Gday...

1521  -             German theologian and Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, is excommunicated from the Roman Catholic church.

Martin Luther was a German theologian and Augustinian monk whose teachings inspired the Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of the Protestant churches in general, and the Lutheran church in particular. Luther openly questioned the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, in particular, the nature of penance, the authority of the pope and the usefulness of indulgences. The Reformation of the church began on 31 October 1517, with Luther's act of posting his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials.

Controversy raged over the posting of the 95 Theses. Ultimately, on 3 January 1521, Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther from the Roman Catholic church for his attacks on the wealth and corruption of the papacy, and his belief that salvation would be granted on the basis of faith alone rather than by works. That same year, Luther was summoned before the Diet of Worms. The Diet was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that occurred in Worms, Germany, from January to May in 1521. When an edict of the Diet called for Luther's seizure, his friends took him for safekeeping to Wartburg, the castle of Elector Frederick III of Saxony. Here, Luther continued to write his prolific theological works, which greatly influenced the direction of the Protestant Reformation movement.

1888  -             The drinking straw is patented.

The drinking straw is a common sight everywhere in modern society, and even the cause of a great deal of litter. The straw has a long history, going back to the Sumerians, an ancient Mesopotamian civilisation, who used natural materials to form a cylindrical shape so they could drink beer, thus avoiding the sediments resulting from the fermentation process. The modern drinking straw was patented on 3 January 1888 by Marvin Chester Stone.

Stone was an employee at a paper cigarette holder factory in Washington DC. At the time, straws used for drinking liquids were made from rye-grass, and tended to give drinks a grassy flavour. Using a fine piece of paper from the cigarette holder factory, Stone rolled it around a pencil then coated it in wax to prevent it becoming waterlogged. The success of his simple invention led to him applying immediately for a patent. The product was so well received that, by 1890, his factory was producing more straws than cigarette holders. Manufacture of the drinking straw was improved in 1906 with the invention of the first device to machine-wind straws, replacing the hand-winding process.

Straws are now highly versatile, having come a long way since Stone's initial invention. They are made of plastic, come in a variety of colours and sizes, and can even be bent into shapes.

1870  -             Western Australia adopts its first state flag.

The colony of Western Australia was established in 1829, when Captain Charles Fremantle was sent to take formal possession of the remainder of New Holland which had not already been claimed for Britain under the territory of New South Wales. Early in May 1829, Captain Fremantle raised the Union Jack on the south head of the Swan River, claiming the territory for Britain. The colony of Western Australia was officially proclaimed in June 1829.

The first flag of Western Australia was adopted on 3 January 1870. Almost identical to the current flag, it was based on the defaced British Blue Ensign, and featured the state badge. The badge consisted of a gold disc with a native Black Swan, after which the Swan River was named. The only difference between the first state flag and the current flag, adopted in 1953, is that the swan originally faced the opposite direction towards the fly, rather than towards the hoist. The change was made to conform with official guidelines that animals on flags must face the hoist, so when carried on a pole, the animal faces the direction of the flag bearer.

1892  -             J.R.R.Tolkien, author of 'Lord of the Rings', is born.

J.R.R.Tolkien was born John Ronald Reuel Tolkien on 3 January 1892 in Bloemfontein, South Africa. At age three, Tolkien and his family travelled to England for an extended family visit, but his father died in South Africa before he was able to join the family. Tolkien's mother then chose to stay in England, supported by her family. Tolkien is best known for his novels 'The Hobbit' (1937) and the classic trilogy 'The Lord of the Rings' (published 1954-56), encompassing 'The Fellowship of the Ring', 'The Two Towers' and 'The Return of the King'.

Tolkien was a man of vast learning and intellect: he attended King Edward's School, Birmingham and Oxford University; he worked as reader in English language at Leeds from 1920 to 1925, as professor of Anglo-Saxon at Oxford from 1925 to 1945, and of English Language and Literature, also at Oxford, from 1945 to 1959. He was an eminently distinguished lexicographer and an expert in Anglo-Saxon and Old Norse. He was a strongly committed Catholic, and admitted in letters that his faith had a profound effect on his writings. He belonged to a literary discussion group called the Inklings, through which he enjoyed a close friendship with author C.S.Lewis. Tolkien died of natural causes on 2 September 1973.

1909  -             World-class pianist and entertainer, Victor Borge, is born.

Victor Borge was born Børge Rosenbaum in Copenhagen, Denmark, on 3 January 1909. He was recognised early as being something of a child prodigy on the piano, and was awarded a full scholarship at the Royal Danish Music Conservatory in 1918. His classical piano debut was in 1926 at the Danish concert-hall 'Odd Fellow Palæet'. After enjoying a few years as a serious classical pianist, he developed a comedy act which incorporated his prodigious talent. He started touring extensively in Europe where, as a Jew, he was outspoken with his anti-Nazi jokes. This led to Adolf Hitler placing Børge on his list of enemies of Germany. The Nazi occupation of Denmark during WWII forced Børge to escape to Finland, from where he travelled to America on the SS American Legion, the last passenger ship to make it out of Europe prior to the war. He arrived in America on 28 August 1940.

Although Børge did not speak any English, he soon adapted his jokes to the American audience, and took the name of Victor Borge. He performed for the first time in Bing Crosby's radio show in 1941, and in 1942 was pronounced the "Best New Radio Performer of the Year". In 1948 he became an American citizen, and had his own show, "Comedy in Music", at The Golden Theatre in New York 1953-56. Over the years, Borge played with some of the world's most renowned orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic and London Philharmonic. He was invited to conduct the Danish Royal Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen, Denmark in 1992. Borge continued to perform his comedy routine until shortly before his death on 23 December 2000.

1907  -             A young Charles Kingsford-Smith becomes the first person to be rescued using a new Australian invention, the surf lifesaving reel.

Until 1902, a Manly Council by-law (Sydney) prohibited swimming in the ocean during daylight hours. When local newspaper proprietor Henry Gocher defied the law three times, and was arrested, it drew attention to the situation. Gocher continued to campaign for the right to swim during the day, with the result that Manly Council issued a new by-law permitting bathing in daylight hours, but with the requirement for neck-to-knee swimwear for anyone over 8 years old. This was the beginning of Australias love affair with surfing and other water sports, and led to the formation of the world's first lifesaving clubs.

The Bronte Beach Surf Club in Sydney was formed in 1903. Early rescue equipment consisted of nothing more than a simple pole in the sand with a coiled rope attached. In 1906, Lyster Ormsby of the Bondi Surf Bathers Lifesaving Club modelled a better design he felt could be implemented, using a cotton reel and bobby pins. Ormsby's design intended for a lifesaver wearing a belt with a rope attached to reach a distressed swimmer, and be pulled back to the beach by his fellow lifesavers.

A full-scale working model taken from the original design was built by Sgt John Bond of Victoria Barracks in Paddington. Later, this was improved upon by Sydney coachbuilder G H Olding. The first surf lifesaving reel is believed to have been demonstrated in December 1906 at Bondi Beach. Local legend states that the first rescue using the device occurred on 3 January 1907. The one rescued was an eight year old boy by the name of Charlie Kingsford-Smith, who later became one of Australia's most famous aviators.

Cheers - John

Good on you John for restarting this thread - always an interesting read - especially handy if it is someones birthday - can use things to make your greeting a bit different.  Happy New Year - might see you along the wallaby somewhere.

Gday...

1688  -             English sea explorer William Dampier first lands on Australian soil.

English sea explorer William Dampier was born at East Coker in Somerset and baptised on 8 June 1652. He commenced his seafaring career at the age of sixteen.

As an experienced sea captain and pirate, he became the first Englishman to explore and map parts of New Holland and New Guinea. On 4 January 1688, his ship the 'Cygnet' was beached on the northwest coast of Australia, at King Sound near Buccaneer Archipelago on the north-west coast of Australia. While the ship was being repaired Dampier made notes on the fauna and flora he found there.

Dampier was unimpressed by the dry, barren landscape, the lack of water and what he described as the "miserablest people in the world" - the native population. His negative reports led to the delay of England's colonisation of what is now Australia. It was not until 1770 that James Cook reported positively on the green, fertile countryside of New South Wales, and England sought to colonise the previously unknown continent.

1809  -             Louis Braille, inventor of the raised-dot writing system for the blind, is born.

Louis Braille, inventor of the Braille writing system for the blind, was born on 4 January 1809 in Coupvray near Paris, France. At the age of three, Braille injured his left eye with an awl in his father's workshop. This caused an infection in his left eye which spread to his right eye, resulting in him going blind.

From age 10, Braille attended the Royal Institution for Blind Youth in Paris. One day, retired army captain Charles Barbier de la Serre visited the school, showing the students a system of night writing using twelve raised dots representing letters and numbers which could be identified by touch. This method of communication had been created so that soldiers could pass orders silently at night. Braille, then thirteen years old, experimented with and adapted the system by using just 6 dots, which were easier to manipulate. By the time Braille was fifteen, he had developed the system sufficiently for use by other blind students. Braille is now widely in use for sight-impaired people throughout the world.

1810  -             Governor Lachlan Macquarie takes strong action to restore order following the deposition of Governor Bligh in the Rum Rebellion.

In 1805, William Bligh was assigned as Governor to the colony of New South Wales. He was a strong leader, resolving to restore discipline to the colony. However, he received criticism for his seemingly despotic ways. His chief critic was grazier and wool grower John Macarthur, who convinced men from the New South Wales Corps to rebel against Bligh. Early in 1808, Governor Bligh was overthrown and replaced with a military Junta. This event later became known as the Rum Rebellion, though it had nothing to do with rum. The name came about because Bligh asserted that Macarthur's main attack against the Governor came about because of his prohibition on Spirits. Although initially imprisoned following the Rum Rebellion, Bligh was exonerated in 1811, after which he returned to England.

Lachlan Macquarie arrived in New South Wales to take up the position of Governor in 1809. On 4 January 1810, he set about to quell the dissension resulting from the Rum Rebellion. He dismissed all who had been appointed to positions of authority since Bligh had been deposed, and he cancelled all trials, lands grants and bequests given to members of the New South Wales Corps. This was the first of many reforms initiated by Governor Macquarie in an attempt to restore order to the colony.

1967  -             Donald Campbell, the man who broke the land and water speed records in the same year, is killed as he attempts another record.

Donald Malcolm Campbell was born on 23 March 1921 in Horley, Surrey, England. He became the only person to ever break both the world land speed and water speed records in the same year. He broke the land speed record in July 1964 on a Lake Eyre salt flat in northern South Australia, with a speed of 648.72 km per hour. After setting seven world water-speed records between 1955 and 1964, the culmination of his water speed records came on 31 December 1964 at Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia, when he reached 444.71 km per hour in his jet-powered boat, Bluebird.

Campbell was killed three years later, on 4 January 1967. He was attempting to break his record yet again, this time on Lake Coniston, Cumbria. Just before his Bluebird K7 broke the record, travelling at over 483 km per hour, the boat's nose lifted and it was catapulted 15m into the air. Campbell was killed instantly as the boat hit the water and disintegrated. His body was not recovered from the wreckage at the bottom of the lake for another 34 years. Campbell remains the only person to have held both land and water speed records at the same time.

1989  -             The irregular Toutatis asteroid is formally discovered.

The 4179 Toutatis/1989 AC is an asteroid with an irregular orbit. Its very low orbital inclination (0.47°) and its orbital period of just under 4 years causes Toutatis to make regular close approaches to Earth. One such recent approach occurred on 29 September 2004, when it came within 4 lunar distances of Earth, or 0.0104 AU (astronomical units), but its minimum possible distance is only 0.006 AU, or 2.3 times as far as the Moon. There was no danger of Toutatis impacting the Earth, but its proximity provided excellent opportunities for observation of the asteroid.

Toutatis was first observed on 10 February 1934, but only named when it was rediscovered by astronomer Christian Pollas on 4 January 1989. It is a very irregularly shaped object consisting of two lobes, one measuring approximately 4.6 km wide and the other 2.4 km wide.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1778  -             George Evans, explorer in the early New South Wales colony, is born.

George William Evans was born on 5 January in either 1778 or 1780, in Warwick, England. He arrived in Australia in October 1802, and after serving for a time as a storekeeper at Parramatta, he was then appointed acting Surveyor-General in New South Wales. His appointment as Deputy Surveyor-General was made in October 1809. After three years in Hobart Town, Evans returned to Sydney, where his duties as Deputy Surveyor-General called for him to explore beyond the Great Dividing Range.

Although Evans is one of Australia's least known explorers, his expeditions added valuable information to the knowledge of Australia's terrain and geography. He initially followed in the footsteps of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth who had crossed the Blue Mountains of New South Wales in 1813, finding rich farming land in the Hartley Vale region. However, further exploration was needed so the colony could expand beyond the mountain ranges that had imprisoned the growing colony for twenty-five years. In the ensuing years, Evans made several significant discoveries, such as the Macquarie Plains, Oxley Plains, Macquarie River and Castlereagh River. Evans died on 16 October 1852.

1819  -             English judge John Thomas Bigge is dispatched to inquire into Macquarie's administration in the New South Wales.

Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of the New South Wales colony from 1810 to 1821, upheld high standards for the development of New South Wales from penal colony to free settlement. He introduced the first building code into the colony, requiring all buildings to be constructed of timber or brick, covered with a shingle roof, and to include a chimney. He also ordered the construction of roads, bridges, wharves, churches and public buildings.

Macquarie was also a great sponsor of exploration. In 1813 he sent Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson across the Blue Mountains, where they found the grazing plains of the interior. Following their discovery, Macquarie ordered the establishment of Bathurst, Australia's first inland city. He appointed John Oxley as surveyor-general and sent him on expeditions up the coast of New South Wales and inland to find new rivers and new lands for settlement.

Unfortunately, Macquarie's progressive views and favourable treatment of both convicts and emancipists (freed convicts) met with disfavour among the upper-class British settlers. On 5 January 1819, English judge John Thomas Bigge was dispatched to inquire into Macquarie's actions in the colony. Bigge felt that the convicts should be treated with stricter discipline and harsher punishment, and that the emancipists should be held in greater account. Bigge criticised Macquarie for his spending on public works and for his attempts to create an orderly colony out of the haphazard settlement that Sydney had grown into. Bigge felt that more monies should be returned directly into the economy of Sydney itself, rather than expansion beyond its confines. As a result of the inquiry and Bigge's report, Macquarie was forced to resign his commission and return to England to defend his administration.

1891  -             Australia's great shearers' strike, which led to the formation of the Labor Party in Australia, begins.

During the 19th century, shearers in Australia endured meagre wages and poor working conditions. This led to the formation of the Australian Shearers Union which, by 1890, had tens of thousands of members. Early in 1891, Manager Charles Fairbain of Logan Downs Station near Clermont, Queensland, required that shearers sign the Pastoralists Association contract of free labour before commencing work. This was an attempt to reduce union influence.

On 5 January 1891 the shearers refused to work unless the station agreed to their unions terms. This marked the beginning of many months of union shearers around Australia downing their tools and going on strike. Tensions escalated as striking shearers formed armed camps outside of towns, and mounted troopers protected non-union labour and arrested strike leaders. Shearers retaliated by burning woolsheds and crops, and committing other acts of sabotage and harassment. By May of 1891, the violent suppression of the strike action forced shearers to give in. The strike, however, highlighted the need for a political party to represent the rights of the union workers; thus was ultimately born the Australian Labor Party.

1941  -             British pioneering aviatrix Amy Johnson is killed in an aeroplane crash.

Amy Johnson was born on 1 July 1903 in Kingston upon Hull, England. She was introduced to flying as a hobby, gaining a pilot's licence at the London Aeroplane Club in late 1929. In that same year, she became the first British woman to gain a ground engineer's licence.

On 5 May 1930, Johnson left Croydon, England, in her De Havilland Gypsy Moth which she named Jason. She landed in Darwin in Australia's Northern Territory on 24 May 1930. She received the Harmon Trophy as well as a CBE in recognition of this achievement.

Johnson made several other notable flights. In July 1931 she and her co-pilot Jack Humphreys became the first pilots to fly from London to Moscow in one day, completing the 2,800 km journey in approximately 21 hours. From there, they continued across Siberia and on to Tokyo, setting a record time for flying from England to Japan. In July 1932, she set a solo record for the flight from London, England to Cape Town, South Africa in a Puss Moth. The record was later broken, but Johnson reclaimed her record in a Percival Gull in May 1936.

Amy Johnson died on 5 January 1941 whilst flying an Airspeed Oxford to RAF Kidlington near Oxford. She went off course in poor weather and bailed out into the Thames estuary, where she drowned after a failed rescue attempt.

1975  -             The Tasman Bridge in Hobart, Australia, is struck by bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra, killing 12.

The Tasman Bridge in Tasmania crosses the Derwent River near the central business district in Hobart. Opened in 1964, the bridge has a total length of 1395m, which is longer than the Sydney Harbour Bridge. At 9:27pm on 5 January 1975, the bulk ore carrier Lake Illawarra struck the bridge, causing two pylons and 127 metres of concrete decking to fall from the bridge and sink the ship. Seven crewmen on board the Lake Illawarra were killed, and five motorists died when four cars drove over the collapsed sections before the traffic was stopped. The wreck of Lake Illawarra remains on the bottom of the river, with the concrete slab still on top of it.

The city of Hobart was divided for nearly three years following the accident, which knocked out a 73 metre section of the bridge. The bridge was reconstructed and subsequently reopened on 8 October 1977.

Cheers - John

Gday...

01  -     Today is Epiphany, a Christian feast celebrating the visit of the Wise Men to Jesus in Bethlehem.

Epiphany means a manifestation, usually of divine power. 6 January is celebrated as Epiphany in Christianity because it is traditionally regarded as the day the three Wise men, or Magi, visited Jesus in Bethlehem, bearing the gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. It is called Epiphany because it was the revelation of God to mankind in human form; also, in the visit of the Wise Men, Jesus was manifested as king to the Gentiles, not just to the Jews.

According to tradition, the three Wise Men were Caspar, Melchior and Balthasar, but there is no evidence to prove this, or to prove that there were even three men - the number could have been more. It has always been considered there were three of them, because of the three gifts they bore. According to the Bible, on the night when Christ was born, these three kings saw a bright star and followed it to Bethlehem where they found the Christ child. However, by the time they found the child He was a toddler, possibly between eighteen months and two years old, and he was found in a house, as he was no longer a newborn babe in a manger.

It is uncertain when January 6 was actually set as Epiphany. It is believed to have been sometime after the fourth century, after December 25 was adopted by the Western Christian Church as the date for celebrating Christ's birth. Epiphany then became the culmination of the celebration of the Twelve Days of Christmas.

1066  -             Harold is crowned King of England after the death of Edward the Confessor.

Harold Godwinson, or Harold II of England, was the last Anglo-Saxon King of England. Born in 1022, his father was Godwin, the Earl of Wessex. When Godwin died in 1053, Harold succeeded him as Earl of Wessex, which at that time was a province covering the southernmost third of England. This made Harold the second most powerful figure in England after the king.

In 1058 Harold also became Earl of Hereford, and he was fiercely opposed to the growing Norman influence in England under the restored Saxon monarchy (1042 - 1066) of Edward the Confessor, who had spent more than a quarter of a century in exile in Normandy. Upon Edward the Confessor's death in on 5 January 1066, Harold claimed that Edward the Confessor, his brother-in-law, had promised him the crown on his deathbed. The Witenagemot - the assembly of the kingdom's leading notables - approved him for coronation, which took place the following day, 6 January 1066, the first coronation in Westminster Abbey. Harold ruled from 5 January 1066 to 14 October 1066, when he was killed at the Battle of Hastings.

1412  -             Tradition suggests that Christian martyr Joan of Arc was born.

Whilst the exact date of Joan of Arc's birth is not known, traditionally she is regarded to have been born on 6 January 1412, in Domrémy, France. As a teenager, Joan of Arc received visions urging her to organise French resistance against English domination. In 1429, she led the charge that attacked the English and forced them to retreat from Orléans.

Several months after her victory against the English, Joan of Arc was captured by the Burgundians and sold to the English. Her claims of receiving visions and divine inspiration resulted in her being accused of heresy and witchcraft. During her trial she retracted her claims of visions and was sentenced to life imprisonment. However, she recanted on her retraction, and as a heretic, was burned at the stake on 30 May 1431 in Rouen.

1850  -             English preacher Charles Spurgeon is converted to Christianity.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon, more commonly known as C.H. Spurgeon, was England's best-known and most-loved preacher for most of the latter half of the nineteenth century. He was born in Kelvedon, Essex, on 19 June 1834. On 6 January 1850, at the age of fifteen, he converted to Christianity. His conversion came when a snowstorm diverted him from his usual route, and he was forced to take shelter in a Methodist chapel one Sunday morning. The snow prevented the usual minister from attending, but a lower-class tradesman preached instead on the assigned text which was 'Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.' The simplicity of the words struck Spurgeon, and he embraced Christianity then and there.

Spurgeon preached his first sermon a year later: even then, his style, depth of thought and delivery were seen as being far above average. His audiences usually numbered between five and seven thousand, and his preaching endures through his published sermons which are still highly regarded today.

1912  -             Australias first aircraft crash occurs.

Australias earliest recorded attempts at powered flight took place in December 1909. Within a year, numerous aircraft were being imported into Australia, while some aeroplanes were being constructed locally. As trials were conducted on the new flying machines, some proved less successful than others, with mild accidents on take-off occurring in several cases. It was inevitable that Australia would see its first official aeroplane crash.

William Ewart Billy Hart was a Parramatta dentist who learnt to fly in 1911 and became the first man to hold an Australia aviators licence. His No. 1 Certificate of the newly-created Aerial League of Australia, was granted on 5 December 1911. Hart imported a British aircraft for 1300 pounds, equivalent to around $140,000 today, maintaining it in a tent at Penrith. Shortly after its purchase, strong winds overturned the tent and the plane, reducing the aircraft to a wreck. Hart salvaged what he could and built a biplane from the parts.

On 6 January 1912, Hart was demonstrating his aircraft, navigating by the train line between Mt Druitt and Rooty Hill. Aboard was military officer Major Rosenthal as a passenger. At a height of 600 feet, or about 180m, Hart hit turbulent winds and began to lose altitude. As it dropped, the biplane hit a signal post, then came to rest upside down beside the railway line in what is recorded as Australias first aeroplane crash. Although both Hart and his passenger were unhurt, Hart was inclined to blame the Majors weight for the crash. His words were reported in the Nepean Times as follows: It really was a trial run and when I say that Major Rosenthal weighed 17 stone (about 107kg) the test my machine was put to will be understood.     

1955  -             English comedian Rowan Atkinson is born.

Rowan Sebastian Atkinson was born on 6 January 1955, in Consett, County Durham, England. After being educated at Durham Choristers School, followed by St Bees School, he studied electrical engineering at Newcastle University. He continued with an MSc at The Queen's College, Oxford, first achieving notice at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 1976. At Oxford, he also acted and performed early sketches for the Oxford University Dramatic Society, the Oxford Revue and the Experimental Theatre Club.

Atkinson's film career began in 1983 with a supporting part in the James Bond movie Never Say Never Again and a leading role in Dead on Time with Nigel Hawthorne, after which he earned roles in several more films. His TV career launched with the show, "Not the Nine o'clock News". This led to his starring in the relatively successful medieval sitcom The Black Adder. However, Atkinson's real fame came with his role as Mr. Bean, first appearing on New Year's Day in 1990. Sometimes compared to a modern-day Charlie Chaplin, Mr Bean still continues to captivate audiences around the world as he has become caught in a variety of unusual, difficult or compromising circumstances.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1799  -             Bass and Flinders complete their first circumnavigation of Van Diemen's Land.

