Gday...

1790  -             The HMS Sirius is wrecked off Norfolk Island before it can bring vital food and supplies to the starving colony at Sydney.

The HMS Sirius was an armed storeship and the flagship of the First Fleet to Australia. Originally built in 1780 and named the 'Berwick', she was used for the East India trade route. In 1796, the ship was purchased by the British Nay, after being damaged in a fire, then rebuilt and renamed the Sirius. It played a vital role when the colony at Port Jackson faced starvation, being despatched to Cape Town in South Africa for crucial food supplies and medicine in September 1788.

By 1790, the Sirius was required to undertake a second journey. The colony was still struggling with a severe food shortage, and the HMS Guardian, due to arrive with supplies from England, never arrived. Both the Sirius and the HMS Supply departed Port Jackson for Norfolk Island, carrying convicts and marines, to alleviate the problems of food shortages in Sydney. The Sirius was then under orders to proceed to China for supplies.

The ships arrived at Norfolk Island on 13 March 1790, but bad weather forced them back out to sea after most of the marines and convicts were sent ashore. Safe harbour was unattainable, even on the other side of the island. The Supply was able to put safely to sea, but the Sirius was wrecked on a rocky reef just 200m out. The ship sank on 19 March 1790, leaving the colonists in Sydney in despair. It was only due to Governor Arthur Phillips forethought in sending part of the population to Norfolk, and his strict rationing, that ensured the survival of Sydney.

1812  -             Today is "Swallows Day", marking the annual return of the swallows of Capistrano.

San Juan Capistrano is a city in southern Orange County, California, USA. It is well known for the annual migration of the Cliff Swallows, which migrate every year between Argentina and the Mission San Juan Capistrano.

The Cliff Swallow is a small migratory bird which breeds in North America and Mexico, and spends its winters in South America, from Venezuela southwards to northeast Argentina. The birds undertake a journey of about 12,000 km, travelling in 450 km segments, thus taking around 30 days to complete. Cliff Swallows breed in large colonies, building cone-shaped mud nests. In the wild, these nests are usually on cliffs, preferably beneath overhangs, but European settlement has provided many more sheltering opportunities. Older-style barns have proven popular nesting sites and, more recently, dams and bridges.

San Juan Capistrano is home to the Mission San Juan Capistrano, founded in 1776 by Franciscan Catholics, but severely damaged by an earthquake in 1812. It was around the time of this earthquake that the swallows began to nest amongst the buildings of the Mission and in the ruined church. The numbers and regularity of the birds soon attracted comment, and locals sought to protect them. The swallows would leave for Argentina around 23 October each year, and return to the Mission on or around 19 March - behaviour which has continued for centuries, to the present day.

The phenomenon was nearly interrupted in 1998 when renovations to the Mission scared away the birds, but the monks managed to coax them back by offering ladybugs and other insects.

1813  -             Missionary and explorer, David Livingstone, is born.

David Livingstone was born on 19 March 1813, in Blantyre, Scotland. His surname was 'Livingston', but he changed it later to identify with Christ, the 'living rock', the cornerstone of the Church. Initially Livingstone studied medicine and theology at the University of Glasgow, but when he was 27 years old, he sailed from Scotland to South Africa as a Christian missionary. Whilst there he spent some time exploring the African interior, becoming one of the first Westerners to make a transcontinental journey across Africa. Livingstone was popular among native tribes in Africa because he quickly learned African languages and had a keen understanding and sympathy for native people and their cultures. Livingstone was one of the first westerners to sight the spectacular Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River.

Livingstone's lack of contact with the outside world over several years raised concerns for his welfare and prompted the New York Herald to send journalist Henry Morton Stanley to track down the explorer in Africa. On 10 November 1871, Stanley met up with Livingstone, greeting him with the famous words "Dr. Livingstone, I presume?" The two men explored together briefly but Livingston, weakened from dysentery, died less than two years later, on 30 April 1873.

1852  -             The First Gold Escort returns wealth from the Victorian goldfields to the South Australian colony.

