in the Bay of Islands.

1846 - The first surgical operation under anaesthesia in Britain is performed at University College Hospital, London, by Robert Liston.

1891 - James Naismith, a Canadian-American gym teacher at Springfield College, publishes the first rules for the game now known as basketball and brings it to his class, which then plays the first game of basketball.

1898 - Radium is discovered by scientists Pierre and Marie Curie.

1913 - Arthur Wynne's "word-cross", the first crossword puzzle, is published in the New York World.

1937 - Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the first full-length cartoon in colour, premieres in Los Angeles.

1945 - US General George Patton dies in Germany, from injuries suffered in a car accident.

1958 - Charles de Gaulle elected first president of France's Fifth Republic.

1964 - More than 170 years of NZ whaling ends with JA Perano and Co catching last whale off Kaikōura.

1965 - International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination is adopted.

1967 - Louis Washkansky, the first man to undergo a human-to-human heart transplant, dies in Cape Town, South Africa, having lived for 18 days after the transplant.

1970 - First flight of F-14 multi-role combat aircraft.

1975 - Terrorists led by Carlos the Jackal raid an Opec meeting in Vienna. More than 60 hostages are taken and two guards are killed. Siege ends two days later with no further loss of life.

1979 - An independence agreement for Rhodesia is signed in London by Lord Carrington, Sir Ian Gilmour, Robert Mugabe, Joshua Nkomo, Bishop Abel Muzorewa and SC Mundawarara.

1988 - A bomb explodes on board Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, killing 270.

1989 - NZ becomes the first country to set a formal annual inflation target (0-2%).

1995 - The city of Bethlehem passes from Israeli to Palestinian control.

2012 - Gangnam Style, by Korea’s Psy, becomes the first YouTube video to garner 1 billion views.

2020 - A great conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn occurs, with the two planets separated in the sky by 0.1 degrees. This is the closest conjunction between the two planets since 1623.



In Music History

2019-Mariah Carey's "All I Want For Christmas Is You" goes to #1 in America for the first time, 25 years after it was first released in 1994.

2014-With gay marriage now legal in England, Elton John marries David Furnish, exactly nine years after they were joined in a civil ceremony.

2013-After five years and 387 shows, Leonard Cohen wraps up his "Grand Tour" in Auckland, New Zealand. It's the last concert he ever plays, as he dies three years later.

2013-"The Monster" by Eminem featuring Rihanna hits #1 in America. It's the first hit co-written by Bebe Rexha, who later emerges as an artist.

2012-Lee Dorman (bassist for Iron Butterfly) dies in Laguna Niguel, California, at age 70.

2010-Amy Grant and Vince Gill wrap up their Twelve Days of Christmas Tour with the first of two shows at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. They return for two more shows in 2011, and in 2012 they play all their holiday shows at the Ryman, establishing their annual Christmas At The Ryman residency.

2007-Tim Burton's film adaptation of the Stephen Sondheim/Hugh Wheeler musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street opens in US theaters. Johnny Depp stars as the Demon Barber himself, and manages to earn the respect of critics for his singing performance on the film's soundtrack.

2005-Elton John and his partner David Furnish take part in a civil ceremony (gay marriage is not legal in England) to make their union official. Guests at the ceremony, which takes place in Windsor, England, include George Michael, Sharon Stone, and Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne. Nine years later, with gay marriage legal, they get married.

2001-Enrique Iglesias meets Anna Kournikova, a tennis player who is burning up the internet, at the shoot for his "Escape" video, where she plays his love interest. Their on-screen romance turns real; they begin dating and become partners, raising three kids together.

2001-The movie How High opens in theaters. The film stars Method Man and Redman as stoners who get into Harvard.

2000-The Chicago Sun-Times becomes the first newspaper to publish a story detailing R. Kelly's alleged sex crimes with underage girls.

1999-DMX releases his third album, ...And Then There Was X. Led by the singles "What's My Name" and "Party Up (Up in Here)," it goes to #1 in America, where it sells nearly 5 million copies.

1996-En route to a White House dinner with the Clintons, Tony Bennett suffers a ruptured hernia and is rushed to the hospital.