Matthew Flinders and George Bass were early sea explorers who charted sections of Australia's coastline, adding valuable information to the maps of the time. In 1798, Bass explored along the southern coast of what would later become the colony of Victoria. His journeys led him to the belief that Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) was separate from the mainland. Governor Hunter wished for this theory to be proven conclusively, so he commissioned Flinders and Bass to circumnavigate Van Diemen's Land. The two men set out at dawn in the 'Norfolk' on 7 October 1798. Three months later, on 7 January 1799, they were back at Cape Barren Island, having completed their first circumnavigation of Van Diemen's Land.

1912  -             Antarctic explorer Douglas Mawson reaches and names Commonwealth Bay on the Antarctic continent.

Australian Antarctic explorer, Douglas Mawson, was born on 5 May 1882, in Yorkshire, but his family immigrated to Australia in 1884. He studied geology at Sydney University, and was appointed geologist to an expedition to the New Hebrides in 1903. After this, he returned to Australia to become a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide in 1905. In 1907, Mawson joined an expedition to Antarctica led by Ernest Shackleton, as a scientific officer, and was one of the first to ascend Mount Erebus and get close to the South magnetic pole. He was offered a place on Robert Scott's Terra Nova expedition but turned it down to lead the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914, sailing on the "Aurora".

On 2 December 1911, Mawson departed from Hobart on the "Aurora", bound for Macquarie Island, a sub-Antarctic island 1500 kilometres south east of Tasmania and 1300 kilometres north of Antarctica. Here, he established a base before leaving on December 23 to explore the Antarctic continent. On 7 January 1912, the Aurora reached a place that Mawson named Commonwealth Bay. A whaleboat was sent ashore on December 8, and the point at which they landed, Cape Denison, was found to harbour an abundance of Antarctic wildlife, including Weddell seals and Adelie penguins.

1965  -             The first hydrofoil ferry, the MV Manly, begins operating in Sydney Harbour.

Australia's very first ferry service began operating in Sydney Harbour in October 1789. It was a small, locally built wooden hoy called the "Rose Hill Packet", or more commonly known as 'the Lump'. Powered by sails and oars, the ferry operated between Sydney Cover and Rose Hill, now Parramatta. Ferry services were vital during Australias colonial years, and have continued to play an important part in Australias major cities as new technology has brought improvements to design, speed and reliability of ferries.

Hydrofoil technology was one such improvement. Hydrofoils are wing-like structures mounted beneath the hull of watercraft which lift the boat out of the water during forward motion, reducing hull drag and increasing the boats speed. Australias first hydrofoil ferry was the MV Manly which began operating in Sydney Harbour on 7 January 1965. Introduced by Port Jackson & Manly Steamship Company, it was constructed by Hitachi in Japan under licence from Sachsenberg Supramar. The MV Manly had an aluminium hull and foils made from tempered steel. The passenger service operated between Circular Quay and Manly, taking 17 minutes to complete its run about half the time of other ferries.

The hydrofoils proved to be mechanically unreliable, and expensive to run. They were replaced by JetCats in the early 1990s.

1983  -             Hans Tholstrup completes the first solar-powered crossing of Australia.

Hans Tholstrup is an enterprising Danish-born environmentalist who achieved a milestone in solar travel on 7 January 1983. On that day, Tholstrup and Larry Perkins became the first solar car racers to complete a Solar Trek from Perth to Sydney, Australia. The drive from Perth took 20 days, averaging 23 kilometres per hour in the "Quiet Achiever", a home-built bathtub-shaped machine. This crossing was achieved in half the time of the crossing attained by the first petrol-driven vehicle.

Following his success, Tholstrup developed the World Solar challenge in 1987. The Challenge showcases the development of solar car technology and promotes solar energy as an alternative to conventional fossil-fuelled vehicles. After 1996, he sold the Challenge to the South Australian government, which continues to oversee the event.

1990  -             The Leaning Tower of Pisa is closed to the public amidst fears that its lean has become too dangerous.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the bell tower, or campanile, of the cathedral in Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles). The tower took nearly 200 years to complete, being finished in 1372. It began leaning shortly after its construction began, on 9 August 1173. The tower was in serious danger of toppling completely by 1964, when the Italian government sought aid and advice in preserving its famous icon.

Following decades of consultation and preparatory efforts, the tower was closed to the public on 7 January 1990. Its lean was 4.9 metres off the perpendicular; in the preceding century, the belfry atop the tower had moved as much as almost 25cm. The Tower remained closed until December 2001 while corrective reconstruction and stabilisation work was implemented. The excessive lean of the tower was corrected by removing 38 cubic metres of soil from underneath the raised end: it is expected to remain stable for another 300 years.

2008  -             40 people are killed in a massive warehouse fire in South Korea.

 Incheon, South Korea, is a metropolitan city and a major seaport on the west coast of South Korea, approximately 80 kilometres southeast of Seoul. On 7 January 2008, the city was the scene of a major industrial fire which killed 40 people.

Reports indicated that the fire began in the warehouse basement, where workers used flammable materials. Vapour from the basement's engine room caught fire, setting off a series of explosions. Approximately 200 firemen were dispatched to the scene, and whilst a dozen people were rescued, 40 in total were killed. Many of the victims were construction workers trapped inside the basement of the refrigerated goods facility. They were unable to escape a toxic cloud of gas that came from burning insulation material.

The fire was the deadliest in South Korea since 2003, when 200 were killed in a massive blaze in the subway system of Daegu, 250km south-east of Seoul.

2015  -             Terrorists kill 12 at the Paris office of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Charlie Hebdo is a French weekly magazine featuring satirical cartoons, reports and debates on a number of controversial topics such as politics, religion and a wide range of social issues. Charlie Hebdo suffered its first terrorist attack in 2011 when one of its offices was fire-bombed and its website hacked. The attack was believed to be in response to a satirical cartoon of the Islamic figure Muhammad. Another more serious attack occurred four year later, resulting in a dozen deaths. On 7 January 2015, two brothers identified as Chérif and Saïd Kouachi entered the Paris offices of the magazine, where they killed eleven people, among them three cartoonists and former editor Stéphane Charbonnier. They then left the building, killing a French police officer outside. After the terrorists escaped, another five people were killed in a series of related attacks in the Île-de-France region. A major police manhunt uncovered the terrorists responsible in an industrial complex, where they fired at police and soldiers, but were killed by return fire.

The Yemen branch of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the terrorist attack. Four days after the murders, up to two million people came together in Paris for a rally of national unity, while another 3.7 million people joined in demonstrations across France. Further ramifications were felt around the world, with violent demonstrations in many places as Muslim extremist groups clashed with those who condemned the terrorist action in Paris. Charlie Hebdo, which had been considering closing prior to the attacks due to declining sales, remains operating at this stage.     

Cheers - John

Gday...

1676  -             King Charles II of England is forced to withdraw his Proclamation Suppressing Coffee Houses, delivered only twelve days earlier.

The first record of a public coffee house can be found in 1475, when the first known coffee shop, the Kiva Han, was opened in the Turkish city of Constantinople (now Istanbul). The popularity of coffee, and coffee houses, quickly spread, with Britain opening its first such establishment in 1652.

Coffeehouses were commonly frequented by members of the social upper-class of businessmen. It can even be said that the successful Lloyd's of London insurance company had its beginnings in a coffee shop run by Edward Lloyd in 1668.

Coffee-houses soon became meeting spots for intellectuals and, as King Charles saw it, breeding ground for potential political subversives. Thus, on 27 December 1675, he issued a "Proclamation Suppressing Coffee-Houses". The proclamation sought to prohibit "scandalous papers, books and libels from being read in them" and to prevent the coffee-houses from allowing their patrons freedom of speech or the right to express dissatisfaction with the government.

Twelve days later, King Charles withdrew his proclamation, on 8 January 1676. Its withdrawal was forced because the proclamation denied basic human rights and was legally unsustainable. It had also become the subject of considerable ridicule.

1800  -             The Wild Boy of Aveyron voluntarily emerges from the forests of France.

Victor of Aveyron, commonly known as the Wild Boy of Aveyron, was first discovered in either 1797 or 1799. His history was unknown but he was believed to have been either lost or abandoned as a very small child, and somehow survived alone in the woods.

The boy was found wandering in the forest near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France, his body bearing old scars that seemed to be a result of him having lived the majority of his life in the woods, and he could not speak. Despite being taken into care, he soon escaped back to the woods, where he remained for another year. However, on 8 January 1800, Victor voluntarily emerged from the woods, accepting the care he was offered. At this stage, he was estimated to be about twelve years old.

Victor soon became the object of much study. In one experiment, Biology professor Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre took him out in the snow where the boy played quite happily, without clothes, seemingly not feeling the cold. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, a young medical student, attempted to teach Victor to speak. Whilst great progress was made in socialising the boy, and even teaching him to read and speak very simply, he never grasped complex language. However, Victor's ability to show empathy and to socialise with others discredited one theory that he was autistic. Victor lived with Jean Marc Gaspard Itard until he died in 1828.

1804  -             The first recorded cricket match takes place in the New South Wales colony.

The sport of cricket is regarded as synonymous with Australia, and Australian cricket teams, past and present, have a strong reputation internationally. Although Australia does not have an official game, cricket is certainly regarded as the country's unofficial sport.

The first reported cricket game took place in Sydney at what is now known as Hyde Park on 8 January 1804. From this humble beginning great things followed, with inter-club games occurring in the 1830s. Inter-colonial games began when a team from Victoria travelled to Launceston, Tasmania for a game in February 1851. The first visit by an English cricket team to Australia occurred during Australia's summer of 1861-62. Australia reciprocated with a team to England, made up of indigenous players, in 1868. The team played 47 matches, of which they won 14, drew 19 and lost 14.

1814  -             George Evans advocates building a road over the Blue Mountains, to follow in the tracks of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth.

In May 1813, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains, finding rich farming land in the Hartley region. However, further exploration was needed so the colony could expand beyond the Great Dividing Range. George Evans was the Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, and keen to progress beyond the discoveries made by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth.

Leaving Sydney with a party of five men on 19 November 1813, Evans soon reached a mountain which he named Mt Blaxland, which was the termination of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth's explorations. He continued on through the countryside, eventually reaching the site of present-day Bathurst.

Upon Evans's return to Sydney, he reported on the viability of a road leading west. On 8 January 1814, he recommended building a road which would follow the ridge track determined by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. Evans reported to Governor Macquarie that it would take a dozen men approximately three months to build a road suitable for horses and carts. Shortly after this, William Cox was commissioned to build the road to Bathurst. The original Great Western Highway covered 161 km and incorporated twelve bridges.

1931  -             The largest Australian gold nugget of the twentieth century is found in Kalgoorlie.

The goldrush that initiated the development of the town of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, began with the discovery by Paddy Hannan of a rich seam of gold at Mt Charlotte, 40 kilometres from the prospering Coolgardie goldfields.

However, the largest gold nugget ever found in the eastern goldfields of Western Australia did not come with the initial goldrush. The nugget, known as the "Golden Eagle", was found by sixteen-year-old Jim (or Jack) Larcombe on 8 January 1931. The nugget, found just 45cm below the surface of the ground, weighed 1136 troy ounces, or 35.3 kilograms. It was 62cm long and required two men to lift it. It was given the name "Golden Eagle" because it had an unusual resemblance to a bird.

Following the discovery, over 700 diggers flocked to the spot near Widgiemooltha, which became known as Larkinville, sparking Western Australia's last great traditional gold rush. Today, a replica of the nugget can be seen at the School of Mines Rock and Mineral Museum in Kalgoorlie.

1935  -             Elvis Presley, King of Rock 'n' Roll, is born.

Elvis Aaron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on 8 January 1935. He began learning the guitar at age 11, and often busked around the Lauderdale Courts public housing development, where he lived during his teen years. At age 20, he signed with RCA records, and began to make the music charts regularly. During the course of his career, he had 146 Hot 100 hits, 112 top 40 hits, 72 top 20 hits and 40 top 10 hits. A strong television exposure followed, with appearances on shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show. His next step was movies: between 1956 and 1969, Elvis Presley starred in 31 films.

Elvis died at the age of 42 on 16 August 1977. After being found on the floor of his bedroom's bathroom ensuite, he was rushed to the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. However, he was pronounced dead on arrival. His post mortem stated that he had died of cardiac arrhythmia - a form of heart attack. His autopsy results will not be made public until 50 years after his death. Presley was originally buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis next to his mother, but after an attempted theft of his body, his and his mother's remains were moved to Graceland.

1998  -             The Melbourne Herald Sun reports that a strange, unidentified creature has washed up on the Tasmanian coast.

On 8 January 1998, the 'Melbourne Herald Sun' reported that an enormous, unidentified creature had washed up on the coast of Tasmania. The decomposing carcass, 5 metres long, 2 metres wide and weighing approximately 4 tonnes, had appeared on Four Mile Beach, northwest of Zeehan, in December 1997. The carcass was similar to that of another creature, dubbed the Tasmanian Blob, which washed up near Tasmania's Sandy Cape in 1960. The "blob" reported in 1998 appeared to have a backbone, six fleshy lobes and white hair. The nearest identification that could be made was that the creature was a "basking shark".

Cheers - John

Gday...

1816  -             The Davy safety lamp is first utilised in a coal mine, initially terrifying the miners who fear an explosion.

British chemist and inventor Humphry Davy was born at Penzance in Cornwall on 17 December 1778. Davy is renowned for his invention of the miner's safety lamp. Mining explosions were frequently caused by firedamp or methane which was often ignited by the open flames of the lamps used by coal miners. Davy pioneered a method of using an iron gauze to enclose a lamp's flame, and so prevent the methane burning inside the lamp from passing out to the general atmosphere.

The Davy safety lamp was first used in an English coalmine on 9 January 1816. Reverend John Hodgson elected to take down a lamp, knowing it was safe, but not warning the coalminers of his intention. A miner, seeing the approaching light and knowing of the potential danger of explosions, yelled at him to put out the light, trembling with terror as the Reverend ignored the warning and came closer. It is unknown what the minister's motivation was, but he later admitted that he had subjected the miner to undue terror.

Whilst Davy's design had flaws of its own, the concept was taken up by other inventors who perfected it. The Davy safety lamp greatly reduced the number of mining accidents.

1816  -             Explorer James Kelly lands at Port Dalrymple, Tasmania, where he is arrested as a bushranger.

Captain James Kelly was born in Parramatta, New South Wales, in 1791. As a young man, he was inducted into the trades of sealer and sandalwood trader. At the age of 21, Kelly was enlisted to command the whaling fleet of Thomas William Birch of Hobart Town. In 1815, Kelly embarked on a journey to circumnavigate Tasmania in a whaleboat, with the view to exploring the commercial potential along the Tasmanian coast.

During Kelly's first month spent exploring around Tasmania, he discovered a number of useful inlets and rivers. On 9 January 1816, Kelly and his men sailed into Port Dalrymple where they were initially believed to be bushrangers, and arrested accordingly. The mistake was soon rectified, the men's food supplies were replenished, and they were given fresh clothing. The party continued south down the eastern coast, arriving in Hobart Town on 30 January 1816.

1861  -             Mississippi becomes the second US state to secede from the Union, precipitating the American Civil War.

The first African slaves arrived in North America in 1526, and though the practice of slavery took many years to become popular, it thrived under British colonialism. On 1 January 1808 American Congress voted to ban further importation of slaves, but children of slaves automatically became slaves themselves. There was no legislation against the internal US slave trade, or against the involvement in the international slave trade and the outfitting of ships for that trade by US citizens.

Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States, was not in favour of abolition of slavery, but he opposed its expansion into new territories and states in the American West. It was this issue that led to the secession of the southern states to form the Confederate States of America, and ultimately also led to the Civil War. On 20 December 1860, South Carolina became the first state to secede. The second state to secede was Mississippi, on 9 January 1861. Within a few weeks, five other states also seceded, collectively forming the Confederate States of America. When the Civil War erupted, another four states joined the Confederacy.

1868  -             The last ship to transport convicts to Western Australia docks at Fremantle.

The Swan River colony, established on Australia's western coast in 1829, was begun as a free settlement. Captain Charles Fremantle declared the Swan River Colony for Britain on 2 May 1829. The first ships with free settlers to arrive were the Parmelia on June 1 and HMS Sulphur on June 8. Three merchant ships arrived 4-6 weeks later: the Calista on August 5, the St Leonard on August 6 and the Marquis of Anglesey on August 23. Although the population spread out in search of good land, mainly settling around the south western coastline at Bunbury, Augusta and Albany, the two original separate town sites of the colony developed slowly into the port city of Fremantle and the Western Australian capital city of Perth.

For the first fifteen years, the people of the colony were generally opposed to accepting convicts, although the idea was occasionally debated, especially by those who sought to employ convict labour for building projects. Serious lobbying for Western Australia to become a penal colony began in 1845 when the York Agricultural Society petitioned the Legislative Council to bring convicts out from England on the grounds that the colony's economy was on the brink of collapse due to an extreme shortage of labour. Whilst later examination of the circumstances proves that there was no such shortage of labour in the colony, the petition found its way to the British Colonial Office, which in turn agreed to send out a small number of convicts to Swan River.

The first group of convicts to populate Fremantle arrived on 1 June 1850. Between 1850 and 1868, ultimately 9721 convicts were transported to Western Australia. The last convict ship to Western Australia, the Hougoumont, left Britain in 1867 and docked at Fremantle in Western Australia on 9 January 1868. It carried 108 passengers and 279 convicts.

1972  -             Former ocean liner, the Queen Elizabeth, is destroyed by fire in Hong Kong harbour.

The RMS Queen Elizabeth was a steam-powered ocean liner of the Cunard Steamship Company. The ship was named after Queen Elizabeth, wife of King George VI of the UK and queen consort at the time it was built. It was launched in Scotland on 27 September 1938, and initially used as a transport vehicle during World War II. In 1946, the ship left Southampton, England, on its first run across the Atlantic as a luxurious ocean liner. It was retired from service in 1968. Queen Elizabeth was the largest passenger steamship ever constructed and held the record for the largest passenger ship of any kind until being surpassed in 1996 by the Carnival Destiny.

In 1968, the Queen Elizabeth was sold to a group of US businessmen who planned to develop the ship into a hotel and tourist attraction. Generating huge debts and forced to close after being declared a fire hazard, it was sold in 1970 to C W Tung, a Taiwanese shipping tycoon, who intended to transform it into a mobile, floating university. Renamed the Seawise University, the ship was destroyed by fire on 9 January 1972, in Hong Kong harbour. The wreck sank to the bottom of the harbour, where it remains today.

2001  -             A man being strangled by a python frees himself by biting the snake on the neck.

On 9 January 2001, Johannesburg newspaper "The Star" reported that a man had won his freedom from a fierce constricting rock python by biting it on the neck. 57 year old council worker Lucas Sibanda had been walking home along a narrow, tree-lined pathway when the python began heading for him. Sibanda froze in fear, allowing the snake to curl around him and begin constricting in its attempts to suffocate the victim. Realising there was nothing he could do, as the snake's head reached his own, Sibanda bit it sharply on its neck, kicking and punching until the snake loosened itself. He then grabbed a stick to finish off the snake, taking it home as a trophy to show his family.

2013  -             A dust storm off Onslow, in the northwest of Australia, creates what looks like a huge red ocean wave.

Australia is regarded as the driest continent on Earth, apart from Antarctica, and dust storms are common in its interior. Dust storms have also been known to occur in coastal areas, particularly where the terrain is made up of extensive flat and featureless plains. The small town of Onslow, in the Pilbara region of Western Australia's northwest, is one such area. Thunderstorms are not uncommon in the area, where monsoon moisture meats the heat of the land, giving rise to violent thunderstorms.

The summer of 2012-2013 had already been excessively hot, with temperatures averaging between minimums of 26 degrees Celsius and daily maximums of 37.8 degrees. The hottest day in January 2013 had reached 46.8 degrees. On 9 January 2013, a huge thunderstorm developed in the northwest of the state. At 7:30pm, winds were gusting to 102 kilometres per hour, while temperatures dropped suddenly, signifying air flowing out from the storm. As the storm broke, the gusting winds picked up tonnes of red dust, carrying it out to sea over the Indian Ocean. Passing over the Indian Ocean, with wind gusts increasing to 120 kilometres per hour, the storm dumped the red sand and dust in what looked like an enormous red wave towering over the surface and extending over a wide front. The spectacular photographs appeared around the world, a showcase of the amazing displays of nature in Australia.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1852  -             South Australia's first lighthouse begins operation.

Kangaroo Island is a protected and unspoilt island off the coast of South Australia. Australia's third-largest island after Tasmania and Melville Islands, it is 112 km southwest of the state capital, Adelaide.

The Cape Willoughby lighthouse is situated at the eastern extremity of Kangaroo Island, and lights the 11km wide Backstairs Passage between the island and the South Australian mainland. It was the first lighthouse erected in South Australia, and originally known as the Sturt Light after Captain Charles Sturt, who traced the Murray River to its mouth on the southern coastline, effectively opening the riverways for paddlesteamer traffic between South Australia and the eastern states.

The light first began operating on 10 January 1852. Notice of its commencement was announced by the Colonial Secretary's Office, Adelaide, on 30 December 1851, whereupon it was stated that the light would be operational from sunset to sunrise daily. The light itself has undergone numerous changes since that time, and was finally automated in 1974.

1901  -             Oil is discovered in Texas for the first time.

The famous 'Spindletop' gusher, the first major oil discovery in the United States, was discovered around 10:30am on the morning of 10 January 1901. Located in the town of Beaumont, Texas, 'Spindletop' signalled the beginning of the Texas oil industry. The drilling derrick stood on a site first known as Gladys Hill, but it was renamed Spindletop for a tree growing there, which resembled a child's spinning toy. The initial gusher blew out six tons of drill pipe with enough force to sustain a 30 metre geyser of oil until it was capped ten days later, and flowed an estimated 100,000 barrels daily. By the time the well was capped, the drilling rig sat in a lake of oil.

The discovery came at a crucial time for the development of the automobile industry. Soon the price of petroleum-based fuels fell and they became an increasingly practical power source. The internal combustion engine replaced steam and battery power as the automobile power plant of choice.

1928  -             Aviators Hood and Moncrieff disappear on their attempt to make the first trans-Tasman flight from Australia to New Zealand.

George Hood was born on 24 June 1891 in Masterton on the North island of New Zealand. He became an aviator during World War I, serving with the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in Gallipoli, and later in France. In 1916 he transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, qualifying as a service pilot in October of the following year, but a crash resulted in his leg being amputated. Nonetheless, he maintained an interest in flying.

John Robert Moncrieff was born at Lerwick in the Shetland Islands on 22 September 1899 and emigrated to New Zealand in 1914. His public expression of interest in a trans-Tasman flight raised his profile, and eventually he joined forces with Hood for the attempt. Preparations began in December 1927 for the men to make the crossing between New Zealand and Australia. The aircraft chosen was an early model Ryan B-1 Brougham high-wing monoplane. Named 'Aotearoa', the Maori name for New Zealand, the aircraft was taken to Australia where it was test-flown by Moncrieff on 29 December.

There were concerns over whether the aircraft would be suitable for the trans-Tasman crossing. The radio and generator required major maintenance, and there was doubt that a plane which was essentially a land-plane was the best choice for a flight over such an expanse of water. Despite these concerns, Hood and Moncrieff set off from Richmond, Sydney at 0244 local time on Tuesday 10 January 1928. Erratic radio contact was maintained, but abruptly ceased some twelve hours later. No trace of the aircraft or its occupants was ever found. The only lasting legacy is Hood aerodrome in Masterton, named after George Hood.