The discovery of gold in New South Wales and Victoria in 1851 was a great boon to those states, but a disaster for South Australia. Very little payable gold had been found in South Australia, and hopeful prospectors were leaving the colony in droves to seek their fortune. By the end of 1851, around 15,000 men had left South Australia, leaving few to work the mines at Kapunda and Burra. The result was the temporary closure of the mines, and an economic recession for South Australia.

Alexander Tolmer was an English immigrant who had arrived in South Australia in 1840. With his military background, he had been appointed by Governor Gawler to be Sub-Inspector of Police, a position in which he had demonstrated skills in organisation and discipline. In 1852, he was appointed Commissioner of Police and Police Magistrate. In this capacity, he proposed that the gold found by South Australians should be returned to the colony rather than sold in Victoria. Tolmer also proposed that he be the one to bring the gold back to South Australia under escort. His proposal was accepted and the government passed the Assay Bullion Act, which authorised the establishment of an assay office and smelting facilities.

Tolmer's first escort to the Mt Alexander goldfields, consisting of Tolmer, Sergeant J Lamb, Constables William Rowe and John Cusack, departed on 10 February 1852. The journey to the goldfields took ten days. Tolmer spent two days collecting gold, whilst receipts were written out by Dr William Gosse, father of later South Australian explorer William Christie Gosse. The triumphant escort returned to Adelaide on 19 March 1852. This first, successful escort resulted in the return of £21,000 worth of gold to the South Australian colony.

The success of the first escort prompted the organisation of further expeditions. In all, there were eighteen gold escorts between Mt Alexander and Adelaide, with the final escort completing its journey in December 1853. It is estimated that uo to £2,000,000 worth of money and gold was returned from South Australian diggers to Adelaide via the escorts.

1921  -             Tommy Cooper, famous British comic, is born.

British comedian Thomas Frederick "Tommy" Cooper was born in Caerphilly, South Wales on 19 March 1921. When he was three years old, his family moved to Exeter, Devon, where he acquired the West Country accent that became an integral part of his act.

Cooper's interest in magical illusions developed when he was eight, and his aunt bought him a magic set. He perfected numerous magic tricks, which helped him to develop his comedy acts later on. Some accounts say his great sense of comedy grew out of the many conjuring tricks that failed when Cooper was performing to various audiences: despite the failures, his acts gained plenty of laughs. He soon learned that adding the occasional trick that worked added to the winning formula. Respected by traditional magicians and illusionists, Cooper became a member of The Magic Circle. His trademark was his red fez.

Cooper's success began when, in 1947, he was booked by trombonist Miff Ferrie of "The Jackdaws" to appear as the second spot comedian in a show starring sand dance act "Marqueeze and the Dance of the Seven Veils". Over the next two years, Cooper performed in hundreds of shows. Ferrie, in fact, acted as Cooper's agent right up until Cooper died in 1984. This included during Cooper's television career, which began in 1948 and spanned almost four decades. After he first performed on the BBC talent show New to You in March 1948, he started starring in his own shows, and was particularly well known through his work with London Weekend Television from 1968 - 1972, and Thames Television from 1973 - 1980.

A heavy drinker and smoker, Cooper suffered from declining health during the 1970s. He died shortly after he suffered a heart attack while on stage on 15 April 1984.

1932  -             The Sydney Harbour Bridge is officially opened, amidst unexpected controversy.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest steel arch bridge in the world, though not the longest, with the top of the bridge standing 134 metres above the harbour. At 48.8 m wide, it was the widest bridge in the world up until 2006. In 1912, John Bradfield was appointed chief engineer of the bridge project, which also had to include a railway. Plans were completed in 1916 but the advent of WWI delayed implementation until 1922. Construction of the bridge began in 1924, and took 1400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 million. Sixteen lives were lost during its construction, while up to 800 families living in the path of the proposed Bridge path were relocated and their homes demolished when construction started.

The arch of the Sydney Harbour Bridge was built in two halves cantilevering from each shore and tying each half back by steel cables that were anchored into U-shaped tunnels excavated into the sandstone rock. Construction of the two halves of the arch began late in 1928, and the two halves were properly joined around 10pm on 19 August 1930.