1996-Fourteen months after it was released, No Doubt's album Tragic Kingdom goes to #1 in America, where it spends nine weeks.

1996-Liz Phair and husband Jim Staskauskas welcome baby boy James Nicholas.

1992-Bluesman Albert King dies of a heart attack in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 69.

1991-"Bohemian Rhapsody" goes back to #1 on the UK charts after the death of Freddie Mercury and stays there for five weeks. In America, the song gets new life the next year when it is used in the movie Wayne's World.

1989-Carlos Santana (of Santana) and his wife Debbie welcome their daughter Angelica Faith.

1988-Paul Avron Jeffreys (bassist for Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel) is killed en-route to his honeymoon when he and his wife, Rachel, become victims of the Lockerbie terrorist bombing (of Pan Am Flight 103). He was 36. The Four Tops were also slated to be onboard the plane but overslept after a late-night recording session.

1985-Dante Bonutto's Phil Lynott interview is screened. It would be the singer's last TV appearance before his death.

1979-At the San Diego Sports Arena, Linda Ronstadt holds a fundraising concert for her boyfriend, California governor Jerry Brown, who is running for president. Chicago and the Eagles also perform.

1979-Willie Nelson makes his acting debut in the Sydney Pollack film The Electric Horseman, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda. He also sings five songs for the soundtrack, including the #1 country hit "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys."

The Cure Release Controversial Debut Single
1978-The Cure release their debut single, "Killing An Arab," an existential song about a man who contemplates the meaning of life after murdering an Arab on a beach. Based on the controversial title, the band faces accusations of provoking anti-Arab sentiment.

1974-Harry Chapin's "Cat's In The Cradle" hits #1 in the US, forcing fathers to consider how much time and attention they're paying to their children.

1971-Martha and the Vandellas officially disband.

1971-Fuel frontman Brett Scallions is born in Brownsville, Tennessee.

Elvis And Nixon Shake On It
1970-Music and politics collide when Elvis Presley meets President Richard Nixon at the White House. A famous photo of the two shaking hands horrifies many Elvis fans.

1970-Traffic's John Barleycorn Must Die, Judy Collins' In My Life, and the original British cast recording of Jesus Christ Superstar are all certified gold.

1969-On The Ed Sullivan Show, Diana Ross appears with The Supremes for the last time, where they perform "Someday, We'll Be Together."

1968-Janis Joplin makes her solo concert debut in Memphis at an event for the Stax/Volt record label. The Stax house band Booker T. & The MG's also plays.

1966-The Beach Boys' "Good Vibrations" single as well as their Little Deuce Coupe and Shut Down, Vol. 2. albums are all certified gold.

1965-Gabby Glaser (guitarist, singer for Luscious Jackson) is born in New York.

1959-Chuck Berry is arrested when a 14-year-old girl he brought from Texas to work in his St. Louis club reports him to police. Berry serves 20 months in prison for transporting a minor across state lines.

1953-Soul singer-songwriter Betty Wright is born Bessie Regina Norris in Miami, Florida. Known for '70s hits like "Clean Up Woman" and "Tonight is the Night."

1951-Nick Gilder is born in London, England, but will be raised in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

1946-Carl Wilson is born in Hawthorne, California. He becomes lead guitarist in The Beach Boys when he forms the band with older brothers Dennis and Brian.

1943-Gwen McCrae, known for the 1975 hit "Rockin' Chair," is born in Pensacola, Florida.

Guitarist Albert Lee is born in Lingen, Herefordshire, England. Worked with Jon Lord and Eric Clapton, among others.

1942-Carla Thomas, the "Queen of Memphis Soul," is born in Memphis, Tennessee, to R&B singer Rufus Thomas and his wife, Lorene.

1940-Frank Zappa is born in Baltimore, Maryland.

1940-Ray Hildebrand (of Paul & Paula) is born in Joshua, Texas.

1926-Country singer-songwriter Freddie Hart is born Frederick Segrest in Loachapoka, Alabama. Known for the 1971 hit "Easy Loving."