1946  -             The United Nations General Assembly meets for the first time. 

The term "United Nations" was first used officially during World War II, on 1 January 1942, when 26 states joined in the Declaration by the "United Nations", pledging themselves to continue their joint war effort and not to seek peace as separate entities. During the course of the war, it was recognised that there was a need for a new organisation to replace the largely ineffectual League of Nations. This was stated in the Moscow Declaration, issued by China, Great Britain, the United States, and the USSR in 1943.

As the war drew to an end, USA President Franklin D Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet Premier Joseph Stalin initiated a conference to take place in April 1945. Its purpose was to plan the charter of an organisation to promote peace, security, and economic development. Nations which had agreed to the original 1942 declaration, declaring war on Germany or Japan by 1 March 1945, were called to the founding conference held in San Francisco, to draft the UN charter. The conference was attended by representatives of fifty nations. The UN charter was signed on June 26 and ratified by the required number of states on 24 October 1945. The United Nations General Assembly met for the first time on 10 January 1946.

1949  -             Los Angeles, with its usually sub-tropical climate, is hit by a freak snowstorm.

Los Angeles, or LA, California, is the second largest city in the United States. Situated as it is in a subtropical zone, it experiences a Mediterranean climate, with mild, wet winters and warm to hot, dry summers. However, on 10 January 1949, Los Angeles received nearly two centimetres of snow in a freak snowstorm which went on to last three days in the San Fernando Valley. The unusual phenomenon of palm trees and eucalyptus trees covered with snow mixed with the more normal sights of children, dismissed from schools, building snowmen in their own yards. There has not been another snowy winter since in the city.

1996  -             A VW beetle gains the world record for the greatest automobile mileage.

The name 'Volkswagen' which translates literally as "people's car" is the name of an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. The VW Type 1, better known as the Beetle or Bug or Käfer (in German), is a small family car and probably the best known car made by Volkswagen. During the Beetle's production which commenced in 1938 and ended in 2003, over 21 million Beetles in the original design were made. On 30 July 2003, the final original VW Beetle (No. 21,529,464) was produced at Puebla, Mexico.

The car established a firm reputation for reliability and sturdiness. On 10 January 1996, an original 1963 VW Beetle belonging to Mr Albert Klein of Pasadena, California, had clocked up 1,592,503 miles, and was still running. This was the world's record for automobile mileage of any small vehicle, and to date, has not been surpassed.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1787  -             Two moons of Uranus, Titania and Oberon, are discovered.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun. A gas giant, it is made up mostly of rocks and various ices, with only about 15% hydrogen and a little helium. Uranus was discovered by William Herschel in 1781. Herschel is also credited with discovering two of Uranus's 27 known moons, Titania and Oberon, on 11 January 1787. Titania is the largest moon of Uranus and was named after Titania, the Queen of the Faeries in William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Oberon was named after Oberon, the king of the Faeries in A Midsummer Night's Dream. Both moons are composed of roughly 50% water ice, 30% silicate rock, and 20% methane-related carbon/nitrogen compounds.

1843  -             The man who built Fremantle Harbour and who brought water to the Western Australian goldfields, C Y OConnor, is born.

Charles Yelverton O'Connor was born on 11 January 1843 in Ireland. After leaving Ireland at age 21, he first found work in New Zealand as a Surveyor on the North Island. He was then employed as District Engineer for the Canterbury Province in New Zealand. In this position, he was in charge of projects to provide controlled supplies of water for the pumping and sluicing needs of the goldminers, locating tracks and roads, building bridges, and improving facilities within harbours. His work caught the attention of Western Australia Premier John Forrest who offered O'Connor the position of engineer-in-chief. In 1891, OConnor arrived in Western Australia.

The same talents that OConnor showed in New Zealand were utilised in Western Australia, despite constant criticism. His plan for a safe inner harbour in the mouth of the Swan River met with great opposition as being impractical. A significant reef obstructed the entrance, and the prevailing belief of the locals was that sand movement would cause continual silting. OConnor studied the data carefully and determined that the sand travel could easily be managed by dredging the entrance, then constructing two breakwaters to prevent silting at the entrance from recurring. He proposed blasting the reef and deepening the river mouth. Costs would be high, but Premier John Forrest shared OConnors long-term vision, and pushed the plans through Parliament. Fremantle Harbour still stands today and remains the most important harbour in Western Australia - without the silting problem predicted by OConnors critics.

OConnor was also employed as acting general manager of railways in Western Australia. In this capacity, he planned major upgrades of existing lines, proposed extending and improving the network and recommended the purchase of more powerful locomotives. His unorthodox plans eventually turned the losses at which the railways were operating into strong profits, although O'Connor did not see his plans come to fruition within his own lifetime.

Perhaps the project for which OConnor is best remembered is the Golden Pipeline, which for over a century has delivered life-giving water to the goldfields at Kalgoorlie. Bold and innovative, now considered one of Australias greatest feats of engineering, the scheme initially attracted much scepticism and derision. The pipeline would extend for 560 kilometres from a dam on the Helena River in the east and defy gravity, pumping water uphill over an elevation of 300 metres, before reaching the goldfields. No other project of its size had been attempted anywhere in the world and, as with OConnors previous projects, costs seemed prohibitive. However, thanks to OConnors attention to detail and his consultation with some of the worlds leading engineers, the project went ahead, though it was completed only after he died.

Subjected to public criticism over the cost of the pipeline, OConnor committed suicide on the beach near Robbs Jetty on 10 March 1902. In 1912, a statue of him was erected near Fremantle Harbour. Clearly, OConnors legacy is seen in the success of his major projects, all of which have withstood the test of time.

1874  -             Colonel Peter Warburton completes his gruelling nine-month crossing of the Great Sandy Desert.

Peter Egerton Warburton was born on 15 August 1813, at Northwich, Cheshire. A military man, he served for almost thirty years before retiring, after which he came to Australia. He was then appointed to command the Police Forces of the Colony of South Australia, an office he held until 1867. It was during this time that he developed his love of exploring.

Warburton's goal was to complete the first crossing of the central Australian continent from east to west. In 1872, he was selected to lead an expedition in an attempt to find n overland route from Alice Springs in central Australia to Perth, and to report on what sort of country lay in between. He departed Adelaide on 21 September 1872 with his son Richard, two white men with bush knowledge, two Afghan camel drivers and a black-tracker. After reaching the Alice Springs telegraph station, he then departed for the crossing on 15 April 1873.

Lack of water forced Warburton's party to head north, rather than directly for Perth. The men endured long periods of extreme heat with little water and survived only by killing the camels for their meat. Although Warburton had one Aborigine in his party, the group was also known to cause trouble for the aboriginal tribes of the desert. At least twice they captured and tied up aboriginal women in attempts to find out the location of native wells.

After finally crossing the Great Sandy Desert, they arrived at the Oakover River, 800 miles north of Perth with Warburton strapped to one of the two remaining camels, emaciated and blind in one eye. The party was then taken to Charles Harper's de Grey Station on 11 January 1874, where they were given time to recover from their incredibly gruelling ordeal.

1896  -             Bourke, New South Wales, sees the end of thirteen days of extreme temperatures which kill 47.

Australia is a land of extremes: droughts that last for years, devastating sudden floods and raging bushfires. It is also a land where days of excessive temperatures are not uncommon. A period of prolonged intense heat and dryness, beyond what a particular locality can normally expect, is called a heatwave.

One of Australia's worst ever heatwaves occurred during the 1895-6 summer season. Beginning as early as mid-October 1895, the heatwave extended throughout western New South Wales and areas of the southern states. It was worst in the town of Bourke, in far western NSW, where temperatures of 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees C) in the shade were already being recorded in October, mid-Spring. Bourke's worst thirteen days of heatwave ended on 11 January 1896, during which 47 people were killed. Temperatures averaged 116 degrees F, or 47 degrees Celsius. By the time the worst of the heatwave had abated in the region, by late January, 437 people across the southern states had died.

1935  -             Amelia Earhart becomes the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to Oakland, California.

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on 24 July 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, USA. She was the first woman to achieve the feat of flying across the Atlantic. Her first trip across the Atlantic in a Fokker F7 Friendship took 20 hours and 40 minutes. She then flew solo across the Atlantic in 1932. On 11 January 1935 Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to California. She had departed Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, and after a journey of over 3,800km in 18 hours, she arrived at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California.

In 1937, together with her navigator Fred Noonan, she attempted a round-the-world flight in a Lockheed Electra. Approximately five weeks after she set off, her plane disappeared, last heard about 100 miles off Howland Island in the Pacific. Speculation has been rife over the years regarding what happened to Amelia Earhart. The usual conspiracy theories and alien abduction theories have abounded but no evidence has ever been found to substantiate them, and the circumstances surrounding Earhart's disappearance remain a mystery.

1962  -             Up to 4,000 people are killed in an avalanche and mudslide in Peru.

Mount Huascarán is an extinct volcano in the Andes of west-central Peru. The highest mountain in Peru, its elevation is 6,768m. On 11 January 1962 a huge avalanche which included ice, snow, mud and rocks swept down the mountainside, as storms caused a hanging glacier on the sheer north summit to break off. The town of Ranrahirca was completely inundated, with only 50 of its 500 inhabitants surviving. Eight other smaller mountain villages were also buried. A huge wall of ice and rocks, about 12m high and a kilometre wide rushed down the River Santa. The river rose by eight metres, carrying with it everything in its path down the Rio Santa valley. Estimates of people killed varied between 2,000 and 4,000 but actual figures will never be known.     

1986  -             The Gateway Bridge in Brisbane, Australia, is officially commissioned.

The Gateway Bridge, in the capital city of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, is the most easterly crossing of the Brisbane River, situated close to where the river empties out into Moreton Bay. Construction began on 5 June 1980 and the bridge was officially commissioned on 11 January 1986. On completion of construction, the main span of the Gateway Bridge was a world record 260m for a prestressed concrete Free Cantilever Bridge, a record it held for over 15 years. The box girder is still the largest prestressed concrete, single box in the world, measuring 15m deep at the pier, with a box width of 12m and an overall deck width of 22m, allowing for 6 lanes of traffic.

Rising high over the river, the bridge owes its distinctive shape to air traffic requirements restricting its height to under 80 metres (263 ft) above sea level, including all features of the bridge, such as light poles. Shipping needs required a navigational clearance of 55 metres.

The Gateway Upgrade Project, begun two decades later, included the duplication of the Gateway Bridge and widening of 20km of the Gateway Motorway to allow for 6 lanes, from Mt Gravatt-Capalaba Road in the south to Nudgee Road in the north. The duplicate Gateway Bridge and the revamped Gateway, renamed the Leo Hielscher Bridges, were completed in mid-2010, along with the remaining lanes of the Gateway Motorway deviation.

2011  -             Despite Brisbane being supposedly flood-proof, a flood of epic proportions begins to inundate the city.

The city of Brisbane is located on the Brisbane River, after which it was named. The river was discovered in June 1823 by three ticket-of-leave convicts, and named by explorer John Oxley who came across the convicts quite by accident. After surveying the river for 80 km upstream, Oxley delivered an enthusiastic report on the river, and a convict settlement was established in 1825.

The Brisbane River catchment covers an area of approximately 15,000 square kilometres. It is fed by the Lockyer-Laidley Valley, which then drains into the Brisbane River in the Brisbane Valley west of Brisbane. Another major tributary is the Bremer River, which meets the Brisbane River at Moggill. In January 1974, Brisbane and nearby Ipswich were hit by a catastrophic flood. This was the result of an exceptionally wet preceding year, made worse by Cyclone Wanda, which developed into a rain depression after it crossed the coast. It was recognised that a new dam was needed to offset the likelihood of another such flood. Over the next decade, measures were taken to expand Somerset Dam, which released water into the Brisbane River, and to construct another larger dam, the Wivenhoe, which was completed in 1985. For decades, Wivenhoe protected Brisbane from any further threat of floods.

2010 saw the development of a La Nina weather pattern which brought unusually high rainfall to eastern Australia. Central Queensland was already experiencing some flooding by 10 December. On Christmas Day 2010, Cyclone Tasha crossed the coast at Cairns, bringing heavy rain along a vast section of the coast and inland. Major centres such as Rockhampton and Bundaberg were badly affected, while the river systems inland, at Chinchilla, Dalby and St George were stretched to breaking point.

Heavy rainfall began falling throughout the southeast on Christmas Day and continued on and off through January 2011. On 10 January, the city of Toowoomba, at the top of the Great Dividing Range, experienced unprecedented flash flooding. This sent a 7 metre high wall of water down the range, flooding the Lockyer Valley and raising water levels in Wivenhoe Dam to 190% and higher. Fourteen people were killed in this one flash flood alone. With all the floodgates open, the Brisbane River was filled to capacity and, by early afternoon on 11 January 2011, began to break its banks.

Over the next two days, the Brisbane River continued to rise, inundating around 50 suburbs, while the Bremer River in Ipswich also caused major flooding. The flood peaked at 4.46 metres at 4:01am on January 13 before beginning to slowly recede.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1876  -             Jack London, author of "Call of the Wild", is born.

Jack London was born John Griffith Chaney on 12 January 1876 in San Francisco, California, USA. He had a colourful childhood, being thought to be the illegitimate son of astrologer William Chaney, who flatly denied his paternity. The young Jack was largely self-taught, and attributed his literary aspirations to when, at the age of seven, he found and read Ouida's epic Victorian novel "Signa", which describes an unschooled Italian peasant child who achieves fame as an opera composer.

Jack graduated from school at age thirteen, whereupon he began working from twelve to eighteen hours a day at Hickmott's Cannery. Seeking to escape the workhouse life, he first became an oyster pirate, then a member of the California Fish Patrol. He went on to serve in various trades, including sealing, and working as a sailor, in a jute mill and a street-railway power plant. He even spent some time as a vagrant. It was after this that he aspired to greater things, completing his high school education in California in 1896, and briefly enrolling in the University of California until financial circumstances forced him to drop out.

London's first stories were derived from his experiences in the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. The author of dozens of adventure novels, his best known works include "The Call of the Wild", "The Sea-Wolf" and "White Fang". London died of a drug overdose in 1916 at the age of just forty.

1899  -             Paul Hermann Muller, the man who discovered that DDT was a potent insecticide, is born.

Paul Hermann Müller was born in Olten/Solothurn, Switzerland, on 12 January 1899. He was a Swiss chemist who discovered that DDT was a potent insecticide. The discovery of DDT was vital to helping increase food production around the world, as the substance eliminated many of the problems associated with insects destroying crops. However, later research showed that DDT continues to accumulate in insect-eating animals. Due to the toxic effects of DDT on these animals and those further up the food chain, it has been banned in the United States since 1972, but residue was still being found in some foods grown in the US in 2002.

Muller won the 1948 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the insecticidal properties of DDT. It was the first time the award had been given to someone who was not a doctor. Muller died in Basel in 1965.

1905  -             The "East Anglian Daily Times" reports on a wild man, carrying a book with strange writing and speaking an unknown language.

Stories of wild children and wild men are common in Europe, but usually restricted to Medieval times. An exception to this was the wild man of East Anglia.

On 12 January 1905, the East Anglian Daily Times reported the appearance of an unusual man in East Anglia. Wild in appearance, his language was unfamiliar. He carried a book filled with drawings and strange writing which no-one at Scotland Yard was able to decipher, or even identify as to its origin, as they were able to rule out at least a dozen common and uncommon European languages. The drawings were sketches of things the man had evidently seen along his journey.

In that same winter of 1904-05, there were reports of up to ten different wild men appearing in different parts of England, unable to communicate on the same level as those who found them. No "natural" phenomenon seemed to be at work: investigators favoured theories of sudden teleportation from other parts of the world, resulting in amnesia, but no satisfactory scientific explanation was ever given.

1979  -             Singer "Tiny Tim" establishes a new world non-stop singing record of 2 hours, 15 minutes and 7 seconds.

"Tiny Tim", American singer and ukulele player, was born Herbert Khaury on 12 April 1932. The son of a Lebanese father and a Polish Jewish mother, he was raised Catholic. This gave him a traditional grounding that was hidden by his flamboyant on-stage persona which traded on his short stature and high falsetto singing voice. Tiny Tim's natural singing voice was baritone, but there was little interest in a short person who could sing baritone and play the ukulele. He discovered his falsetto voice quite by accident whilst singing along to the radio one evening in 1952. When he entered a local talent show singing "You Are My Sunshine" in falsetto, the audience responded with resounding approval. Later, Tiny Tim became especially well known for his falsetto rendering of "Tiptoe through the Tulips".

In January 1979, Tiny Tim was on tour in Australia. During this tour, on 12 January 1979 at Luna Park in Sydney, he established the world non-stop professional singing record of 2 hours, 15 minutes and 7 seconds. The record has since been broken numerous times.

2005  -             Nine die in a devastating bushfire on the Eyre Peninsula in South Australia.

Bushfires are common in summer in Australia, but one of the country's worst bushfires killed nine people in South Australia on 12 January 2005. Eight of the people killed were caught trying to flee the blaze in their cars. Another was trapped in a building at North Shields, where several people jumped into the sea to escape the flames.

The fire had begun in the Wangary area on the Eyre Peninsula late on January 10, when a spark from a gold prospector's vehicle ignited dry scrub, then quickly spread. Vast amounts of stock and property were lost as the fire burnt through more than 48,000 hectares in the southern Peninsula. It was Australia's deadliest bushfire since Ash Wednesday in 1983, when 75 people died in fires across Victoria and South Australia.

2011  -             Tugboat skippers Doug Hislop and Peter Fenton heroically prevent Brisbanes twin Gateway Bridges from being damaged by floating debris.

After the Brisbane River broke its banks in the massive 2011 floods (see entry for 11 January), it continued to rise to levels not seen since 1974. The following day, the Brisbane City flood gauge exceeded its major flood level, with floodwaters causing significant damage to thousands of properties as well as to infrastructure.

Just before 4:00am on 12 January 2011, it was reported that a 300m section of Brisbanes floating Riverwalk had broken away from its moorings and was heading downstream towards the two Gateway Bridges. Tugboat pilot Doug Hislop, 65, and engineer Peter Fenton, 66, heard the reports and moved quickly in their tugboat Mavis to intercept the 1200 tonne cement walkway which was being pulled along in waters of 10-12 knots. Fighting eddies and whirlpools in the surging waters, the two men guided the boardwalk carefully past marine infrastructure, as well as chemical and fuel wharves and an oil pipeline, and straightened it to pass safely under the Gateway Bridges, past the supports. The men were hailed as heroes for attempting a task that even the military had deemed too dangerous.

Sadly, Peter Fenton was killed in a dockside accident in December that same year. He was crushed when a shipping container fell on him while it was being unloaded at the Port of Brisbane docks. However, he will always be remembered for his heroic actions during the Brisbane floods.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1205  -             The "Great Frost" begins in England.

Hundreds of years ago, the British climate was much colder than it is now. It was so cold that, for many winters, the Thames River in London froze over completely.

The winter of 1204-05 was exceptionally cold. 13 January 1205 (some sources quote 14 January) marked the beginning of the coldest known season in England, and "the Great Frost". It was the first recorded instance when the Thames River froze over completely, and drinks solidified into ice. Ale and wine, being ice, were sold by weight rather than by capacity. The frost continued for over two months, until 22 March, and during that time the ground could not be tilled. Employment hit farmers' workers, and there was a severe food shortage which, in turn, drove up the price of wheat and vegetables.

1939  -             71 people die in Victoria in bushfires on 'Black Friday'.

Friday the thirteenth is considered by the superstitious to be a day associated with bad luck. Friday, 13 January 1939, was indeed a devastating day, when a firestorm swept across southern Victoria, killing 71. The state had already experienced a hotter and drier than usual winter and spring. The effects of this were exacerbated in the first week of January 1939 when an almost stationary high pressure system established itself over the Tasman Sea, bringing very hot air from the continental interior across southeastern Australia. In Adelaide, South Australia, temperatures had reached a searing 47.6 degrees Celsius on the 12th. Heatwave conditions in Victoria caused several spot fires across the state. On Friday the 13th, a strong northerly wind hit the state, causing several of the fires to combine into one massive front, fanning the fires into a wall of flame.

Many people living in sawmilling towns in the mountains were killed. Fifteen died at Fitzpatricks mill near Matlock. The townships of Narbethong, Noojee, Woods Point, Nayook West and Hill End were burnt to the ground while Warrandyte, Yarra Glen, Omeo and Pomonal were badly damaged, as were settlements in the Yarra Ranges, such as Toolangi, Matlock, Rubicon, the Acheron valley, Tanjil and Thomson valleys and Warburton. Alpine areas in the North East such as Bright, Cudgewa and Corryong were affected, along with the Otway Ranges, the Grampians and areas in the southwest. Some of the resultant ash and smoke fell as far away as New Zealand. The bushfires were only doused by welcome rains on January 15.

The land took several decades to recover from the devastation. Ash and debris washing into catchment areas contaminated some water supplies for years. The only good to come out of the disaster was that the fires contributed directly to the passing of the Forests Act, which gave the Forests Commission responsibility for forest fire protection on public land.

1942  -             Car-maker Henry Ford patents the plastic automobile body.

Henry Ford, born in 1863, was the founder of the Henry Ford Motor Company. He was one of the first to apply assembly line manufacturing to the mass production of automobiles. This had the effect of making the automobile more affordable for the average consumer. Ford was interested in plastics developed from agricultural products, especially soybeans. Ford utilised soybean-based plastics throughout the 1930s in plastic parts such as car horns and in paint. He took this to new levels when, on 13 January 1942, he patented a plastic-bodied automobile which was 30 percent lighter than ordinary cars. The design never became popular, but whilst most car bodies today are still made of metal, plastic components are becoming more common.

1985  -             392 people are killed when a train derails in Ethiopia.

Ethiopia is a country of 1,127,127 km² in size, situated in the Horn of Africa. It is one of Africa's poorest nations, with millions dying from the effects of famine since the early 1980s. Infrastructure in the country is insufficient to meet the needs of the population. On 13 January 1985, the nation was hit by another disaster, when a train derailment killed 392. The train was about 200km from Addis Ababa, capital of Ethiopia, when it derailed at a crossing, sending several carriages plunging into a ravine. The actual death toll remains unknown, as some reports estimated it at 428; regardless, the accident was the world's third worst.

2004  -             The Spirit of Tasmania III makes the first Sydney to Tasmania voyage.

Ferry services first began operating regularly between Melbourne and Tasmania in 1921. With the increasing popularity of the automobile, it became apparent by the 1950s that a vehicular service would be required. Early travellers wishing to drive their own cars in Tasmania had to arrange for passage on the "Taroona" from Melbourne, and cars had to be loaded and unloaded using the ship's cranes.

The "Princess of Tasmania", which commenced operations in 1959, was the first Roll-on/Roll-off vessel to employ technology developed in Europe during the postwar period. Commissioned by the Federal Government, and operated by the government-run Australian National Line, the Princess of Tasmania could carry 333 passengers and 130 cars. Various other passenger and vehicular ferries followed.

In 1985, the Australian National Line ceased its Bass Strait operations. The Federal Government funded the establishment of the TT-Line, which was to be owned by the people of Tasmania, and operated by a Board of Management that reported directly to the State Government. The "Abel Tasman" was the first vessel to run under the new TT line, doing so until it was replaced in 1993 by the "Spirit of Tasmania". The company expanded its operations to include a faster passenger-only catamaran, and eventually increased its vehicular services with twin vessels the Spirit of Tasmania I and II, with nightly services between Port Melbourne and Devonport commencing on 1 September 2002.