The official opening of the bridge occurred on 19 March 1932. As NSW Premier, the Honourable John T Lang, officially declared the Bridge open, Captain Francis De Groot of the political group The New Guard, which was opposed to Lang's leftist policies, charged on his horse and slashed the ribbon with his sword. De Groot's organisation resented the fact that the King's representative in Australia, the Governor-General Sir Isaac Isaacs, hadn't been asked to open the bridge. De Groot was arrested, and the ribbon retied, allowing Lang to perform the official opening ceremony. After he did so, there was a 21-gun salute and a RAAF fly-past.

1945  -             The American aircraft carrier, USS Franklin, is divebombed by a kamikazi Japanese aircraft, killing 724.

The fifth USS Franklin (CV-13) (also CVA-13, CVS-13, and AVT-8), nicknamed "Big Ben", was an Essex-class aircraft carrier of the United States Navy. The carrier was subject to a number of kamikazi attacks by the Japanese during WWII, during which dozens of the crew were lost. On 19 March 1945, the Franklin had manoeuvred to within 80 km of the Japanese mainland, closer than had any other U.S. carrier during the war. The carrier launched a fighter sweep against Honshu and later a strike against shipping in Kobe Harbor. Without warning, a single aircraft pierced the cloud cover and made a low level run on the ship to drop two semi-armour-piercing bombs.

The Franklin lay dead in the water, took a 13° starboard list, lost all radio communications, and broiled under the heat from enveloping fires. 724 of the crew were killed and 265 wounded. Many of the surviving crew acted heroically, leading others to safety and taking the initiative to fight the fires and search for wounded and missing crewmates. Their actions enabled the carrier to return to American territory for repairs.

Cheers - John

1932 and 1945........Both very interesting reading Rocky, thanks mate.

None of those little fly blown critters to be seen either  

Gday...

1602  -             The Dutch East India company, which was indirectly responsible for many discoveries in the Pacific, is formed.

The Dutch East India Company, also known as the Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC, was established on 20 March 1602, when the Estates-General of the Netherlands granted it a monopoly to trade from the Cape of Good Hope to the Straits of Magellan. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stocks. The company traded throughout Asia, exploring and establishing new routes through to the Asian countries and Pacific colonies for the sole intent of expediting trade to that region. The company operated for around 200 years, trading spices like nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and pepper, and other consumer products like tea, silk and Chinese porcelain. In the process, they touched on the coast of Australia, which became known as New Holland, drawing rough charts to indicate the western and northern coasts, though the south and east remained largely unknown.

The Australian state of Tasmania owes its discovery to the Dutch East India Company. Abel Tasman was a Dutch seafarer who joined the Company and was ordered to explore the south-east waters in order to find a new sea trade route to Chile in South America. In November 1642, he discovered a previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland". He named the island "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia. It was later renamed Tasmania by the English.

1802  -             English explorer Matthew Flinders names Spencer Gulf in South Australia.

Spencer Gulf is a large and prominent gulf in South Australia, approximately 322 km long and 129 km wide at its mouth. It is bordered by Yorke Peninsula to the east and Eyre Peninsula to the west.

The first English visitor to the region was Matthew Flinders, who discovered the gulf during his 1801-02 circumnavigation of the Australian continent in his ship The Investigator. Flinders did not enter the gulf, and wrote in his journal that he was uncertain whether it was a strait or an inlet. He defined its entrance as a line from Cape Catastrophe on Eyre Peninsula to Cape Spencer on Yorke Peninsula. On 20 March 1802, Flinders named the body of water Spencers Gulph after British politician George John Spencer, the 2nd Earl Spencer, who served as First Lord of the Admiralty from 1794 to 1801. Spencer was an ancestor of Diana, former wife of Prince Charles, and Princess of Wales.

At the time, French interest in the region was also high. French explorer Nicolas Baudin was heading west along the coast while Flinders was travelling east, and the two men met at what is now known as Encounter Bay. Flinders informed Baudin of his discovery of Spencers Gulph, as well as Kangaroo Island and Gulf St Vincent. When Baudin continued west, he named the inlet Golfe Bonaparte. The English name prevailed, though it was later changed to Spencer Gulf.