In 2003, TT Line announced a new service which would run between Tasmania and Darling Harbour in Sydney, in addition to the established Melbourne to Devonport service. The first Sydney to Tasmania run on the new Spirit of Tasmania III commenced on 13 January 2004. It was initially very popular. However, a significant fall in domestic tourism coupled with increasing running costs forced TT Line to cease the Sydney to Tasmania service just two and a half years later, on 27 August 2006.

2012  -             Italian cruise ship, the Costa Concordia, runs aground near shore, killing 32.

The cruise ship Costa Concordia, built in Italy in 2004, was launched in September 2005 and delivered to Costa Costa Crociere, a subsidiary of Carnival Corporation, in June 2006, at a cost of 450 million Euros. The ship was 290.20 metres long, had a beam of 35.50 m, and boasted thirteen decks. A luxury ship, the Costa Concordia had 1500 cabins, four swimming pools, five restaurants, five jacuzzis, five spas, casino, disco, a tri-level theatre and a poolside movie theatre on the main pool deck.

The Costa Concordia departed Civitavecchia, Italy at 21:18 local time on 13 January 2012 for a 7-night cruise, with over 4000 passengers and crew on board. Shortly afterwards, at 21:45, it hit a rock off Isola del Giglio, after making an unauthorised deviation from its planned route. The Captain, Francesco Schettino, ordered the ship to be steered close to the island to show the locals. The collision created a 53 metre long gouge in the port side hull along 3 compartments of the engine room. After power to the engines and ship services was cut off, the ship began to take on water, finally rolling over onto its starboard side, where it lay atop an underwater rocky ledge, from where it was feared it could sink into deeper water. At 22:54, Captain Schettino gave the order to evacuate. Many passengers escaped in lifeboats, a procedure rendered difficult by the angle of the listing ship. Rescue crews were quickly despatched, but 300 passengers remained aboard after both the captain and the second master abandoned the vessel. 32 passengers perished, with two not being found until some time after the rescue operations ended.

Costa Concordia was officially declared a "constructive total loss" by the insurance company, while Captain Schettino was later charged with failing to describe to maritime authorities the scope of the disaster, and for abandoning incapacitated passengers. The parbuckle salvage of the ship was undertaken in the largest salvage operation of its kind to date, and the Costa Concordia was set upright on 17 September 2013. In July the following year, the vessel was refloated and towed to Genoa, where the dismantling process began.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1699  -             English sea explorer William Dampier sets out to chart the northwest coast of Australia.

English sea explorer William Dampier was born in 1651. As an experienced sea captain and pirate, he became the first Englishman to explore and map parts of New Holland and New Guinea. On 4 January 1688, his ship the 'Cygnet' was beached on the northwest coast of Australia, at King Sound near Buccaneer Archipelago. While the ship was being repaired Dampier made notes on the fauna and flora he found there. He was unimpressed by the dry, barren landscape, the lack of water and what he described as the "miserablest people in the world" - the native population.

Eleven years later, Dampier was back, after the British Admiralty commissioned him to chart the north-west coast, hoping to find a strategic use for 'New Holland'. The expedition set out on 14 January 1699. In July, Dampier reached Dirk Hartog Island near Shark Bay in Western Australia. Searching for water, he followed the coast northwards, reaching the Dampier Archipelago and then Roebuck Bay. After finding no sign of water, he was forced to head north for Timor. Sailing east, he sighted New Guinea on 1 January 1700. He then traced the southeastern coasts of New Hanover, New Ireland and New Britain, discovering the Dampier Strait between these islands (now the Bismarck Islands) and New Guinea.       

1812  -             The first public water mill in New South Wales is opened.

Thomas West was born in Sussex, England in 1773. Arrested for burglary in England, he arrived in New South Wales in June 1801 as a convict with a life sentence. However, West proved to be a trusted worker, gaining a reputation for initiative while employed in the government lumberyard. As well as his assigned tasks, he fashioned coffins, and hung the bells in St Philips Church.

In June 1810, West requested permission from Governor Lachlan Macquarie to construct a water mill on a land grant he was given near Rushcutters Bay. The mill was to be available for public use, for grinding grain. After gaining Macquaries approval, West completed the mill in 1811. It was opened by Governor Macquarie on 14 January 1812. In recognition of his contribution to the community, West was granted a conditional pardon and one cow from the government dairy herd - in 1813.

Wests mill continued to operate for the next twenty years. It was retired when the lack of water supply made the mill unsustainable.

1830  -             Captain Charles Sturt discovers that the Murrumbidgee River flows into the Murray.

Captain Charles Sturt was born in India in 1795. He came to Australia in 1827, and soon undertook to solve the mystery of where the inland rivers of New South Wales flowed. Because they appeared to flow towards the centre of the continent, the belief was held that they emptied into an inland sea. Drawing on the skills of experienced bushman and explorer Hamilton Hume, Sturt first traced the Macquarie River as far as the Darling, which he named after Governor Darling.

Pleased with Sturt's discoveries, Governor Darling then sent Sturt to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee River, and to see whether it joined to the Darling. In November 1829 Sturt and his party reached the Murrumbidgee. Sturt followed the river in a whaleboat and, on 14 January 1830, discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume). Sturt later went on to discover that the Darling River also flowed into the Murray, and that the Murray River flowed to the ocean, emptying out at Lake Alexandrina on the southern coast. Sturt's discoveries were significant, for they allowed for the development of paddle-steamer transportation of goods and passengers along Australia's inner waterways.

1841  -             The highest flood in Brisbane's recorded history occurs.

The city of Brisbane was named after the Brisbane River, upon which it is built. The first colony in Queensland was the colony of the Moreton Bay District, founded in 1824 when explorer John Oxley arrived at Redcliffe with a crew and 29 convicts. Due to the lack of fresh water, the settlement was abandoned less than a year later when the main settlement was moved 30km away, to the Brisbane River. Another convict settlement was established under the command of Captain Patrick Logan. In 1825, the settlement was given the name of Brisbane, and the area was opened up for free settlement in 1838.

It was in the early years of free settlement that Brisbane suffered its first major natural disaster. Between 1840 and 1900, the Brisbane River flooded twenty-three times, with the highest flood in Brisbanes recorded history occurring on 14 January 1841. Flood levels were reported to be over 8 metres above the mean sea level. By comparison, the notorious 1974 floods reached a height of 5.45 metres. However, because the settlement was fairly new and there was not the same density of houses, damage was minimal.

Lessons were learnt from this flood. Government buildings in Brisbane were built higher, allowing the city to escape the worst of its second highest flood in February 1893, which came to within 7cm of the previous high level.

1875  -             German theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician, Albert Schweitzer, is born.

Albert Schweitzer was born on 14 January 1875 in Kaysersberg, Upper-Alsace, Germany (now Haut-Rhin département, France). He became a theologian, student of music, physician and medical missionary. As a renowned organist of his time, he sought to develop a style of performance similar to how he believed the master, Bach, would have played. Schweitzer wrote a biography of Bach, considered to be one of the best studies of the composer which, along with his edition of Bach's organ music, made him an outstanding authority on Bach.

Schweitzer deeply revered life, and sought to spread his philosophy of respect for life as the highest principle. This was seen especially in his work as a medical missionary. Schweitzer established a hospital near an existing mission station in Lambaréné, in what is now Gabon, Africa. He cared for hundreds of lepers and treated many victims of the African sleeping sickness. After being interned as a German on French soil during World War I, he was later released, and returned to Lambaréné to resume his previous work there.

Schweitzer continued to travel, preaching and teaching his philosophy of life and showing its practical application. After 1952, along with Albert Einstein and Bertrand Russell, he campaigned heavily against nuclear tests and bombs. Schweitzer died in Lambaréné on 4 September 1965.

1907  -             Former Governor of South Australia, Sir James Fergusson, is killed in an earthquake in Jamaica.

Sir James Fergusson, born 14 March 1832, was a British politician. He was Governor of South Australia from 1868 to 1873, then Governor of New Zealand, resigning in 1874. He completed his career life as Governor of Bombay between 1880 and 1885. The South Australian town of Jamestown was named in his honour.

On 14 January 1907, Fergusson was one of several thousand people killed in an earthquake that hit Jamaica. Jamaica, an island nation in the Caribbean, is prone to tectonic movements which can result in earthquakes. The 1907 earthquake began at 3:32pm and lasted for about 40 seconds. Kingston and Port Royal suffered heavy damage, with eyewitnesses reporting brick walls bulging and collapsing, and carriages being lifted and thrown about. Fires broke out across Kingston, creating more devastation.

It was an unfortunate coincidence that the day of the earthquake saw the meeting of delegates from Canada, England, USA and various West Indian nations for the Annual West Indian Agricultural Conference. It is estimated that between 2,000 and 3,000 people were killed in the earthquake.

1911  -             Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen reaches the Ross Ice Shelf on his quest to be the first to reach the South Pole.

Roald Amundsen was born on 16 July 1872, near Oslo, Norway. At fifteen, he intended to study medicine but, inspired by Fridtjof Nansen's crossing of Greenland in 1888, altered his career intentions to eventually become one of the most successful polar explorers. He planned to be the first to the North Pole, but having been beaten by Frederick Cook and Robert Peary, he then altered his plans to make for the South Pole. He set out for Antarctica in 1910, and reached the Ross Ice Shelf on 14 January 1911 at a point known as the Bay of Whales. From here, on 10 February 1911, Amundsen scouted south to establish depots along the way. During the next two months, he and his party established three depots for storing their extensive provisions. They had their last glimpse of the sun for four months on 22 April 1911.

After maintaining their base at the Bay of Whales during the winter months, on 20 October 1911, Amundsen and four others departed for the South Pole. The remaining three in his expedition party went east to visit King Edward VII Land. The southern party consisted of five men, four sledges, fifty-two dogs and provisions for four months. The expedition reached the South Pole on 14 December 1911, a month before the famed Robert Scott reached it.           

Cheers - John

Gday...

1790  -             The mutineers of the 'Bounty' arrive at Pitcairn Island and establish a settlement there.

Pitcairn Island is an overseas territory of the United Kingdom. It was discovered in 1767 and was the first Pacific island to become a British colony, which occurred in 1838. It lies approximately halfway between New Zealand and Peru. Today, it remains the last vestige of the British Empire in the South Pacific.

The 'HMS Bounty' sailed with a crew of 45 men from Spithead, England in December 1787 under Captain William Bligh, bound for Tahiti. Their mission was to collect breadfruit plants to be transplanted in the West Indies as cheap food for the slaves. After collecting those plants, Bounty was returning to England when, on the morning of 28 April 1789, Fletcher Christian and part of the crew mutinied, taking over the ship, and setting the Captain and 18 crew members adrift in the ships 23-foot launch. Captain Bligh sailed nearly 6000km back to England, arriving there on 14 March 1790, where he was initially court-martialled and ultimately acquitted. The mutineers took HMS Bounty back to Tahiti, and collected 6 Polynesian men and 12 women. They then continued on to Pitcairn Island, arriving there on 15 January 1790. After burning the ship, they established a settlement and colony on Pitcairn Island that still exists.

In 1808, Captain Mayhew Folger of the American sealing ship 'Topaz' landed at Pitcairn Island. By that stage, many of the mutineers had succumbed to disease, suicide or been victims of murder. Of all the men, both whites and Polynesians, only John Adams survived. Adams, by then a changed man after his conversion to Christianity, went on to become the respected leader on Pitcairn. He died on 5 March 1829, forty years after the mutiny.

1797  -             The Top Hat makes its first appearance, causing a riot.

The first Top Hat was worn by haberdasher James Heatherington on 15 January 1797, in England. When Heatherington stepped from his shop wearing his unusual headgear, a crowd quickly gathered to stare. The gathering soon turned into a crowd crush as people pushed and shoved against each other. As a result, Heatherington was summoned to appear in court before the Lord Mayor and fined £50 for breaching the peace. He was also charged with appearing "on the public highway wearing a tall structure of shining lustre and calculated to terrify people, frighten horses and disturb the balance of society". However, within a month, he was overwhelmed with orders for the new headwear.

1929  -             Civil rights activist, Martin Luther King, is born.

Martin Luther King, Jr. was born on 15 January 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia. He became a Baptist minister, and African American civil rights activist. In his fight for civil rights, he organised and led marches for desegregation, fair hiring, the right of African Americans to vote, and other basic civil rights. Most of these rights were successfully enacted later into United States law with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Martin Luther King's life was tragically cut short when he was shot in the neck by a rifle bullet in Memphis, Tennessee, on 4 April 1968. James Earl Ray was convicted of his murder and sentenced to 99 years in prison. But while King's life was taken from him prematurely, his legacy lives on in the equal rights now enjoyed by millions of African-Americans in the USA.

1991  -             The Victoria Cross for Australia is created by letters patent signed by HM Elizabeth II.

The Victoria Cross is the highest military decoration awarded for acts of bravery in wartime. It was introduced by Queen Victoria on 29 January 1856 to honour bravery shown by individuals during the Crimean War.

The Victoria Cross for Australia was introduced over a century after its inception in the United Kingdom. The highest award in the Australian Honours System, it superseded the original Victoria Cross. The Victoria Cross for Australia was created by letters patent signed by Elizabeth II, Queen of Australia, on 15 January 1991. It is the "decoration for according recognition to persons who, in the presence of the enemy, perform acts of the most conspicuous gallantry, or daring or pre-eminent acts of valour or self-sacrifice or display extreme devotion to duty."

The first Victoria Cross for Australia was awarded on 16 January 2009 to Trooper Mark Donaldson, who rescued a coalition forces interpreter during heavy fire in Afghanistan.

2004  -             The first freight train departs from Adelaide, bound for Darwin, on the newly completed AustralAsia Railway.

Early settlements in central Australia were isolated by more than distance. Tracks were rough and unsuitable for standard coaches. For many years, outback sheep and cattle stations and other remote settlements such as mining outposts relied on camel trains to bring them necessary goods, supplies and news from settled areas. These trains followed the route taken by explorer John McDouall Stuart, the first recorded European to successfully cross central Australia from south to north, and to return alive.

The concept of a railway line to replace the camel trains was proposed largely as a result of Stuart's exploration, which was instrumental in the building of the Overland Telegraph Line. Construction of the original Ghan track commenced in 1878, and the first section of the railway reached Government Gums (now Farina) in 1881. The next stage of the line reached Marree in 1882, followed by Oodnadatta in 1891. It was several decades before the next stage of the railway began, in 1926, and this was to be the section that would connect Oodnadatta to Alice Springs. It was finally completed in 1929.

The original Ghan train was called the Afghan Express, a name which was soon shortened to just "The Ghan". Its purpose was to transport passengers as well as goods between Adelaide and Alice Springs. It was named The Ghan because it followed the tracks of the Afghan camel teams which used to make the trek across central Australia. The first trip of the Ghan pulled out of Adelaide station on 4 August 1929, with 120 passengers on board.

Mr William Jervois, the premier of South Australia who turned the first sod at Port Augusta that signalled construction of the railway line, envisaged that eventually the train line would run from Adelaide to Darwin in the north. This moved closer to reality upon the establishment of the Asia Pacific Transport Consortium in 1999. The purpose of the consortium was to build the Darwin to Alice Springs section of the Ghan railway line. Prime Minister John Howard turned the first sod in April 2001, and the line was completed in September 2003. On 15 January 2004, the first Adelaide-Darwin freight train departed Adelaide, and arrived in Darwin two days later. The freight line was known as the AustralAsia Railway. The first Ghan from Adelaide to Darwin commenced its inaugural run on 1 February.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1362  -             The city of Rungholt, Germany, is destroyed by a strong storm tide.

Rungholt was a rich city in Nordfriesland, northern Germany, situated on the island of Strand. On 16 January 1362, a storm tide in the North Sea swept through the island, submerging and subsequently destroying the city, thought to be the most populous settlement in the surrounding area. The storm tides that occur from time to time in the North sea are sometimes known as "grote Mandraenke"; the one that sank Rungholt was the first "grote Mandraenke". Archaeological relics from the city were still being discovered in the Wadden Sea in the late twentieth century.        

1793  -             Free settlement commences in Australia.

Australia was first officially settled by the First Fleet of convicts, which left England in May 1787 and arrived in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. The First Fleet consisted of convicts, officers and marines, along with some of the officers and marines wives and children. The primary purpose of the first settlement in New South Wales was to serve as a penal colony and alleviate the overcrowding in English gaols, whilst staking Great Britains claim in the South Pacific. There were plans to expand the colony to include free settlement once it had begun the journey towards self-sufficiency.

During his tenure, Governor Arthur Phillip requested that the British authorities send free settlers with farming skills, but they did not arrive until after Phillip had departed for England at the end of 1792. The first group of completely free settlers to come to New South Wales arrived in Port Jackson on 16 January 1793. The ship Bellona carried five men, two women and six children. This group included Thomas Rose and his family, Edward Powell, Thomas Webb, Frederick Meredith and Walter Brody. These people were the first free settlers to be given land grants at Liberty Plains, now Strathfield and Homebush, on 7 February that year.

1837  -             The "Proclamation Establishment of Government in SA" is printed on South Australia's first printing press.

Holdfast Bay in South Australia was the site of the earliest landings of pioneers to South Australia's mainland. It was into this port that South Australia's first printing press arrived in early November 1836. Robert Thomas and his family had travelled out from England, arriving in South Australia aboard the ship 'The Africaine'. With him was South Australia's first printing press, a Stanhope Invenit No. 200. Thomas, along with George Stevenson, Governor Hindmarsh's private secretary, had been appointed Government Printers. Their first task was publishing the initial edition of the South Australian Gazette and Colonial Register in England on 18 June 1836.

Although South Australia was officially proclaimed on 19 February 1836 in England, the proclamation was made on 28 December 1836. Governor Hindmarsh made the announcement at the Old Gum Tree, but the actual proclamation had not yet been printed. On 30 December, Thomas was given orders to prepare for the print run of the proclamation, so the following day, the Governor sent 10 men to assist with moving and preparing the press from where it had been unloaded. On 14 January 1837, the first 3 Acts of the new Executive Council of Government were printed, and two days later, on 16 January 1837, 150 more sheets were printed. This was the official "Proclamation Establishment of Government in SA".

1889  -             Cloncurry, Queensland, records Australia's highest shade temperature.

Cloncurry is a town in northwest Queensland, Australia. The town, which lies about 770km west of Townsville, was built up around the copper deposits discovered in the area in 1867. As of 2003, the population of the shire of Cloncurry, including the town, was 3900. Cloncurry holds the record for the highest temperature in the shade recorded in Australia, at 53.1 °C (127.5 °F) on 16 January 1889.

However, this record was later removed from Australian records because the equipment used to measure it was unreliable, and it did not use the standardised Stevenson screen, which only became widespread in Australia from around 1910. According to Australian Bureau of Meteorology records, the highest temperature in Australia was officially recorded at Oodnadatta, South Australia, on 2 January 1960: 50.7 degrees Celsius.

1909  -             Australian geologists Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David become the first to reach the magnetic South Pole.

The South Pole is the southernmost point on the Earth where the earth's axis of rotation intersects the surface. The Magnetic South Pole is the point nearest the geographic South Pole where the field lines of Earth's magnetic field point directly into the ground. In the past century, the magnetic South Pole has shifted, due to movement in the Earth's liquid core.

Australian geologists Professor Edgeworth David and Sir Douglas Mawson, together with naval surgeon Alistair Mackay, were the first to reach the magnetic South Pole on 16 January 1909. They were members of Ernest Shackleton's British Antarctic Expedition. Having found the spot where Mawson's compass pointed directly into the ground, the men raised the British flag and claimed the immediate surrounding Victoria Land for the British Crown.

The geographic South Pole was first reached by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen nearly three years later, on 14 December 1911.

1919  -             Prohibition in the United States takes effect.

Prohibition in the United States generally refers to the time between 1920 and 1933 during which the Eighteenth Amendment was in place. The Eighteenth Amendment, forbidding the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes," was passed by Congress and ratified on 16 January 1919. The ensuing Volstead Act, which made provisions for the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, was passed on 28 October 1919.

Prohibition failed to enforce sobriety, and the federal and state governments lost billions in tax revenue. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed, and on 5 December 1933 Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the required three-quarters majority of states' approval. This ended national Prohibition; however, some individual states continued to uphold their own temperance laws. Mississippi, for example, was the last state to end Prohibition, doing so only in 1966.

2006  -             Today is Appreciate a Dragon Day!

Whether dragons are real or only a myth has been the subject of many a debate over the years. The concept of fire-breathing, winged dragons has been perpetuated for centuries in countries such as China, India, Japan and Greece. Various sightings have continued into more modern times, whether real or imagined. For example, in 1449 two fire-breathing monsters were apparently seen battling each other near the village of Little Cornard, on the banks of the River Stour along the English county borders of Suffolk and Essex. Also in Suffolk, around the same time, witnesses described a huge monster with a crested head and enormous tail near Lake Bure, which was seen to devour a shepherd and numerous sheep. Similar creatures (or the same creature) have been described in Suffolk folklore.

Dragon aficionados say that a dragon assisted the Wright brothers in their famous flight of 1903. Amelia Earhart apparently disappeared after being captured by a lovestruck dragon. And Winston Churchill's famous cigar was always lit by a tiny dragon ...

Regardless of truth or legend, 16 January is Appreciate a Dragon Day. The day was gazetted in 2006 to promote literacy, a few years after "Dragonspell", the first book in the series of Dragon Keeper Chronicles, was published.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1773  -             Captain James Cook's ship, the 'Resolution', becomes the first known ship to cross the Antarctic Circle.

James Cook was born at Marton in North Yorkshire, on 27 October 1728. He was the son of a farm labourer, and held no great ambitions, being apprenticed in a grocer/haberdashery when he was 16. Lack of aptitude in the trade led his employer to introduce Cook to local shipowners, who took him on as a merchant navy apprentice. Here he was educated in algebra, trigonometry, navigation, and astronomy, which later set Cook up to command his own ship.

Cook is known for being the first European to sight the eastern coast of Australia, thus paving the way for British settlement of the continent. Two years after this journey, in 1772, Cook was sent again to discover if another great land lay east of Australia. Commanding the ship, 'Resolution', Cook became the first known European to cross the Antarctic Circle, on 17 January 1773, in latitude 67 degrees south. However, pack ice and the solid freezing of the ship's sails prevented further exploration of the region.

1944  -             Meat rationing is introduced throughout Australia, a result of World War II.

On 3 September 1939, Australian Prime Minister Robert Gordon Menzies announced that Australia was at war with Germany. It was several years before rationing of essential supplies was introduced. First to be rationed throughout Australia was petrol, followed by clothing in June 1942. A month later tea was rationed, then sugar, and in June 1943, butter was also rationed. On 17 January 1944, meat rationing began. It did not cover all meats: fish, rabbits, chicken, ham and bacon, and offal products were excluded. Rationing of meat finally ended two years after the war, in 1947.

1949  -             The Volkswagen beetle makes its debut in the United States.

The name 'Volkswagen' which translates literally as "people's car" is the name of an automobile manufacturer based in Wolfsburg, Germany. The VW Type 1, better known as the Beetle or Bug or Käfer (in German), is a small family car and probably the best known car made by Volkswagen. During the Beetle's production which commenced in 1938 and ended in 2003, over 21 million Beetles in the original design were made.

The VW Beetle arrived in the United States on 17 January 1949. The car established a firm reputation for reliability and sturdiness. On 10 January 1996, an original 1963 VW Beetle belonging to Mr Albert Klein of Pasadena, California, had clocked up 1,592,503 miles, and was still running. This was the world's record for automobile mileage of any small vehicle, and to date, has not been surpassed.

1968  -             Australian singing group 'The Seekers' are named Australians of the Year for 1967.

The seekers were a popular Australian singing group of the 1960s. Formed in 1962, the original group was made up of Judith Durham on vocals, Athol Guy on double bass and vocals, Keith Potger on twelve-string guitar and vocals, and Bruce Woodley on guitar and vocals. These members variously played banjo, mandolin and keuboard as well. They released their debut album "Introducing The Seekers" in 1963, and their debut single was "Waltzing Matilda". Some of their enduring songs were "Georgy girl", "The Carnival is Over", "I'll Never Find Another You", "Morningtown Ride" and "A World of Our Own". With a musical style which was a mixture of popular and folk, The Seekers became the first Australian popular music group to break through to the United Kingdom and the United States market, achieving outstanding success in the music charts.

On 17 January 1968, The Seekers were named Australians of the Year for 1967. They were presented with the award by Prime Minister Harold Holt. Other Australian Prime Ministers through the years also indicated their appreciation for the style and quality of The Seekers' music, with Sir Robert Menzies once commenting that The Seekers were the only musical group he had "ever encountered who sang musical tunes and whom he thoroughly understood."

1991  -             The Gulf War against Iraq begins with the launch of Operation Desert Storm.

In the early hours of 2 August 1990, 100,000 Iraqi troops backed by 300 tanks invaded Kuwait, in the Persian Gulf. US economic aid to Iraq had inadvertently allowed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to amass weaponry which was then deployed for the invasion. Hussein's motivation for the invasion was that it was a response to overproduction of oil in Kuwait, which had cost Iraq an estimated $14 billion a year when oil prices fell. The United Nations acted immediately to implement economic sanctions against Iraq. Iraq, however, would not retreat.

On 17 January 1991, a coalition force of armies from 34 nations, led by the United States, set out to free Kuwait. The initial operation was nicknamed 'Operation Desert Storm'. The Gulf War lasted around 6 weeks, and resulted in a decisive victory for the coalition forces.

1995  -             An earthquake in Kobe, Japan, kills over 6,400 people.

Kobe is a city of about 1.5 million in Japan, located on the island of Honshu and one of Japan's major ports. At 6:45am on 17 January 1995, Kobe was hit by an earthquake of magnitude 7.2 on the Richter scale. The high population density and linear layout of the city exacerbated the effects of the quake by increasing the amount of damage to buildings: 77% of people killed were crushed to death. In all 6,433 people died and 43,792 were injured in the earthquake. Many of the remaining injuries were from burns: over 300 fires broke out following the quake. 7,483 buildings were burnt to the ground and 9,017 more damaged by fire. In total, 104,906 houses were completely destroyed, and 460,000 were damaged. Over 300,000 people were left homeless afterwards. The quake is listed in the Guinness Book of Records as the "costliest natural disaster to befall any one country".

Cheers - John

Gday...

1788  -             Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet of convicts arrive at Botany Bay.

Arthur Phillip was born in London on 11 October 1738. He joined the Royal Navy when he was fifteen, and alternately earned a living as a navy officer and as a farmer. In October 1786, Phillip was appointed Governor-designate of the proposed British penal colony of New South Wales. Phillip was a practical man who suggested that convicts with experience in farming, building and crafts be included in the First Fleet, but his proposal was rejected, and this made the establishment of a workable colony difficult in the early years.

The First Fleet, consisting of eleven ships, left Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787, and arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Phillip immediately determined that there was insufficient fresh water, an absence of usable timber, poor quality soil and no safe harbour at Botany Bay. Thus the fleet was moved to Port Jackson, arriving on 26 January 1788.

1825  -             Hume and Hovell return from their successful exploration overland to Port Phillip.

Hamilton Hume was an Australian-born settler with excellent bush skills. He was interested in exploring south of the known Sydney area in order to open up new areas of land, but could not gain Government support for his proposed venture. William Hovell was an English former ship's captain with little bush experience, keen to assist Hume's expedition financially, and accompany him. Hume and Hovell commenced their expedition on 3 October 1824. They travelled overland from Hume's homestead at Lake George, southwest to Port Phillip.

Although the two men argued for most of their journey, and even for many years after their return, the expedition was successful in many ways. Hume and Hovell were the first to discover the "Hume River", though it was later renamed by Sturt as the Murray River. They were the first white men to see the Australian Alps. Much good grazing and pasture land was also found. On 18 January 1825, Hume and Hovell arrived back at Hume's homestead.

1849  -             Edmund Barton, the first Prime Minister of Australia, is born.

Sir Edmund Barton, first Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of Australia, was born on 18 January 1849, in Sydney, New South Wales. He was educated at Fort Street High School and Sydney Grammar School, where he was twice dux and school captain. He graduated with first class honours in classics from the University of Sydney, where he also demonstrated considerable skill at cricket. In 1879, Barton successfully stood for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the University of Sydney constituency and in 1882 he became Speaker of the Assembly. From 1887 to 1891, and again from 1897 to 1898, Barton sat in the Legislative Council.

Barton was a strong advocate of the federation of the Australian colonies, and he led the federal movement following the death of Sir Henry Parkes. In 1897 he was one of the NSW delegates to the Constitutional Convention which developed a constitution for the proposed federation. As the most vigorous federalist in the largest state, Barton was appointed Prime Minister, although this was only after some negotiations with the newly elected Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun, who initially invited Sir William Lyne, the Premier of New South Wales, to form a government.

Barton was Prime Minister from January 1901 to September 1903. He died on 27 January 1920.

1882  -             Creator of Winnie-the-Pooh, A A Milne, is born.

Alan Alexander Milne was born on 18 January 1882 in Scotland. He was raised in London and attended a small private school, where one of his teachers was author H G Wells. He attended Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, where he studied on a mathematics scholarship. While there, he edited and wrote for Granta, a student magazine. Milne's work came to the attention of the leading British humour magazine Punch, where Milne was to become a contributor and later assistant editor.

Milne wrote a number of novels and non-fiction works, but he is most famous for his creation of the Winnie-the-Pooh stories. These feature Chistopher Robin, named after his son who was born in 1920, and various characters inspired by his son's stuffed animals, most notably the bear named Winnie-the-Pooh. A A Milne died on 31 January 1956.

1977  -             83 are killed in the Granville railway disaster, Australia's worst train disaster to date.

Granville is a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, situated along the popular Sydney-Blue Mountains line. In the early morning commuter rush of 18 January 1977, the 6:09am train travelling from Mount Victoria in the Blue Mountains to Sydney left the rails and hit a row of supports of the overhead concrete and steel road bridge at Bold Street. The accident occurred around 8:10am.

After the derailed engine car and the first two carriages passed the bridge, the locomotive and first carriage broke free from the other carriages, hitting a power line mast, which tore through the carriage, killing eight passengers. Carriage two was clear of the bridge when the remaining carriages ground to a halt. The rear two-thirds of carriage three and the forward third of carriage four were under the bridge. With its supports demolished, the bridge and several motor cars crashed down onto carriages three and four, crushing many of the passengers inside.

83 passengers were killed from carriages one, three and four. 213 more passengers were injured. The train driver and the secondman, and the motorists on the bridge all survived. Many people were trapped in the train for hours after the accident by part of the bridge crushing a limb or torso. Many of these people were conscious and able to talk to rescuers, but died of crush syndrome soon after the crushing weight was removed from their bodies, due to the sudden release of toxins having built up in the limb suddenly overloading the kidneys. This resulted in a greater awareness of crush syndrome and subsequent changes to rescue procedures for such accidents.

2003  -             Firestorms begin their onslaught on Canberra, capital of Australia.

Australia's capital city, Canberra, lies in the Australian Capital Territory, which is some 2,359 square kilometres in size. With a population of around 324,000, it is Australia's largest inland city.

In January of 2003, intense bushfires burned through the Australian Capital Territory, damaging almost 70% of its pasture land, forests and nature parks over the period of a week. The fires were started by lightning strikes in the Kosciuszko National Park to the west of the ACT. A state of emergency was declared in the city itself when, at 2.45pm on 18 January 2003, the fires reached the outskirts of Canberra and began encroaching upon the city. Over the next ten hours, four people died and more than 500 homes were destroyed.

One of the greatest cultural and scientific losses caused by the fires was the damage to the Mount Stromlo Observatory, headquarters of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics of the Australian National University. Five historically significant telescopes were destroyed, while instrumentation and engineering workshops, the observatory's library and the main administration buildings were also consumed.    

Cheers - John

Gday...

1790  -             The second fleet of convicts sets sail from England to New South Wales.

The First Fleet of convicts, which established the colony of New South Wales, arrived in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. The Second Fleet left England with a cargo of 1026 convicts, bound for New South Wales, on 19 January 1790. The Fleet comprised six ships: Justinian, Lady Juliana, Surprize, Neptune, Scarborough and Guardian, although the latter struck ice and was unable to complete the voyage.

The Second Fleet became notorious for its cruelty to the mostly female convicts. The convicts were limited to a starvation diet, despite the provision of adequate foods, and hundreds of them succumbed to scurvy, fever and dysentery. 267 died during the voyage, compared to the loss of between 30 and 40 convicts on the First Fleet voyage under Captain Arthur Phillip. When they disembarked, marks of cruelty were evident in the injuries shown on the convicts. The condition of the convicts led to public outcry in England, and although attempts were made to bring the perpetrators of the cruelty to justice, the crew members responsible were never prosecuted.

1887  -             The first express train runs between Melbourne and Adelaide as the two cities are linked by rail.

Railways were first established in Victoria in 1854, when Australia's first steam train ran from Flinders Street to Port Melbourne. Victoria was quick to expand its rail services to outlying centres such as the goldfields. In order to continue interstate to South Australia, only the link between Dimboola and Serviceton awaited completion. In 1882, an Act was passed in South Australia authorising the construction of that state's portion of the line, extending from Nairne to the border, a distance of approximately 260 kilometres. The first express train departed Spencer Street at 4.05pm on 19 January 1887. It consisted of one American Boudoir car, a composite bogie carriage, a luggage van, sleeper and a van with smoking carriage attached.

1955  -             The board game 'Scrabble' makes its debut in Australia and the UK.

Scrabble is a board game in which up to four players score points by forming words from individual lettered tiles on a 15x15 square game board. The game was created by architect Alfred Mosher Butts in 1938, as a variation on an earlier word game he invented called Lexiko (from "lexicography", meaning the process of writing, editing, or compiling a dictionary). Originally called Criss-Crosswords, it was not a success. In 1948, lawyer James Brunot bought the rights to manufacture the game in exchange for granting Butts a royalty on every unit sold. He made a few minor adjustments, simplified the rules and changed the name to Scrabble. After selling the game to Macy's department store, demand soared, making Scrabble the popular game it is today. J W Spear & Sons began selling the game in Australia and the UK on 19 January 1955.

1966  -             A farmer in Tully, far north Queensland, reports finding a 'flying saucer nest'.

Tully is a sugar town in far north Queensland with a population of around 4500. It is best known for vying with nearby Babinda for the "Golden Gumboot", awarded to the town with the highest rainfall. In 1966, it became known for something quite different - the centre of UFO sightings.

On the morning of 19 January 1966, a banana farmer by the name of George Pedley was near Horseshoe Lagoon, near Tully. As he approached the lagoon, he reported hearing a loud hissing sound, louder than the tractor he was driving. He then saw a round, grey object "some 25 feet across and 9 feet high" rise out of the swamp and hover above the treetops. It then rose quickly, rotating at high speed, and took off, disappearing within a few seconds.

When Pedley reached the swamp itself, he noticed a round area which had been cleared of the reeds that were there earlier, and in which the water current was turning slowly. He reported the strange occurrence to the property owner, Albert Pennisi, who recalled how his dog had been barking uncontrollably earlier that morning. When the men returned to the lagoon, they found a circular mass of reeds, clear underneath, with the lagoon bed cleared of roots. The area measured around 30 feet in diameter. Subsequent investigations by visitors attracted by the media reports uncovered up to half a dozen other, smaller nests.

The most likely explanation of the phenomenon came from the RAAF, who theorised that a "willy willy", a type of Australian whirlwind, flattened the reeds and sucked them up, forming what appeared to be a "flying saucer", before moving off and dissipating elsewhere.

1966  -             Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies, resigns.

Robert Gordon Menzies was born in the Victorian town of Jeparit on 20 December 1894. In 1928 he entered politics after being elected to Victorias Legislative Council for East Yarra. After six years in Victorian state politics as Attorney-General and Minister for Railways (192834), he was elected to federal parliament as member for Kooyong. On 18 April 1939, he was elected leader of the United Australia Party following the death of Joseph Lyons eleven days earlier, and became Prime Minister on 26 April 1939.

On 28 August 1941, party dissension led Menzies to resign as Prime Minister. However, after forming the Liberal Party of Australia from the remnants of the UAP in 1944, Menzies regrouped to become Prime Minister for the second time on 19 December 1949 when the new Liberal Party, in coalition with the Country Party, beat Labor. He then remained as Prime Minister for another 16 years, a record which has not been broken in Australian politics. Menzies retired on 19 January 1966, and was succeeded by Harold Holt.

1986  -             The first known computer virus for PCs is released.

A computer virus is a program that is able to replicate itself and spread from computer to computer, usually without detection. The first known computer virus on the PC platform was a boot sector virus nicknamed 'Brain', after the company in which the idea was conceived. As a boot sector virus, it infected the first sector of floppy disks as they were inserted into an infected computer. Its main effect was to change the volume label of the disk to read "©Brain". It spread via floppy disks, as the Internet did not exist in its current form when 'Brain' was first developed.

'Brain' was created by the Amjad Farooq Alvi and Basit Farooq Alvi in Lahore, Pakistan. It was initially released on 19 January 1986, but not finalised until September of that year. The virus was designed as an experiment to explore the security issues of the Operating System the Farooq Alvi brothers were using for their software. The virus did not destroy data, but detected if there was available space in the floppy disk to accommodate the virus. Encoded within the virus was the address of the company, as well as the names, addresses and phone numbers of the Farooq Alvi Brothers. Consequently, the brothers received phone calls whenever the virus was detected, and they were able to detect how piracy had spread their software and, with it, the virus.

In a 2011 interview with Mikko Hypponen of FSecure, the Farooq Alvi Brothers revealed they never meant the virus for harm. While they do not regret their experiment, they regret the harm that modern viruses do, and regard the programming of such viruses as criminal activity.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1803  -             Superintendent of public works, Charles Grimes, arrives at the Mornington Peninsula, now a popular holiday spot, where he pronounces it unsuitable for settlement.

In 1802, Governor King, governor of the colony of New South Wales, sent acting lieutenant John Murray to survey Port Phillip Bay. Murray explored some parts of the Bay and was responsible for the discovery of Corio Bay, where Geelong now stands. However, when it was discovered that Murray had not served the full six years required by regulation when he passed his examination for lieutenant, he was unceremoniously dumped in disgrace. King then appointed Charles Grimes, the superintendent of public works at the Hawkesbury River, to complete the survey.

Grimes entered Port Phillip Bay and arrived at Mornington Peninsula on 20 January 1803. He was turned off the thought of settlement in the area due to the sandy soil and lack of water, and his report to Governor King reflected his adverse reaction. It is ironic that the Mornington Peninsula is now one of Victoria's premier sites for both tourists and residents.

1841  -             China cedes the island of Hong Kong to the British.

Britain invaded China in 1839, during the First Opium War. After Britain occupied Hong Kong, China ceded the island to the British under the Convention of Chuenpi (Chuanbi) signed on 20 January 1841. Hong Kong Island then became a Crown Colony on 29 August 1842 under the Treaty of Nanking. Following the Second Opium War (1856-1860), China was forced to cede the Kowloon Peninsula, adjacent to Hong Kong Island, along with other area islands. In 1898, the UK commenced a 99-year lease of Hong Kong and surrounding islands and territories, increasing the size of the Hong Kong colony. The lease would expire at midnight on 30 June 1997.

Negotiations on the future of Hong Kong were initiated between Britain and China in 1982. On 19 December 1984, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang signed the Joint Sino-British Declaration approving the 1997 turnover of the colony. The Declaration allowed for the formulation of a "one country, two systems" policy by China's communist government, permitting Hong Kong to have a capitalist economy and enjoy existing rights and freedoms. Democratic elections for the new Legislative Council were held in 1995. On 1 July 1997, Hong Kong's Chief Executive, Tung Chee-hwa, was sworn in as the new leader.

1880  -             Bushranger Captain Moonlite is hanged.

Captain Moonlite/Moonlight, aka Andrew George Scott, was originally a preacher at the small Victorian town of Egerton. An admirer of Ned Kelly, he made a sudden decision to become a bushranger. His first target was the manager of the Egerton Bank, who was fully aware of Scott's identity. Scott tied him up, with orders to tell police he had been robbed by Captain Moonlight.

Scott was caught and imprisoned at Ballarat. Upon his release from gaol, he continued his new bushranging career. He recruited several other gang members and walked to New South Wales. Some stories claim he was hoping to find employment at Wantabadgery Station, well known for its hospitality. Being in the grip of a severe drought, and also having changed hands, Wantabadgery could offer them nothing. In desperation, Moonlite took 35 people hostage. In the resultant shootout with police on 18 November 1879, gang members James Nesbitt and Augustus Wernicke, together with Constable Bowen, were all shot dead. Moonlite and the surviving gang members were tried and charged with the murder of Constable Bowen. Moonlite was hanged on 20 January 1880 at Darlinghurst Court.

1887  -             The British ship Kapunda, laden with immigrants bound for Western Australia, sinks off the Brazilian coast, killing 300.

The "Kapunda" was a 1095 ton sailing ship, built on the Clyde in 1875 and owned by Messrs. Trinder, Anderson, and Co of London. Departing Plymouth on 18 December 1886, the ship held Captain John Masson, 272 passengers, a ship's Surgeon and a crew of 40. The ship was bound for Western Australia, its passengers being primarily immigrants. Many of these were Scottish and Irish peasants hoping to make a better life for themselves in the relatively new land. Many of the passengers were "nominated" emigrants, sent for by family or friends already in the colony. Around thirty passengers were travelling under the auspices of the West Australian Land Company, which had been formed to construct a 320 kilometre long railway from Beverley to Albany.

It was not the first time the Kapunda had carried passengers to Australia, but it was to be the last. On 20 January 1887, the Kapunda collided with the Ada Melmore of Belfast, south of Maceio off the Brazilian coast, and sank within five minutes. Only 16 of those aboard the Kapunda survived, whilst several passengers from the Ada Melmore also perished. Total loss of life was 304 people.

1958  -             After almost 28 years, the Royal Australian Naval College returns to Jervis Bay.

From the time that Australia was first colonised in 1788, up until 1859, Australia's naval defence depended on detachments from the Royal Navy in Sydney. A separate British naval station was established in Australia in 1859, while a Royal Navy squadron, paid for and maintained by Australia, was maintained in Australian waters through to 1913. In 1909, the decision was made to establish an Australian Fleet Unit. The first ships comprising this fleet arrived in Australian waters during November of 1910. These Commonwealth Naval Forces became the Royal Australian Navy on 10 July 1911, following the granting of this title by King George V.

Late in 1911, the Federal Parliament of Australia selected Captain's Point, Jervis Bay, as the site of the future Royal Australian Naval College (RANC). As the Australian Capital Territory was inland, it was determined that the national seat of government needed access to the ocean, so the Jervis Bay Territory was surrendered by New South Wales to the Commonwealth in 1915 under the "Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915".

The Australian Government was forced to cut funding to the naval college in 1930 as a result of the Great Depression. The RANC was closed and relocated to Victoria. Some of the buildings at Jervis Bay were maintained by the Navy, while others were leased as hotels and holiday accommodation. The decision was made in 1956 to return the RANC to Jervis Bay. This finally occurred on 20 January 1958.

1964  -             The trial of the perpetrators of Britain's Great Train Robbery begins.

For 125 years, the Post Office train, known as the Up Special, had run its nightly service. On 8 August 1963, the train was carrying over 2.6 million pounds ($AU7.5 million) in used, untraceable bank notes destined for burning at the Bank of England, when it was stopped by a red light at 3:15am local time in Buckinghamshire. Police investigators later found that the signals had been tampered with and telephone wires had been cut. After the train was stopped, thieves attacked driver Jack Mills, 58, with an iron bar, uncoupled the engine and front two carriages and drove them to Bridego Railway Bridge, Ledburn, near Mentmore. There they loaded 120 mail and money bags into a waiting truck.

13 of the thieves were caught and tried five months later, their trial beginning on 20 January 1964. Ronnie Biggs became the best known of the criminals when he escaped from prison and headed for Australia, where he stayed in a secret location, then Brazil, remaining free for 28 years. He returned to England needing medical treatment, but knowing he would be arrested as soon as he arrived back in his home country. Biggs continued to serve out his sentence until his death on 18 December 2013.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1793  -             Louis XVI, last King of France before the French Revolution, is executed.

Louis XVI of France was born on 23 August 1754. He was King of France and Navarre from 1774 until 1791, and then King of the French in 1791-1792. As King, he was initially popular as he tried to implement practical reforms to counter France's enormous debts. His indecisiveness and insipid personality, however, turned the people against him during the French Revolution. The people's hatred was compounded by the actions of Louis XVI's wife, Austrian archduchess Marie Antoinette, whom he had married in 1770. Marie Antoinette embraced a lavish lifestyle enthusiastically. She had little regard for the poor and struggling peasants, and spent money frivolously. For her attitude, she became the symbol of the people's hatred for the old regime during the French Revolution.

When the National Convention established the French Republic in 1792, Louis XVI and his wife were imprisoned. The King was found guilty of treason with the enemy, and guillotined on 21 January 1793. Antoinette was beheaded on 16 October 1793. Modern historians regard Louis XVI as an honest man with good intentions but who, through no fault other than an indecisive and dull character, was made a scapegoat by the Revolutionaries.

1801  -             Unofficial founder of Melbourne, John Batman, is born.

John Batman was born in Parramatta, Sydney, on 21 January 1801. As a native born Australian, Batman was interested in opening up new pastureland and promoting the growth of the colonies. He applied for land in the Westernport Bay area of southern Australia, now Victoria, but was not granted any. In May 1835, he led a syndicate calling themselves the 'Port Phillip Association' to explore Port Phillip Bay, looking for suitable sites for a settlement. On 6 June 1835, he signed a 'treaty' with the Aborigines, giving him free access to almost 250,000 hectares of land. In August that year, Governor Bourke declared Batman's treaties invalid, and issued a proclamation warning off him and his syndicate as trespassers on crown land. Despite the attempts at government intervention, the foundling settlement of Melbourne remained, and flourished.

Batman's place in Australian history is unique for several reasons. He was the first 19th century white to acknowledge that Aborigines owned land. He set out to undertake an annual rental for what was then a reasonable amount of food and goods, rather than buy it from them for a pittance. Further, he is the only native-born Australian to have founded a state capital city.

1815  -             The first road is completed over the Blue Mountains in NSW, under the direction of William Cox.

William Cox was born in Wimborne Minster, Dorset, England in 1764. Following a prestigious military career in England, he became Lieutenant in the New South Wales Corps in 1797, being made paymaster the following year. He brought his wife and four sons to Australia, leaving England in August 1799 and arriving in Australia on 11 January 1800. Cox briefly endured allegations of misappropriating funds, for which he had to return to England, but after being cleared of all charges, he returned again to Australia in 1811. He resigned his commission, becoming principal magistrate at the Hawkesbury, and also taking on responsibility for erecting many government buildings.

In May 1813, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains, finding rich farming land in the Hartley region. George Evans, Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, was keen to progress beyond the discoveries made by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth so the colony could expand beyond the Great Dividing Range. Leaving Sydney in mid-November 1813, Evans soon reached the termination of the explorers' journey. He continued on through the countryside, eventually reaching the site of present-day Bathurst.

Upon Evans's return to Sydney, he recommended building a road which would follow the ridge track determined by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. Shortly after this, William Cox was commissioned to build the road to Bathurst, using convict labour. The original Great Western Highway was 3.7m wide, covered 161 km and incorporated twelve bridges. It was completed on 21 January 1815. Following completion of the road, Macquarie travelled along "Cox's Pass", taking eleven days to reach the site of Bathurst, where the Union Jack was raised. The road was particularly significant, as it opened up the western plains for settlement.

1827  -             The entire Australian continent is claimed as British territory when Major Edmund Lockyer formally annexes the western third at King George Sound.

When Lieutenant James Cook charted the eastern Australian coastline and named it New South Wales in 1770, he made the first formal claim, taking possession of the whole eastern coast, from latitude 38 degrees S to this place, latitude 10.5 degrees S, in right of His Majesty King George the Third.

Because of the strong Dutch presence to the north and Portuguese interests in Timor, the authorities in Great Britain felt it was necessary to establish a definite western boundary. Captain Arthur Phillip, commander of the First Fleet, was entrusted with the formal claim. As Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales, Phillip was required to take formal possession on behalf of the British Crown, of territory ... extending from the Northern Cape or extremity of the coast called Cape York, in the latitude of ten degrees thirty-seven minutes south, to the southern extremity of the said territory of New South Wales or South Cape, in the latitude of forty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes south and of all the country inland westward as far as the one hundred and thirty-fifth degree of east longitude reckoning from the meridian of Greenwich. The boundary to the west was established at 135 degrees E as this was considered acceptable to Portugal, then Britains oldest ally. Due to enduring French interests in the area, in 1824 the British trading post of Fort Dundas on Melville Island was established to consolidate the British presence on the northern coast. Because Fort Dundas lay just outside the western boundary, the Governor, Ralph Darling, following the Commission outlined in Letters Patent issued on 16 July 1825, extended the western boundary of New South Wales to 129 degrees E.

British interests next turned to the west. The southwestern area of Western Australia was first discovered by George Vancouver in 1791 when he was sent to explore the southern coastline of Australia. Vancouver discovered an excellent harbour which he named "King George the Third's Sound", later shortened to King George's Sound or, as it is now, King George Sound. Standing at Possession Point, Vancouver formally claimed this land as British territory in September 1791.

The next step in Great Britains formal possession of the entire continent came in the 1820s. Edmund Lockyer, who arrived as a British soldier in New South Wales in 1825, was sent by Governor Darling to establish a military base at King Georges Sound. Lockyer initially named the settlement Frederickstown after His Royal Highness, Duke of York & Albany, Frederick Augustus, second son of King George III. It was later renamed Albany. The whole of Australia was claimed as British territory when Major Edmund Lockyer formally annexed the remaining western third in a ceremony at King George Sound on 21 January 1827.

1863  -             Stuart receives a huge public welcome in Adelaide after his successful crossing of the Australian continent.

John McDouall Stuart was a Scottish-born explorer who was determined to cross Australia from south to north. Stuart led a total of six expeditions into Australia's interior, with five of them being attempts to be the first to cross the continent from south to north, commencing from Adelaide. He succeeded on his fifth attempt, reaching the northern waters at Chambers Bay in July 1862.

The return journey of 3,400km is considered one of the great survival stories of Australian exploration. While the crossing was successful, years of arduous expeditions had taken their toll on Stuart, and his health had deteriorated badly. The constant blinding glare from the desert sun combined with advanced scurvy to produce almost total blindness. By August 1862, Stuart could no longer ride, and was carried back 960 kilometres between two horses on a stretcher mounted between two long poles. He arrived, sick but triumphant, in Adelaide on 21 January 1863. This was, ironically, the same day that the state funeral of Burke and Wills was held, the men who were Stuart's greatest "competition" in the race to cross the continent.Stuart never fully recovered from the exertions of his journeys, and died only three and a half years later, truly a hero in the eyes of Australians.

1863  -             Victoria's first ever state funeral is held, in honour of explorers Burke and Wills.

Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills led the expedition that was intended to bring fame and prestige to Victoria: being the first to cross Australia from south to north and back again. They set out in August 1860 from Melbourne with preparations, supplies and equipment costing almost 5,000 pounds. Because of the size of the exploration party, it was split at Menindee so that Burke could push ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller party. The smaller group went on ahead to establish a depot at Cooper Creek which would serve to offer the necessary provisions for when the men returned from the Gulf. In December 1860, during the summer, Burke decided to push on ahead to the Gulf regardless of the risks. He took with him Wills, Charles Grey and John King.

The expedition to the Gulf took longer than Burke anticipated: upon his return to Cooper Creek, he found that the relief party had left just seven hours earlier, less than the amount of time it had taken to bury Gray, who had died on the return journey. Through poor judgement, lack of observation and a series of miscommunications, Burke and Wills never found the supplies left for them by the relief party. They perished on the banks of Cooper Creek. King alone survived to lead the rescue party to the remains of Burke and Wills, and the failure of one of the most elaborately planned expeditions in Australia's history.

Alfred Howitt located and brought back the bodies of Burke and Wills to Melbourne. On 21 January 1863, Victoria's first ever state funeral was held, in honour of Burke and Wills. The Governor himself took part in the procession, which was watched by about 40,000 people.

1878  -             Cleopatra's Needle, an ancient Egyptian obelisk, arrives in England.

Cleopatra's Needle is an ancient Egyptian obelisk of red granite, about 20m high, and inscribed with hieroglyphics. The obelisk actually has no connection with Cleopatra, being 3,500 years old and therefore well-established long before Cleopatra's reign. The obelisk was originally erected in the Egyptian city of Heliopolis on the orders of Thutmose III. Rameses II added further inscriptions commemorating his military victories some 200 years later. There are in fact two Cleopatra's needles; one in London, the other in New York.

Cleopatra's needle in London was presented to England in 1819 by Mehemet Ali, viceroy of Egypt, in recognition of the victories of Lord Nelson at the Battle of the Nile and Sir Ralph Abercromby at the Battle of Alexandria in 1801. Transporting the obelisk was to prove too costly for the British government. It was not until 1877 that anatomist and dermatologist Sir William James Erasmus Wilson, sponsored its transportation to London at a cost of around £10,000. Engineer John Dixon designed a special iron cylinder, 28m long and 5m in diameter for transporting the obelisk. However, the obelisk was nearly lost at sea when it became separated from the ship towing it during a gale in the Bay of Biscay. After drifting for many days, it was rescued by an English ship and taken to Spain for repairs. The obelisk arrived in Gravesend on 21 January 1878, and was erected on the Embankment on 12 September 1878.      

Cheers - John

Gday...

1788  -             Captain Arthur Phillip names Manly Cove in Sydney.

In 1786 the decision was made in England to send a colonisation party of convicts, military and civilian personnel to Botany Bay, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, who was appointed Governor-designate. The First Fleet consisted of 775 convicts on board six transport ships, accompanied by officials, crew, marines and their families who together totalled 645. As well as the convict transports, there were two naval escorts and three storeships.

The Fleet assembled in Portsmouth, England, and set sail on 13 May 1787. They arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Phillip immediately determined that there was insufficient fresh water, an absence of usable timber, poor quality soil and no safe harbour at Botany Bay. Phillip therefore set out on a reconnaissance mission north to Port Jackson to find a more suitable place to establish the colony.

Whilst exploring the area of the Northern beaches, the home of the Cannalgal and Kay-e-my clans of the Guringai people, Phillip noticed a group of natives who waded into the water, unarmed, and curiously approached Phillip's boats. Impressed by what he described as "their confidence and manly behaviour", he named the region Manly Cove. The date was 22 January 1788.

1840  -             The first British colonists to New Zealand arrive on Auckland Island.

In December 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sighted a new land which he described as mountainous and covered in cloud in the south, but more barren in the north. He had discovered New Zealand. The islands were named after the Dutch province of Zeeland. However, New Zealand remained largely unknown until Captain James Cook sailed past in 1769 and explored the island, charting the coastline extensively. Following Cook's detailed report, the usual run of Whalers, missionaries, and traders followed.

In 1840, Britain formally annexed the islands, and New Zealand's first permanent European settlement was established on 22 January 1840. New Zealand was initially part of the Australian colony of New South Wales. It became a separate colony in 1841 and became self-governing in 1852. Dominion status was attained in 1907, and full independence was granted in 1931 and ratified by New Zealand in 1947.

1899  -             Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss a federation bill.

Prior to 1901, Australia was made up of six self-governing colonies; New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. These colonies were ultimately under British rule from the time the First Fleet landed, in 1788, until 1901. Numerous politicians and influential Australians through the years had pushed for federation of the colonies, and self-government. On 22 January 1899, leaders of the six Australian colonies met in Melbourne to discuss a federation bill.

After not being accepted by the states the first time, the amended Commonwealth Constitution was given Royal Assent on 9 July 1900. On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.

1901  -             Queen Victoria of England dies.

England's Queen Victoria was born on 24 May 1819 at Kensington Palace in London. Although christened Alexandrina Victoria, from birth she was formally styled Her Royal Highness Princess Victoria of Kent. Victoria's father died when she was less than a year old. Her grandfather, George III, died less than a week later. Princess Victoria's uncle, the Prince of Wales, inherited the Crown, becoming King George IV. When George IV died in 1830, he left the throne to his brother, the Duke of Clarence and St Andrews, who became King William IV. Victoria was recognised as heiress-presumptive to the British throne, and in 1837, at the age of 18, she succeeded her uncle, William IV, to the throne to become the last monarch of the House of Hanover.

In 1840, Victoria married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, with whom she had nine children. As well as being queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, she was also the first monarch to use the title Empress of India. Victoria's 64-year reign was marked by enormous growth and expansion of the British empire.

Queen Victoria died on the Isle of Wight on 22 January 1901, having reigned for sixty-three years, seven months, and two days, more than any British monarch before or since.

1988  -             Tennant Creek, Australia, is hit by three earthquakes, one registering 6.7 on the Richter scale.

Tennant Creek is a small town of less than 4,000 people on the Stuart Highway in Australia's Northern Territory, approximately 1000 kilometres south of Darwin, and 500 kilometres north of Alice Springs. The town is surrounded by sandy desert, grassy plains, flat-topped hills and granite boulders. Prior to 1987, there was no history of earthquakes occurring in the region. The first quake occurred on 8 January 1987 and registered 5.4 on the Richter Scale.

On 22 January 1988, three large earthquakes were felt in Tennant Creek. The smallest occurred at 10:06am CST and registered a magnitude of 6.3 on the Richter Scale, whilst the largest occurred at 9:35pm, registering 6.7. Whilst no one was seriously injured, the quake jolted furniture and created cracks in established walls. The quakes were felt in Darwin, and effects of the largest quake were noted in Cairns, northern Queensland, and even in high-rise buildings in the capital cities of Perth and Adelaide. The quakes' epicentres were located approximately 40km southwest of Tennant Creek, limiting the cost of the quake to a mere A$1.2 million, with the main damage being to a high pressure gas pipeline from Alice Springs to Darwin. The quake also resulted in a surface rupture up to a metre high and two metres wide, extending for 35km.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1556  -             The world's deadliest earthquake on record, in which over 800,000 die, occurs in China.

On the morning of 23 January 1556, an earthquake hit Shaanxi, China. Approximately 830,000 people were killed in the deadliest earthquake on record to date. Over 97 counties in the provinces of Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Gansu, Hebei, Shandong, Hubei, Hunan, Jiangsu and Anhui were affected, with some counties reporting losses of 60% of the population. Many of the people lived in artificial caves in loess cliffs, loess being the silty soil that windstorms deposited on the Loess plateau, which covers almost all of Shanxi, Shaanxi, and Gansu provinces. Landslides brought on by the quake destroyed many of the soft loess clay caves.

1719  -             The principality of Liechtenstein is formed.

Liechtenstein is a tiny landlocked country in the Upper Rhine valley of the European Alps in Europe. It has an area of just over 160 square kilometres, and a population of 37 000, while the official language is German. Bordered by Austria to the east, and by Switzerland to the south and west, Liechtenstein is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, meaning it is a landlocked country surrounded by other landlocked countries (the other example being Uzbekistan).

Liechtenstein gained its name from Castle Liechtenstein in Lower Austria, which was possessed by the House of Habsburg from at least 1140 to the 13th century, and from 1807 onwards. The House acquired large tracts of land throughout Moravia, Lower Austria, Silesia and Styria. The tiny counties of Schellenberg and Vaduz were purchased in 1699 and 1712, and this allowed for the creation of a principality within the Holy Roman Empire. Liechtenstein was created on 23 January 1719, and became independent in 1866.

1830  -             Sturt's exploration party narrowly avoids a confrontation with hostile Aborigines.

Captain Charles Sturt was born in India in 1795. He came to Australia in 1827, and soon after undertook to solve the mystery of where the inland rivers of New South Wales flowed. Because they appeared to flow towards the centre of the continent, the belief was held that they emptied into an inland sea. Drawing on the skills of experienced bushman and explorer Hamilton Hume, Sturt first traced the Macquarie River as far as the Darling, which he named after Governor Darling. Pleased with Sturt's discoveries, the following year Governor Darling sent Sturt to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee River, and to see whether it joined to the Darling. Sturt followed the Murrumbidgee in a whaleboat and discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume).

Sturt upheld a policy of kindness towards the many Aboriginal tribes he encountered, readily sharing food and gifts with them. On 23 January 1830, whilst traversing the Murray, Sturt's party encountered a group of about six hundred hostile Aborigines on sandbanks of the river. His men loaded their guns and prepared for battle, but disaster was averted when an Aborigine whom Sturt had befriended days earlier appeared from the bushes and intervened. Passing on by, Sturt discovered that the sandbank where the Aborigines stood marked the entrance of a larger river from the north. Sturt determined this to be the Darling, which he had discovered the previous year.

1922  -             The first Insulin injection is used on a diabetic teenager.

Diabetes is a chronic condition in which there is too much sugar in the blood. The condition results from the body's inability to produce enough insulin, which is required to convert glucose, or sugar, from food into energy. Glucose is found in foods such as breads and cereals, fruit and starchy vegetables, legumes, milk, yoghurt and sweets. Since it cannot be converted into energy, the glucose stays in the blood. If left untreated, diabetes can affect other body parts and organs such as the kidneys and heart, eyes, nerves, gums and feet.

There are two types of diabetes, Type 1 and type 2, and there is currently no cure. There are ways to manage it, such as through diet, lifestyle changes and insulin injections. For those with Diabetes type 1, insulin injections are a vital part of controlling the disease. Prior to the discovery of insulin, a diagnosis of diabetes meant certain death within days or weeks.

The first injection of insulin (initially called Isletin) was made on 14-year-old Leonard Thompson on 23 January 1922 at the Toronto General Hospital in Ontario, Canada. Thompson suffered a severe allergic reaction as a result of an apparent impurity in the injection. Over the next twelve days, chemist James Collip improved and purified the ox-pancreas extract, delivering a second injection which was successful in bringing the boy out of his diabetic coma. Thompson recovered, and continued to be treated regularly with insulin until he died of pneumonia thirteen years later.

1939  -             The waterside Workers' Strike, which earns Robert Menzies the nickname of 'Pig-Iron Bob', finally ends after nine weeks.

Robert Gordon Menzies entered politics in 1928 after being elected to Victorias Legislative Council for East Yarra. After six years in Victorian state politics as Attorney-General and Minister for Railways (192834), he was elected to federal parliament as member for Kooyong. From 1935, Menzies was Deputy leader of the United Australia Party under Joseph Lyons, as well as Attorney-General and Minister for Industry.

On 16 November 1938, members of the Waterside Workers' Union at Port Kembla in New South Wales refused to load cargo of pig-iron onto the steamer Delfram. Around 400 tons of pig-iron had already been loaded when the men held a stop-work meeting at 1pm, based on their belief that the pig-iron was not intended for Singapore, as they had been told, but bound for Japan. Japan was already seen a major threat in the Pacific.

In his position as Attorney-General, Menzies was forced to intervene. Reminding the unions that the League of Nations had not imposed trade sanctions against Japan, he threatened to invoke the Transport Workers Act against the unions if they did not load the pig-iron. Due to the ongoing strike action, the steelworks were closed, forcing many workers into unemployment. On 23 January 1939, after a dispute lasting nine weeks and resulting in an estimated cost of £100,000 in lost wages and £3000 for the owners of the Delfram which lay idle at Port Kembla throughout that time, the workers agreed to load the remaining pig-iron. Union leaders met with the Prime Minister and Robert Menzies to settle the terms later that week. The entire incident earned Robert menzies the nickname of "Pig-Iron Bob", which remained with him throughout his political career, and followed him into the history books.

1942  -             Japanese troops land on Rabaul, New Guinea, bringing the threat of World War II much closer to Australia.

Rabaul is situated on the island of New Britain, now part of Papua New Guinea. Separated from the main island of New Guinea by Dampier and Vitiaz Straits, New Britain is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago. During World War II, it was also the site of an invasion by Japanese troops, which dragged Papua New Guinea into the war and which brought the threat of Japanese invasion of Australia even closer.

In late 1941, the Japanese began their conquest of the Pacific region, hoping to take control from the Indian/Burmese border, south through Malaya, across the islands of Indonesia to New Guinea, northwest to the Gilbert Islands and north to the Kuril Islands off the Japanese coast. This would leave Australia wide open for invasion, although that was not the intention of Japan at the time. Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, which had been defended by British Empire Forces, fell in a 70 day campaign that began in December 1941.

On 23 January 1942, Japanese forces landed in Rabaul, quickly taking control. This began the serious Japanese offensive in the South Pacific. The first of over 100 Japanese bombings of the Australian mainland began in February, and on 8 March, the Japanese invaded the New Guinean mainland, capturing Lae and Salamaua.

Port Moresby was the next major target, and in May 1942, the Japanese launched an invasion fleet to Port Moresby from Rabaul. Thus began the Battle of the Coral Sea, the largest naval battle ever fought close to Australia's shores. Australian Prime Minister John Curtin had sought help from the United States to defend the Pacific. Although a bitter campaign and one in which many troops were lost from both sides, the Battle of the Coral Sea was a successful one. Repelled by the American forces, the Japanese then sought to invade Port Moresby from the northern coast, over the rugged Owen Stanley Range via the Kokoda Trail, which linked to the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. With much assistance from the Papua New Guinean natives, dubbed "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels", the Australian and the US troops turned back the Japanese forces, which then retreated to bases at Buna, Gona and Sanananda. Here, the Japanese were eventually defeated in a hard-fought campaign which lasted through December 1942 to 23 January 1943 - one year after the Japanese first landed at Rabaul.

Cheers - John

Gday...

41  -     Gaius Caesar (Caligula), third Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, is assassinated.

Gaius Julius Caesar Germanicus was born in Antium on 31 August AD 12. As the third Roman Emperor of the Julio-Claudian dynasty, he ruled from AD 37 to 41. Gaius Caesar gained his nickname of Caligula when, as a young child, he became the mascot of his father's army. His father, Agrippina, would put a miniature soldier costume on young Gaius, and he was soon given his nickname of "Caligula", meaning "Little Boots" in Latin, after the small boots he wore as part of his costume.

Caligula gained favour with the Emperor Tiberius so he was a natural successor upon the latter's death in AD 37. Tiberius had made his grandson, Tiberius Gemellus, joint heir, but the Roman Senate annulled Tiberius' will and proclaimed Caligula emperor. Gemellus was very young and therefore no obstacle to Caligula's ambitions, and Caligula had him killed soon after becoming Emperor.

Caligula was a shrewd and popular leader early in his reign, but sickness (possibly encephalitis) changed the direction of his reign to one of insanity and delusional actions. On 24 January AD 41 he was assassinated by several members of his own Praetorian Guard.

1788  -             French ships enter Port Jackson just two days before Captain Arthur Phillip takes formal possession of New South Wales.

Over 150 years before English explorer Lieutenant James Cook ever sighted eastern Australia, the Dutch landed on the Western coast. Australia held no great interest for the Dutch, and no formal claims were made. The French, however, showed considerable interest in what the Dutch had named "New Holland", and organised several expeditions to the continent. In 1756, Louis-Antoine de Bougainville sighted the Great Barrier Reef. In 1772, two French expeditions set out to investigate whether the land James Cook charted in 1770 was "Terra Australis", or the great southern continent. The first was headed by Captain Dufresne, who claimed Van Diemen's Land (now Tasmania) for France, but after Dufresne was killed by Maori in New Zealand, his claim went no further. The second expedition was under the command of Louis-François-Marie Aleno de Saint-Aloüarn, who landed on the northern coast of Dirk Hartog Island. Saint-Aloüarn took formal possession of the western coast, raising the French flag and documenting the occasion. He marked the claim by naming the bay 'Baie de Prise de Possession' (the Bay of Taking of Possession).

Although unaware of this formal claim, the British remained wary of the French presence in Australian waters. When the First Fleet arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip realised a more suitable site for settlement was needed, and thus set sail with a small exploration party on the 21st. On the 23rd of January, two French ships were noticed at the entrance to Botany Bay. They were the LAstrolabe and La Boussole, under the command of Jean-Francois La Perouse. Phillip made plans for the entire fleet to move north to Port Jackson, but bad weather delayed the fleet's departure until the morning of the 26th.

As the fleet departed Botany Bay, they made contact with the French ships which had entered Port Jackson on the morning of 24 January 1788, and were now leaving. The French had expected to find an established colony where they could restock their supplies. Phillip and La Perouse did not meet: there is strong evidence to suggest Phillip had been a spy and, due to the intense rivalry between the British and the French, preferred that his presence as commander remain undetected.

1903  -             The Golden Pipeline, a massive engineering undertaking bringing vital water to the Western Australian goldfields, is opened.

The goldfields of Western Australia, discovered in 1893, are located in one of the worlds most isolated and inhospitable areas. Even the Premier of Western Australia at the time of the Kalgoorlie-Coolgardie discoveries, Sir John Forrest, noted that Gold in this colony is found only in the most out-of-the-way places, the most desolate places, far away from water, and where it is difficult to obtain supplies. As a former explorer himself, Forrest understood the difficulties faced by communities in outback Western Australia. Indeed, the lack of water in the goldfields around Kalgoorlie limited development of the mining industry, until a young engineer named CY OConnor proposed an audacious plan to bring water to the region.

Charles Yelverton O'Connor was born on 11 January 1843 in Ireland. He arrived in Perth, Western Australia in 1891 after having been offered the position of Engineer-in-Chief by Sir John Forrest. His first task was to build a safe harbour for Perth, Fremantle Harbour, which remains Western Australia's largest and busiest port. OConnor was also employed as acting general manager of railways in Western Australia. In this capacity, he greatly improved the operation of the government railways.

OConnors next major project was to build a pipeline that would deliver water to the goldfields, approximately 600 km east of Perth. Thousands of miners had inundated the goldfields, and the water that was available was not only expensive, but often harboured diseases such as typhus. OConnor was called upon by Forrest to come up with a workable solution. With his usual attention to detail, OConnor researched the problem, consulted with renowned engineers in London, then presented a comprehensive, carefully costed proposal. His plan included constructing a dam near Mundaring Weir on the Helena River east of Perth, then pumping the water 560 km to Kalgoorlie via a series of 8 pumping stations. The pipeline, a massive engineering feat in itself, would need to also cater for an elevation increase of 300 metres before reaching the goldfields. It would deliver 5 million gallons, or 22 730 cubic metres, of water per day to the goldfields. OConnor intended to utilise a new steel, rivetless pipe with two joints along its length held together by a locking-bar, that had been developed by Australian engineer Mephan Ferguson. This type of pipe was necessary to prevent leakage of valuable water, and its use was endorsed by renowned English engineer and consulting engineer to the Western Australian government, John Carruthers. During the five-year construction of the pipeline, further improvements to the materials were made, all of which contributed to the strength and longevity of the pipeline, which is still in use today.

Seven years passed between the inception of O'Connor's ideas and the completion of the pipeline's construction. The Golden Pipeline was opened on 24 January 1903. When John Forrest opened the pipeline at Coolgardie, he said of O'Connor, 'the great builder of this work to bring happiness and comfort to the people of the goldfields for all time'. However, O'Connor was not present at this ceremony. When Forrest left the state parliament to enter federal politics, OConnor was left without support against his detractors. Subjected to public criticism over the cost of the pipeline, OConnor committed suicide on the beach near Robbs Jetty in March 1902. This brilliant man never saw his vision come to fruition. He could not have dreamt that his pipeline would still be a vital link for the goldfields over a century later or that it would be recognised internationally by the American Society of Civil Engineers as a significant industrial heritage landmark, on a par with the Panama Canal.

1965  -             Winston Churchill, the Prime Minister who refused to be demoralised by Germany's Blitz campaign in WWII, dies.

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. He served with the British Army in India and Sudan, and became nationally known through his writings when, as a journalist, he was captured in South Africa during the Boer War. Churchill became a member of Parliament in 1900, remaining an MP for over 64 years.

Churchill served as Prime Minister of Britain from 1940-45, during WWII. His powerful oratory and refusal to make peace with Hitler were instrumental in rallying and maintaining British resistance to Germany. This was particularly so during the first two years of the war and the onslaught of the Blitz by the German Luftwaffe, which was aimed at crushing Bitish morale. Initially, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany, but Churchill promised his country and the world that the British people would "never surrender". His government was defeated shortly after the war ended, but he was re-elected in 1951. In 1953 Churchill was knighted, and awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature for his four-volume work, "A History of the English-speaking Peoples". He retired as Prime Minister in 1955 but remained in Parliament until 1964. A year later, on 24 January 1965, Churchill died and was laid to rest in the Oxfordshire parish churchyard of Bladon.

1972  -             A Japanese soldier, unaware that World War II ended almost thirty years earlier, is discovered hiding on Guam.

During World War II, in late 1941 the Japanese began their conquest of the Pacific region, hoping to take control from the Indian/Burmese border, south through Malaya, across the islands of Indonesia to New Guinea, northwest to the Gilbert Islands and north to the Kuril Islands off the Japanese coast.

Guam was a US possession and military base bombed by the Japanese the day after Pearl Harbour was attacked. Within weeks, Guam was taken by the Japanese in their sweep across the western Pacific as it would provide a supply base. It remained under Japanese control until American forces retook the island in August 1944. During the battle for Guam in which around 55,000 American troops took place, over 7,000 Americans and approximately 17,000 Japanese were killed.

On 24 January 1972, a Japanese soldier was discovered hiding on Guam, unaware that the war was over. Sergeant Shoichi Yokoi was found near the Talofofo River by either hunters or local farmers. When the Japanese retreated, Shoichi Yokoi hid, rather than surrender to the enemy forces. For 28 years, he had survived by eating coconuts, breadfruit, papayas, snails, eels and rats, and living in an underground cave within a grove of bamboo. He used his skills as a tailor to create clothing from the fibres of wild hibiscus plants.

Following his discovery in the jungles of Guam, Shoichi Yokoi was discharged and returned to Japan, where he was welcomed as a hero. He later married and, ironically, had his honeymoon on Guam.

1984  -             The Apple Macintosh computer is released.

The Macintosh, or Mac for short, is a line of personal computers designed, developed, manufactured and marketed by Apple Computer, running the Macintosh operating system, or Mac OS. Released on 24 January 1984; it was the first popular personal computer to use the now-standard graphical user interface (GUI), with windows on a desktop and mouse control instead of the command line interface, standard for the time. The original Macintosh operating system was in use from the time of the release of the original Mac, and underwent many major revisions until the introduction in 1999 of the new BSD Unix-based Mac OS X, featuring improved stability, multitasking and multi-user capability.

Cheers - John

Gday...

33  -     Today commemorates the conversion of St Paul from persecutor of Christians to apostle of Christ.

Saul of Tarsus, who became St Paul, was an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, a tent-maker and a Pharisee. The Pharisees were an ancient Jewish religious group who interpreted and practised strict adherence to the law of Moses. Saul, proud of his heritage as an Israelite of the tribe of Benjamin, is mentioned in the Biblical book of Acts as being present and approving of the stoning of Christianity's first martyr, Stephen. Further Bible references indicate that Saul was responsible for the persecution of many more Christians, and for trying to stamp out the fledgling Christian group.

January 25 is popularly commemorated as the feast of St Paul's conversion. Saul was travelling along the road to Damascus when he was blinded by a brilliant light, accompanied by the voice of Jesus. In Saul's vision, Christ rebuked him for his persecution and instructed him to continue on to Damascus, where he was tended by a Christian named Ananias. Upon the completion of Paul's conversion, his sight was returned to him, and he became Paul, one of Christendom's most avid missionaries, enduring hardship, torture and imprisonment for the sake of his Lord.

1759  -             Scottish poet Robert Burns is born.

Robert Burns, often called the Bard of Ayrshire, was born on 25 January 1759 near Ayr, in Alloway, Scotland. His father was a tenant farmer who undertook much of his seven childrens education, as the Burns children were required to help on the farm. Robert received instruction from his father in subjects such as English, History, Geography and Arithmetic, and he was encouraged to read works by Shakespeare and Milton. When he was older, he was instructed in Latin, French, and Mathematics through parish churches.

Burns showed an interest in poetry from his teenage years, and his love songs were inspired by his many dalliances with local lasses. His father never succeeded as a tenant farmer, so young Roberts life was marked by poverty, but this did not stop him from fathering numerous children to different women before finally marrying Jean Amour in 1788. His first major collection of verse published in 1786, Poems Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, resounded with both countryfolk and the upper classes in Scotland, and Burns became an instant success. Within three years of his marriage, he left farming and accepted a position as an excise officer, whilst continuing to write both poems and songs. It was during this time that he wrote Tam OShanter, in essence an autobiography of his life as an unsuccessful farmer: it is now considered a masterful example of narrative poetry.

Burnss prolific writing, which included the iconic Auld Lang Syne, A Red, Red Rose and The Battle of Sherramuir, came to an abrupt end on 21 July 1796. Never of a strong constitution, and weakened by his many years of hard labour on his fathers farm, Burns was just 37 when he died.

1885  -             One of Australia's earliest rail disasters occurs at Cootamundra in New South Wales.

Cootamundra is a small town in the Riverina region of New South Wales, Australia, 390 kilometres from Sydney and 161 km from Canberra. It lies along the main Sydney to Melbourne railway line, and was the scene of one of Australia's earliest rail disasters on 25 January 1885.

Telegraph wires had come down, preventing sufficient warning to be given that the culvert over Salt Clay Creek, 5km from the town, had been washed away. Twenty-five centimetres of rain had turned the dry creekbeds into rushing torrents, and part of the embankment of Salt Clay Creek had collapsed, taking with it the railway line. The Sydney-bound train was unable to avoid plunging into the creek bed. Many of the train's passengers were people on their way to the horse races at Randwick in Sydney. Eight people were killed and another 49 injured in the accident. A coroner's inquiry found that the Railways Department was at fault for constructing a culvert too small to carry water flows of the volume experienced before the tragedy.

1924  -             The first Winter Olympics open.

The Olympic Games were established with the ancient Olympics, held in Olympia, Greece from the 8th century BC to the 5th century AD. Interest in the Games declined with the rise in Roman influence in Greece, and for centuries, the tradition languished. During the 1700s and 1800s there were sporadic attempts to resurrect the Games, but it was not until 1896 that the Games of the Olympiad were revived. From early in the twentieth century, the showcase for winter sports was the Nordic Games, which began in Sweden in 1901. Due to the popularity of the Olympic Games in the twentieth century, several offshoots were spawned, among them the Paralympics, Youth Olympics and Winter Olympics.

The opening ceremony for the first Winter Olympics was held on 25 January 1924. The ceremony was held at Chamonix, France, at the foot of Mount Blanc. The original events included alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, figure skating, ice hockey, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and speed skating. Since then, the Winter Olympics have expanded to include events such as luge, short track speed skating, and freestyle skiing. Countries in North America, Europea and Asia have hosted the Winter Olympics but, to date, the Games have not been held in the southern hemisphere.       

1974  -             The devastating 1974 Brisbane floods begin.

Brisbane is the capital city of the state of Queensland, Australia. The city grew up around the Brisbane River, which is fed by catchment areas in the Brisbane Valley to the west of the city. Following a particularly wet summer season for 1973-'74, the rivers in the catchment area were filled to capacity.

Cyclone Wanda made landfall on 24 January, drawing the Monsoonal Trough south, providing the extra rainfall to the Brisbane valley to produce widespread and severe flooding. The flooding commenced on 25 January 1974 as the cyclone dumped over 300mm of rain within 24 hours. Over a three-day period, 580mm of rain fell over Brisbane. There were heavier falls in river catchments and other areas, with nearby Mt Glorious recording 1,300mm in five days. The situation was made worse by the fact that a huge container ship broke loose from the shipyards, wedging across the Brisbane River just before the mouth. This prevented the escape of the water to the sea, exacerbating the floods in the CBD. By the time the floods abated four days later, 16 people had died, 300 had been injured, and 9,000 people left homeless. Total cost of the damage, in 1974 values, was $200 million.

With the Brisbane River rising to a level of 5.45 metres, the flood was the largest in Australia in the twentieth century. As a result of the floods, measures were taken to expand Somerset Dam, which released water into the Brisbane River, and to construct another larger dam, the Wivenhoe, completed in 1985. Until the devastating floods in 2011, the dam was considered to give complete protection against any more such flooding in Brisbane.

2004  -             NASA's Exploration Rover 'Opportunity' lands on Mars.

NASA's Mars Exploration Rover Mission began in 2003. The mission involves two automated rovers, or robotic exploration vehicles, the 'Spirit' and the 'Opportunity', which have explored the surface and geology of Mars, and sent data back to Earth. The main purpose of the mission has been to analyse the geology of Mars to determine the nature of any water activity in the past on the planet. In addition, the rovers have obtained astronomical observations and collected atmospheric data. The Mars Exploration Rover Mission was preceded by the Mars Pathfinder mission, which landed the rover 'Sojourner' on Mars in July 1997, and the two Viking landers in 1976.

MER-B (Mars Exploration Rover-B) 'Opportunity' was launched on 7 July 2003 and landed on Mars on 25 January 2004. Although largely successful, the rover programme has experienced some setbacks. Martian dust storms have prevented sunlight from reaching the solar panels which power the rovers, rendering them temporarily disabled. In 2009, the 'Spirit' had to be redeployed as a stationary science platform after becoming stuck in the soft soil of Mars, but it ceased communications in 2010. For two months in 2005, the 'Opportunity' was stuck in soft sand, but analysis of its movements and simulation of the conditions by Mission scientists resulted in its successful release from the sand dune dubbed "Purgatory Dune".

As of November 2011, the 'Opportunity' was still functioning, and had driven more than 34 kilometres during its mission.           

Cheers - John

Gday...

1788  -             Today is Australia Day, commemorating the arrival of the First Fleet at Port Jackson, New South Wales.

Captain Arthur Phillip was appointed Governor-designate of the proposed British penal colony of New South Wales in 1786. The First Fleet of convicts left Portsmouth, England on 13 May 1787, and arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Phillip immediately determined that there was insufficient fresh water, an absence of usable timber, poor quality soil and no safe harbour at Botany Bay. Thus the fleet was moved to Port Jackson, arriving on 26 January 1788.

At Port Jackson, the British flag was raised as Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales, Phillip took formal possession on behalf of the British Crown. The territory extended ... from the Northern Cape or extremity of the coast called Cape York, in the latitude of ten degrees thirty-seven minutes south, to the southern extremity of the said territory of New South Wales or South Cape, in the latitude of forty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes south and of all the country inland westward as far as the one hundred and thirty-fifth degree of east longitude reckoning from the meridian of Greenwich, including all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean within the latitudes aforesaid of ten degrees thirty-seven minutes south and forty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes south.

Governor Phillip was a practical man who suggested that convicts with experience in farming, building and crafts be included in the First Fleet, but his proposal had been rejected. He faced many obstacles in his attempts to establish the new colony. British farming methods, seeds and implements were unsuitable for use in the different climate and soil, and the colony faced near-starvation in its first two years. Phillip also worked to improve understanding with the local Aborigines. The colony finally succeeded in developing a solid foundation, agriculturally and economically, thanks to the perseverance of Captain Arthur Phillip.

Australia Day, celebrated annually on January 26, commemorates the landing of the First Fleet at Port Jackson, and the raising of the Union Jack to claim the land as belonging to England. The first celebrations of the landing of the First Fleet were held in 1791. The first official celebrations were held in 1818, marking the thirtieth anniversary of white settlement.

1802  -             Flinders crosses the 129th degree of longitude, which is later to become the border between Western Australia and South Australia.

Matthew Flinders was born on 16 March 1774 in Lincolnshire, England. He arrived in Australia in the 1790s and commenced exploring and charting the coast of the continent. Between December 1801 and June 1803, Flinders charted the entire coastline of Australia. On 26 January 1801, whilst circumnavigating Australia for the first time, Flinders crossed the 129th degree of longitude, which today marks the border of Western Australia and South Australia. At this point, Flinders was astonished to sight the vast limestone cliffs which now mark the southern coastal extremity of the Nullarbor Plain.

1808  -             Governor William Bligh is overthrown in the "Rum Rebellion".

William Bligh was born in Plymouth, south-west England, on 9 September 1754. He is arguably best known for his role in the mutiny on the Bounty, which occurred after Bligh left Tahiti on his way to the Caribbean. For reasons undetermined by historical records, Master's Mate Fletcher Christian led the mutiny, with the support of a small number of the ship's crew. Bligh and his own supporters were provided with a 7m launch, a sextant and enough provisions to enable them to reach the closest ports, but no means of navigation. Bligh and his supporters then completed an arduous 41 day journey to Timor.

Bligh was honourably acquitted in a London court, and later assigned as Governor to the fledgling colony of New South Wales in 1805. He proved himself to be a strong character, receiving criticism for his seemingly despotic ways, and apparent disregard for English law as opposed to his own law. His chief critic was grazier and wool grower John Macarthur, who convinced men from the New South Wales Corps to rebel against Bligh. On 26 January 1808, twenty years after the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove, Governor Bligh was overthrown and replaced with a military Junta. This event later became known as the Rum Rebellion, though it had nothing to do with rum. The name came about because Bligh asserted that Macarthur's main attack against the Governor came about because of his prohibition on Spirits.

The Rum Rebellion caused Bligh to be imprisoned from 1808 to 1810. Evidence suggested the catalyst to the event was more a clash of strong personalities than any real disregard for English laws. Bligh was known for his violent temper and tendency to alienate others, but his motives were honourable. Bligh was exonerated in 1811, after which he returned to England.

1905  -             The world's largest gem diamond is found.

The world's largest gem diamond ever found is the 3,106 carat Cullinan Diamond. The diamond was discovered during a routine inspection of the Premier mine in Pretoria, South Africa, by superintendent Frederick Wells on 26 January 1905. The diamond was named Cullinan, after the owner of the mine, Sir Thomas Cullinan. The diamond was commissioned to be cut by the Asscher Diamond Company of Amsterdam. Company head Joseph Asscher reputedly studied the enormous diamond for over six months before determining how to best divide it. The Cullinan was ultimately cut into 9 major gems, 96 smaller brilliants, and 9.5 carats of unpolished pieces. The largest of the cut stones is the "Cullinan I", also known as the "Star of Africa I," which, at 530 carats, is the world's largest-cut fine-quality colourless diamond.

1950  -             India gains independence from British rule, becoming a republic.

India is a country of southern Asia, covering most of the Indian subcontinent, and the second most populous country in the world. India became part of the British Empire in the mid 1700s and by 1818, the British controlled nearly all of India south of the Sutlej River and had subordinated their most powerful Indian enemies, the state of Mysore and the Marathas. Only Sind and Punjab (the Sikh territory) remained completely independent.

Mohandas Gandhi was instrumental in drawing attention to the desire of the Indian peoples to gain independence from British rule. Whilst Gandhi himself was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in 1948, his struggle for independence was continued by Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, finally culminating in the adoption of the new Indian constitution in 1949. India is now governed under the 1949 constitution, which became effective when the Republic of India was born on 26 January 1950.

2013  -             A series of tornadoes rips through southeast Queensland, causing major damage.

Australia is not generally known for destructive tornadoes. However, tornadoes do occur in Australia, given the right conditions. Since 1918, 55 people have died as a result of tornado activity in the country.

Cyclone Oswald was a category 1 cyclone which formed off the Queensland coast in January 2013, and crossed the coast on the eastern side of Cape York. Over the ensuing days, its remnants continued to travel south, bringing high winds and heavy rain to coastal Queensland. By Australia Day, 26 January 2013, the ex-tropical cyclone had reached the southeast corner of Queensland. On that day, a series of tornadoes wreaked havoc in the area. The entire region from south of Gladstone to northeast of Bundaberg was declared a disaster area after tornadoes ripped through the seaside towns of Bargara and Burnett Heads after midday, with Burnett Heads being hit by another two twisters later that evening. Coonar was also hit. Roofs were blown off and trees were uprooted, while thousands were left without electricity. One person was killed as a direct result of the tornadoes and dozens more injured, two of them critically.

The system continued to move further south over the next few days, causing widespread flooding and destruction from high winds throughout southeast Queensland. Several more deaths were attributed to the effects of the cyclone's remnants.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1606  -             Guy Fawkes is convicted of attempting to blow up the English Parliament.

Guy Fawkes (later also known as Guido Fawkes) was born on 13 April 1570, in Stonegate, York, England. He embraced Catholicism while still in his teens, and later served for many years as a soldier gaining considerable expertise with explosives; both of these events were crucial to his involvement in the Gunpowder Plot of 1605.

From 1563, legislation evolved which demanded citizens recognise the King as Supreme Governor of the Church. Refusal to submit was punishable by death. The Gunpowder Plot was an attempt by a group of Catholic extremists to assassinate King James I of England, his family, and most of the Protestant aristocracy in one hit by blowing up the Houses of Parliament during the State Opening. A group of conspirators rented a cellar beneath the House of Lords and filled it with 2.5 tonnes of gunpowder. However, one of the conspirators, who feared for the life of fellow Catholics who would have been present at parliament during the opening, wrote a letter to Lord Monteagle. Monteagle, in turn, warned the authorities. Fawkes, who was supposed to have lit the fuse to explode the gunpowder, was arrested during a raid on the cellar early on the morning of 5 November 1605. Fawkes was tortured into revealing the names of his co-conspirators. Those who were not killed immediately were placed on trial, during which they were sentenced to be hanged, then taken from the gallows while they were still alive, drawn and quartered. The trial occurred on 27 January 1606.

Four days later, on January 31, climbing up to the hanging platform, Fawkes deliberately leapt off the ladder, breaking his neck and dying instantly. His body was still drawn and quartered. November 5 came to be known as Guy Fawkes Day. At dusk, citizens across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, celebrating his failure to blow up Parliament and James I.

1756  -             Austrian Classical composer, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, is born.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born on 27 January 1756 in Salzburg, Austria. At the age of three, it was apparent that Mozart was a musical prodigy and he was taught to play the harpsichord, violin, and organ by his father. Because of his unusual ability, however, he was also somewhat exploited as a "Wunderkind" in the courts of Europe. He composed his first symphony at the age of eight.

As well as being influenced by the work of composer Johann Christian Bach, who befriended Mozart as a child in London in 1764-5. Mozart became friends later with Josef Haydn, and each had some influence upon the other's musical style. Mozart is widely regarded as one of history's greatest composers, and his repertoire of over 600 compositions includes 41 symphonies, 27 piano concertos, 16 operas, 19 piano sonatas, and other orchestral and chamber works. Among his more famous works are the short orchestral work, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (A Little Night Music), and the operas Don Giovanni, The Marriage of Figaro and Die Zauberflote (The Magic Flute).

Mozart died in the early hours of 5 December 1791 while he was working on his final composition, the Requiem, which remained unfinished when he died. However, though his life was short, his influence endured through the work of later composers such as Rossini and Beethoven, and his music is often part of the standard concert repertoire today.

1919  -             The 1918-1919 influenza pandemic reaches New South Wales.

The 1918-1919 Spanish Influenza pandemic, also known as Spanish Flu or La Grippe, is regarded as one of the worlds worst natural disasters. The exact death toll is unknown, but it is estimated to have been between 40 million and 100 million people worldwide a greater toll than that resulting from World War 1.

According to New South Wales Government state records, the pandemic reached the state on 27 January 1919, entering via Victoria. Three waves of the Spanish flu hit NSW over an eight month period. Within one year, over 6000 people had died in NSW alone; more than 4000 of these were in Sydney. Across Australia, over 12,000 people died. Although Australias death rate was lower than that of many other countries, the pandemic was a major demographic, economic and social disaster, given Australias relatively small population.

1926  -             Scottish Inventor John Logie Baird gives the first demonstration of television.

John Logie Baird was born on 13 August 1888 in Helensburgh, Scotland. He was educated at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, which later became the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Glasgow, but the eruption of WWI prevented him from completing his degree. Baird experimented with the transmission of both static and moving pictures using ventriloquists' dummies. The first moving image was transmitted on 30 October 1925. Baird's first public demonstration of successful transmission, on 27 January 1926, showed two dummies' heads moving.

Baird called his pictorial-transmission machine a "televisor," and it used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses. A number of inventors including Paul Gottlieb Nipkow and Boris Rosing contributed towards the development of television, but Baird was the first to transmit clearly discernible images.

1967  -             Three astronauts are killed when a fire destroys the Apollo 1 spacecraft during a training exercise.

The Apollo 1 Command Module was built for space flight but never intended for a trip to the moon, as it lacked the necessary docking equipment. The three astronauts selected for the initial Apollo program mission were Command Pilot Virgil I Grissom, Senior Pilot Ed White, and Pilot Roger B Chaffee. On 27 January 1967, the crew were going through a checklist when fire broke out in the command module. The fire is believed to have been caused by a spark in the wiring of the capsule.

The design of the hatch prohibited the crew from opening it quickly: indeed, the inner section of the hatch was designed to open inwards in order to use the cabin's air pressure to help tighten the hatch seal during spaceflight. The hot gases of the fire held the hatch shut, and within a few seconds the air pressure had risen enough to prevent the crew from escaping. Ultimately, the air pressure rose so high as to rupture the capsule. The three men died of smoke inhalation prior to the burns they received, but the fire was intense enough to melt and fuse two of the crew's spacesuits together.

The site of the fire bears two plaques in memory of the astronauts, and three stars were named in their honour: Navi, Dnoces and Regor, which are the names of "Ivan," "Second" and "Roger" spelled backwards. Ivan was Grissom's middle name and White was Edward H White the Second. The crew used the stars to calibrate their equipment and, as a practical joke, recorded the names in official NASA documentation. The names remained in posthumous honour of the men.

1967  -             The Outer Space Treaty is opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union.

The Outer Space Treaty is more formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. The Treaty was opened for signature in the USA, United Kingdom and the Soviet Union on 27 January 1967, and came into force on 10 October 1967. As of January 2008, 99 countries were states-parties to the treaty, while another 26 had signed the treaty but had not completed formal ratification.

The Outer Space Treaty forms the basis of international space law. Included among its principles are:

- That no state or party to the Treaty may claim territory for occupation or exploitation in space or on any celestial body.

- That no state or party to the Treaty may place nuclear weapons or any other weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth, on the Moon or any other celestial body, or elsewhere in outer space.

- That outer space remain free for all parties to explore, and that such exploration and use of outer space should only be done for the benefit of all countries and in the interests of all mankind.

- That all states and parties to the Treaty will be liable for damage caused by their space objects, and that they will avoid harmful contamination of space and the celestial bodies.

Essentially, the Outer Space Treaty is designed to protect outer space as a resource, and to protect the people of earth from the consequences of mismanagement of outer space.

Cheers - John

Gday...

I will be away from the pooter and internet tomorrow ... so you get tomorrow's Today In History early

1802  -             Flinders discovers and names Fowlers Bay in South Australia.

Matthew Flinders was born on 16 March 1774 in Lincolnshire, England. He became a sea explorer, and arrived in Australia in the 1790s. Australia was previously known as New Holland, and Flinders first proposed the name "Terra Australis", which became "Australia", the name adopted in 1824. Flinders, together with George Bass, did much sea exploration around Australia, adding to the knowledge of the coastline, and producing accurate maps. Between December 1801 and June 1803, Flinders charted the entire coastline of Australia. On 28 January 1802, Flinders anchored in Fowler's Bay on the southern coast, and described it as "a well sheltered cove affording wood and water". He named it after his first lieutenant, Robert Fowler. Fowlers Bay later became a major whaling centre, and the supply depot for Edward Eyre's expedition across the Nullarbor Plain in 1839.

1807  -             The first public street lighting with gas takes place in Pall Mall, London.

William Murdock was a Scottish engineer, and the inventor of gas lighting. Born in East Ayrshire in 1754, he became the first person to use coal to produce gas for lighting. For many years he worked with steam engine manufacturer James Watt, and evidence suggests that Watt and Murdock collaborated on many mechanical inventions. Murdock was also interested in chemistry, and made many discoveries in that field.

Murdock's best known invention, however, is the application of gas lighting as a replacement for oil and tallow produced light. He first began experimenting with the use of gas derived from the combustion of coal and other materials for lighting, in 1792. He implemented gas lighting within his own cottage between 1792 and 1794, and over the ensuing years, perfected the method, including practicalities such as the collection, storage and transportation of gas. By 1798, he had developed gas lighting to a point where he was using manufactured gas to light his whole factory. In 1804, he built a gas works to light a large cotton mill in Manchester, England. The first public street lighting with gas took place in Pall Mall, London, on 28 January 1807. The world's first gas company was established some five years later.

1986  -             The Space Shuttle 'Challenger' explodes, killing seven.

Space Shuttle Challenger was NASA's second Space Shuttle orbiter to be put into service, after Columbia. Its first voyage was on 4 April 1983, and it made eight further round trips to low earth orbit before its final ill-fated flight in January 1986. On board were mission commander Francis R Scobee, pilot Michael J Smith, mission specialists Ronald E McNair, Ellison S Onizuka, and Judith A Resnik, payload specialist Gregory B Jarvis and schoolteacher Christa McAuliffe. 37-year-old McAuliffe was to be the first civilian to fly into space as part of a new program called TISP, the Teacher In Space Program.

After lifting off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, at 11:38am on 28 January 1986, the Challenger exploded, just 73 seconds into its launch. All crew members were killed instantly. Investigations later revealed that the spacecraft broke up during the launch due to an unusually cold morning and the failure of rubber seals in the booster engines called "O rings" that failed to seal properly. Space shuttle missions resumed in September, 1988.        

2004  -             A decomposing sperm whale explodes on the streets of Taiwan.

In mid-January of 2004, a sperm whale beached itself on the southwestern coast of Taiwan. Over a period of thirteen hours, it took three large cranes, and 50 workers to shift the beached sperm whale onto the back of a truck. The intention was to then take the whale to the National Cheng Kung University for a necropsy. However, whilst travelling through Tainan City, a buildup of gas inside the body caused it to explode, showering blood and whale entrails over surrounding shop-fronts, bystanders and cars. One local resident was reported as saying, "What a stinking mess! This blood and other stuff that blew out on the road is disgusting, and the smell is really awful."

2007  -             Harry Melbourne, creator of the Freddo Frog, dies at age 94.

The Freddo Frog is one of Australia's most popular children's chocolates and is considered an Australian icon. The chocolate is also sold in New Zealand, Ireland and the United Kingdom. Although it began as frog-shaped plain chocolate, it now comes in a variety of flavours, and with a variety of fillings such as caramel, peppermint and strawberry.

Harry Melbourne was an employee of confectionery maker MacRobertson Chocolates in 1930 when owner Macpherson Robertson disclosed that he was considering making a chocolate mouse. Melbourne suggested he reconsider, as he believed women and children were afraid of mice, and the chocolate would be unpopular. Macpherson Robertson accepted his suggestion, and the 'Freddo Frog' was born.

Harry Melbourne died on 28 January 2007, aged 94. At his funeral, his coffin was covered with a Freddo Frog flag.           

Cheers - John

Gday...

1840  -             William Hobson arrives in the Bay of Islands to take up his position as the first Governor of New Zealand.

New Zealand is an island country located approximately 2000 km southeast of Australia in the South Pacific. The first people on the islands were Polynesians, arriving from about 1200 onwards. These were the people who developed the Mori culture. The first known Europeans to sight the islands of New Zealand were Dutch trader and explorer Abel Tasman, in 1642, followed by James Cook, over 120 years later. Cook charted and circumnavigated the North and South Islands in 1769 and, in November of that year, claimed New Zealand for Great Britain. This signalled the start of European occupation of the islands.

The first British Governor in New Zealand was William Hobson. Born in 1793 in Waterford, Ireland, Hobsons career in the Royal Navy began before he was ten years old, when he joined the frigate La Virginie with the rank of volunteer, second class. After serving in the Napoleonic Wars and working his way up through the naval ranks, he was promoted to Commander in May 1824. In this capacity, he helped to suppress piracy in the Caribbean. In 1836, although on a commission to the East Indies, he was instead ordered to New South Wales to serve under Governor Richard Bourke. Soon after arriving in Australia, he was dispatched to New Zealand when James Busby, the British Resident in the Bay of Islands, communicated his fears to Governor Bourke about unrest between the Mori and the Pakeha, or European settlers. At that time, although New Zealand was not officially a British colony, its European settlers were overseen from New South Wales. This was Hobsons first visit to New Zealand, and he recommended a treaty with the Mori, imposition of British Law and establishing British sovereignty over the islands.

In 1839, the British government appointed William Hobson as consul and Lieutenant-Governor of New Zealand, succeeding Busby. Hobson arrived in the Bay of Islands on 29 January 1840. Within days, working with his secretary James Freeman and James Busby, he had drafted the Treaty of Waitangi which eventually led to the establishment of New Zealand as a Colony of the Crown.

1850  -             Lawrence Hargrave, Australian inventor of the box kite, is born.

Lawrence Hargrave was born on 29 January 1850 at Greenwich, England, but emigrated to Australia in 1865. He took on an engineering apprenticeship in Sydney, and was always interested in a variety of experiments, particularly those to do with flying machines. Hargrave invented the box kite in 1893, and used it to further his aerodynamic studies.

On 12 November 1894, Hargrave linked four of his kites together, added a sling seat, and flew about five metres in the air on a beach near Wollongong, New South Wales. In doing so, he demonstrated that it was possible for man to build, and be transported in, a safe and stable flying machine. His radical design for a wing that could support far more than its own weight opened up opportunities for other inventors to develop the design for commercial purposes. Hargrave never patented his designs, so did not receive the recognition he deserved.

1886  -             Karl Benz patents the internal combustion engine.

Karl Friedrich Benz was born on 25 November 1844, in Baden Muehlburg, Germany, now part of Karlsruhe. The son of an engine driver, Benz went to school at the Karlsruhe grammar school and Karlsruhe Polytechnic. Benz started Benz & Company in 1883 in Mannheim to produce industrial engines. It was there that he invented and patented the two-stroke engine. He was later influenced by Gottlieb Daimler, who inspired Benz to develop a four-stroke engine suitable for powering a four-wheeled horseless carriage. He demonstrated the first gasoline car powered by an internal-combustion engine in Mannheim, Germany, on 3 July 1886 after patenting it on 29 January 1886. The vehicle had three wheels, an electric ignition, differential gears and was water-cooled. It reached a top speed of 10 kilometres per hour.

By 1900, Benz & Company, the company started by Benz, was the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles. In 1926, the Benz and Daimler firms merged to form Daimler-Benz, which produces the Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Benz died in 1929.

1895  -             It is agreed at a conference of Australian Premiers that forming a Federal Constitution is a priority.

Prior to 1901, Australia was made up of six self-governing colonies; New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. Despite acieving statehood, each of these colonies remained under British rule from the time the First Fleet landed in 1788, until 1901. Numerous politicians and influential Australians through the years had pushed for federation of the colonies, and self-government that would ensue.

Starting with the Australasian Inter-Colonial Conference in 1883, the Federation movement gained impetus, continuing to grow with successive Federal Councils in 1886, 1888 and 1889. Sir Henry Parkes's Tenterfield oration in October 1889 spurred further action, and in February 1890, the Australasian Federation Conference was held in Melbourne, attended by representatives of each of Australia's six colonies, and New Zealand.

On 29 January 1895, the Conference of Premiers met in Hobart, Tasmania, on the initiative of George Reid, Premier of New South Wales. At this conference, it was agreed that Federation "was the great and pressing question of Australian politics," and that "the framing of a Federal Constitution" was an urgent duty. This conference set the scene for further conferences to draft the new Federal Constitution prior to Federation.

1957  -             Danish architect Joern Utzon is named as the winner of the competition to find a designer for the new Sydney Opera House.

The Sydney Opera House in Sydney, Australia, sits on Bennelong Point in Sydney Harbour. Designed by Danish architect Joern Utzon in 1955, it has become one of the most famous performing arts venues in the world. NSW Premier at the time, Joseph Cahill, called for designs for a dedicated opera house, and it was Utzon who was announced as the winner from among 233 entries, on 29 January 1957. Utzon arrived in Sydney to oversee the project in 1957 and work commenced on the opera House in 1959. The building was completed in 1973, at a cost of $102 million, and formally opened by Queen Elizabeth II on 20 October 1973.

1986  -             The Height 611 UFO incident occurs in the former USSR.

Stories of UFOs have abounded in one form or another for centuries. In all the continents of the world, people can claim to have seen strange lights in the sky. The Height 611 UFO incident was one in which the UFO was said to have crashed on the Earth.

Around 8:00pm on 29 January 1986, residents of Dalnegorsk, Primorsky Krai, USSR reported seeing a reddish ball which appeared about half the size of the visible moon. Initially, the disc flew parallel to the ground at an elevation of 700 to 800 metres, and silently, at a speed determined later to be around 54 kilometres per hour. It then moved towards Height 611, also known as Mount Izvestkovaya, which abuts the town. Upon reaching the mountain, its elevation suddenly declined, and it fell into the slopes. Eye witness versions of the fall differ: some stated the UFO fell with a flash, while others claimed the UFO's light was like a forest fire which lasted for about an hour.

Several days later, a group of UFO enthusiasts investigated the site where the UFO landed. They located a blackened and burnt landing ground where the rocks were coated with a dark filmy substance with shiny lead, iron and silicon drops. Chemical analysis of the site showed similarities to that left behind in the Tunguska event of 1908, in which forests of trees were flattened by an ex

Gday...

1774  -             Captain Cook sails closer to the South Pole than any known person has previously sailed.

Captain James Cook is known for being the first European to sight the eastern coast of Australia, thus paving the way for British settlement of the continent. Two years after this journey, in 1772, Cook was sent again to discover if another great land lay east of Australia. Commanding the ship, the 'Resolution', Cook became the first known European to cross the Antarctic Circle, on 17 January 1773, in latitude 67 degrees south. However, pack ice and the solid freezing of the ship's sails prevented further exploration of the region.

A year later, Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle again. This time, he penetrated to 71 degrees 10'S, on 30 January 1774, but met with thick pack ice that prevented further progression. This was the furthest south and closest to the South Pole that any known person had ever been.

1854  -             The first Cobb & Co coach departs Melbourne for the Forest Creek goldfields.

The discovery of gold in Australia in the 1850s brought with it an immediate need for faster and better forms of transport. Four enterprising Americans saw a way to fill this need. Freeman Cobb, John Murray Peck, James Swanton and John Lamber started a network of horse and coach runs in a manner similar to what operated in the United States. Originally called the American Telegraph Line of Coaches, the name was later changed to Cobb & Co. Specially sprung coaches that could handle Australia's rough roads and rocky tracks were imported from America for the enterprise. Horses were replaced at changing stations 25 to 40 kilometres apart, meaning that fresher horses improved travelling time.

Cobb & Co's first run was on 30 January 1854, departing Melbourne for the Forest Creek diggings (now Castlemaine) and Bendigo. The network of routes was quickly expanded to deal with increased demand in the growing colony of Victoria. Initially a passenger service, Cobb & Co's reputation for speed and reliable service soon saw it being used for mail delivery and gold escort as well.

Headquarters were moved from Victoria to Bathurst in 1862. Workshops were built at Hay and Bourke in New South Wales and Castlemaine in Victoria, and the service was expanded to include Queensland. The first Cobb & Co coach in Queensland ran from Brisbane to Ipswich on 1 January 1866. The railway line took passengers from Ipswich to Grandchester, and another Cobb & Co service took the passengers from Grandchester on up to Toowoomba.

1910  -             British actor, David Niven, is born.

James David Graham Niven was born on 30 January 1910 in London, England. After attending Stowe as a boy, Niven trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which gave him the "officer and gentleman" bearing that became his trademark both on and off the stage. When he first arrived in Hollywood in the 1930s, he worked mainly as an extra in westerns, until his first walk-on part in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), progressing to leading man in the comedy Bachelor Mother (1939).

During World War II he served in the British army, attaining the rank of colonel in the British Commandos and landing at Normandy. He resumed his career afterwards with roles such as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days and James Bond in the unofficial series spoof Casino Royale. He also handled serious drama, and won an Oscar for his role in Separate Tables (1958).

In the 1970s Niven published two humorous autobiographies of his life in the movies, The Moon's A Balloon (1971) and Bring On the Empty Horses (1975). Niven died in Switzerland in 1983 of Motor Neurone Disease, also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease.

1945  -             The Wilhelm Gustloff sinks in the worst disaster in shipping history.

The Wilhelm Gustloff was a ship built by Blohm & Voss and named after the assassinated leader of the Nazi party in Switzerland, Wilhelm Gustloff. Launched on 5 May 1937, it served first as a German cruise ship, then as a hospital ship. During WWII, the Wilhelm Gustloff was used mainly as a barracks ship for U-boat trainees.

Departing Gdingen early on 30 January 1945 for what was to be its final voyage, the Wilhelm Gustloff carried a cargo of evacuated civilians and wounded German soldiers and sailors. It was escorted by a single torpedo boat. When the ship activated its red and green navigation lights in order to avoid a potential collision with an oncoming minesweeper convoy, it was sighted by the Soviet submarine S-13. The Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed 30 kilometres off shore and took three direct hits soon after 9.00pm. 70 minutes later it sank. Because the ship was carrying refugees, there were thousands more passengers than its official carrying capacity of 2,000 allowed. Estimates have suggested that there were between 6,000 and 10,000 on board. The official death toll was 6,050 people, but again, figures suggest that perhaps as many as 9,500 were killed that day, making the disaster the worst in shipping history.

1948  -             Political leader and humanitarian, Mahatma Gandhi, is assassinated.

Mahatma Gandhi was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, India. Gandhi was a peace-loving man who initially trained as a barrister in England, but was unsuccessful in pursuing a career in law once he returned to India. After accepting a post to Natal, South Africa, Gandhi experienced frequent humiliation and oppression commonly directed at Indians in South Africa. This caused him to then spend two decades fighting for the rights of immigrants in South Africa.

After WWI broke out, Gandhi returned to India. Here, he turned his back on western influences to embrace a life of abstinence and spirituality. Inspired by the American writer Henry David Thoreau's famous essay on "Civil Disobedience", Gandhi implemented his own campaign of non-violent civil disobedience to bring about change in Britain's oppression of Indians within their own country. Although frequently jailed by the British authorities, pressure from his followers usually secured his release before he fasted himself to death. Following WWII, he participated in negotiations which eventually led to India gaining independence from Britain.

Gandhi advocated that all people were equal under one God. On 30 January 1948, he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who could not accept Gandhi's belief that Muslims had equal value to Hindus and no-one was better than anybody else.

Cheers - John 

Gday...

1762  -             Colonel Lachlan Macquarie, Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821, is born.

Lachlan Macquarie was born on 31 January 1762 on the Isle of Mull in the Hebrides islands of Scotland. He joined the army at age 14 and gained experience in North America, India and Egypt. In 1808, he was appointed Governor of the New South Wales colony, a position he held from 1810 to 1821. With his military training and vision for organisation and discipline, Macquarie was an ideal candidate to restore order to the colony, following the Rum Rebellion against deposed Governor William Bligh.

Macquarie upheld high standards for the development of New South Wales from penal colony to free settlement. He introduced the first building code into the colony, requiring all buildings to be constructed of timber or brick, covered with a shingle roof, and to include a chimney. As Governor, Macquarie also ordered the construction of roads, bridges, wharves, churches and public buildings. Following an inspection of the sprawling, ramshackle settlement of Hobart Town in Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, Macquarie ordered government surveyor John Meehan to survey a regular street layout: this layout still forms the current centre of the city of Hobart.

Macquarie was also a great sponsor of exploration. In 1813 he sent Blaxland, Wentworth and Lawson across the Blue Mountains, where they found the grazing plains of the interior. Following their discovery, Macquarie ordered the establishment of Bathurst, Australia's first inland city. He appointed John Oxley as surveyor-general and sent him on expeditions up the coast of New South Wales and inland to find new rivers and new lands for settlement.

Unfortunately, Macquarie's progressive views and favourable treatment of both convicts and emancipists (freed convicts) met with disfavour among the upper-class British settlers. In 1819, English judge John Thomas Bigge was dispatched to inquire into Macquarie's actions in the colony. Bigge felt that the convicts should be treated with stricter discipline and harsher punishment, and that the emancipists should be held in greater account. Bigge criticised Macquarie for his spending on public works and for his attempts to create an orderly colony out of the haphazard settlement that Sydney had grown into. Bigge felt that more monies should be returned directly into the economy of Sydney itself, rather than expansion beyond its confines.

Macquarie resigned his commission and returned to England in 1821 to defend himself against Bigge's claims. He died in London in 1824.

1798  -             Australia's first public clock tower is completed.

Governor John Hunter was Governor of New South Wales from 1795 to 1800. Present on the First Fleet, and instrumental in the development of the colonies in both Sydney and Norfolk Island, Hunter succeeded Australia's first Governor, Arthur Phillip on 11 September 1795.

Hunter experienced great opposition to his authority, especially when Lieutenant Governor Francis Grose allowed the military to have too much control over the convicts. Regardless, Hunter sought to implement order in the colony, initiating new construction and works in Sydney and Parramatta.

In 1797, Hunter commissioned the building of Australia's first public clock tower, after the HMS 'Reliance' brought the clock to Sydney on 26 June 1797. The 150-foot tall tower was erected on Church Hill, one of the most elevated locations in Sydney, and completed in January 1798. On 31 January 1798, the clock was positioned on the tower in front of a small gathering. The building served not only as a clock tower, but as an observation tower for members of the military who had an interest in scientific pursuits.

1839  -             Gawler, South Australia's first inland country town, is established.

South Australia is the only Australian state to have been founded by free settlers, remaining entirely free of convicts during its early history. The site of its capital, Adelaide, was originally determined by Captain Collet Barker in 1831 and subsequently surveyed by Colonel William Light five years later.

Gawler is a Local Government Area (LGA) located 44km north of Adelaide. The year after Colonel Light surveyed the capital, he and his assistant, Boyle Travers Finniss, travelled through the area north of Adelaide. Light saw the benefits of establishing a town which would be the gateway to the north, and to the Murray River, the water and transport lifeline for South Australia. Light's recommendation for a survey of the area was initially not taken up, but Henry Dundas Murray, John Reid and a syndicate of ten other colonists noted Light's recommendation and applied for a Special Survey of 4000 acres (1618 hectares). Following this, Light was commissioned to survey the town, making it the only other settlement he surveyed apart from Adelaide. William Jacob then laid out the town from Light's plan. The town was officially established on 31 January 1839, and named Gawler after the then Governor of South Australia.

The first settler in Gawler was John Reid, one of those who applied for the "special survey". He arrived in February 1839 to take up his selection near the North Para River. Reid's property became a stopover for new pioneers to the area and overlanders from New South Wales. Gawler developed slowly until the discovery of copper at nearby Kapunda in 1842 sent its growth soaring. When the copper mines were established at Burra in the north, Gawler's importance as a trade and stopping centre increased. The establishment of agricultural areas to the north cemented Gawler's position as a permanent settlement.

1990  -             The first McDonalds restaurant in the Soviet Union is opened.

McDonalds is the world's largest chain of fast-food restaurants. The company began in 1940 with a restaurant opened by brothers Dick and Mac McDonald, but it was their introduction of the "Speedee Service System" in 1948 that established the principles of the fast-food restaurant. However, the company today dates its "founding" to the opening of CEO Ray Kroc's first franchised restaurant, the company's ninth, in 1955.

On 31 January 1990, the Soviet Union's first McDonalds - and the world's biggest - opened in Moscow. Hundred of people queued to pay the equivalent of several days' wages for Big Macs, shakes, and french fries. The opening of the first McDonalds in the Soviet Union was seen as symbolic, in that a great symbol of international capitalism penetrated a nation that was once the leader of the Communist bloc. The Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 but McDonalds maintained its presence in Russia, later expanding to other former Soviet states. The first Moscow McDonalds was a joint venture between McDonalds Canada and the Soviet government.

2001  -             Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbasset Ali al-Megrahi is convicted of the murder of the 270 victims of the December 1988 Pan Am crash in Lockerbie, Scotland.

In the evening of 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York crashed 38 minutes after take-off. The plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet when a bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated inside the cargo area. All 259 aboard the plane were killed, together with another 11 on the ground who died as the debris showered down. A large portion of the plane crashed into a petrol station in central Lockerbie, exploding into a 90m fireball. Aeroplane parts were scattered across 1,360 square kilometres and the impact from the crash reached 1.6 on the Richter scale.

After several years of investigation, Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were identified as suspects. When Libya refused to hand over the suspects to be tried in the USA, the United Nations imposed sanctions against Libya. The sanctions were only lifted when Libyan leader Colonel Gadhafi agreed to turn the suspects over to Scotland for trial in the Netherlands using Scottish law and prosecutors. Following a three month trial, on 31 January 2001 al-Megrahi was convicted of the murder of the 270 victims of the 1988 Pan Am crash in Lockerbie, Scotland. His alleged accomplice, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty.

Cheers - John