1942  -             US General Douglas Macarthur first makes his famous "I shall return" speech at Terowie, South Australia.

General Douglas MacArthur was an American general and Field Marshal of the Philippine Army. At the time of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, MacArthur was Allied commander in the Philippines. He was a significant figure in the Pacific during World War II, receiving the Medal of Honour for his early service in the Philippines and on the Bataan Peninsula. Initially designated to command the proposed invasion of Japan in November 1945, when that became no longer necessary, he officially accepted Japan's surrender on 2 September 1945.

General MacArthur is famous for uttering the phrase "I shall return". It is less known, however, that this phrase was first stated by MacArthur as part of an extended speech whilst visiting Australia. On 17 March 1942, he arrived at Batchelor Airfield in the Northern Territory, Australia, about 100 km south of Darwin. Following this, he flew to Alice Springs, then took the Ghan railway through the Australian outback to Adelaide. His famous speech, in which he said, "I came out of Bataan and I shall return", was first made at Terowie, a small railway township in South Australia, on 20 March 1942, before he continued on to Adelaide.

After he arrived in Adelaide, MacArthur abbreviated this to the now-famous, "I came through and I shall return" for which he is best remembered.

1974  -             An attempt is made to kidnap Princess Anne, only daughter of Queen Elizabeth II.

Princess Anne, second child of the Queen of England, Elizabeth II, married Captain Mark Phillips in 1973. On 20 March 1974, less than four months after their marriage, Princess Anne was the target of a failed kidnap attempt. The Princess and her husband were returning to Buckingham Palace from an engagement when their chauffeur-driven limousine was blocked in the road on Pall Mall by another car. 26-year-old Ian Ball jumped from the car and fired six shots, wounding several people, including the chauffeur. It was later determined that Ball planned to ransom the Princess for £3 million. Inspector James Beaton, the Princess's private detective, jumped across to shield the princess, and then returned fire, injuring the kidnapper. A nearby police officer gave chase and arrested Ball, who was later sentenced to life imprisonment and placed in a mental hospital. The incident prompted higher security levels for the Royal Family.

1991  -             Singer Eric Clapton's four-year-old son falls to his death from an open apartment window, 53 storeys up.

Singer Eric Clapton, born in 1945, is a Grammy Award winning British composer, singer and widely considered to be one of the greatest and most influential guitarists in popular music history. His song "Tears in Heaven" is a tribute to his son Conor, who was killed in a most tragic way. On 20 March 1991, four-and-a-half-year-old Conor Clapton died when he fell from the 53rd story window in his father's New York City apartment. The apartment block janitor had been working in the apartment where Conor's mother was staying and had left a large glass window partially open. Although Conor was being tended by his nanny, while he was playing and running through the apartment, he fell straight out of the low-level window, and landed on the roof of an adjacent four-storey building.

At the 1993 Grammy Awards, Clapton's recording of "Tears in Heaven" won the award for Best Male Pop Vocal Performance. Other songs Clapton has written about Conor are "The Circus Left Town," which recounts the day before Clapton's son died (they attended a circus the night before Conor's death), and "Lonely Stranger."

1995  -             A Tokyo subway is attacked with Sarin gas.

Sarin is a poisonous liquid, used as a nerve gas in chemical warfare. On 20 March 1995, Tokyo commuters experienced first-hand the effects of the poison when members of the religious group Aum Shinrikyo released sarin gas on several lines of the Tokyo Subway. A single drop of sarin the size of the head of a pin is potent enough to kill an adult.

The liquid sarin used in the attack was contained in plastic bags. Each of five main perpetrators carried two packets of sarin totalling approximately one litre of sarin, although one member carried three bags. The perpetrators carried their packets of sarin, and umbrellas with sharpened tips. At prearranged stations, each perpetrator dropped his package and punctured it several times with the sharpened tip of his umbrella before escaping to an accomplice's waiting get-away car. Twelve people were killed in the attacks, whilst up to another six thousand were injured by the effects of the deadly gas. Most of the survivors recovered, but some victims suffered permanent damage to their eyes, lungs and digestive systems.

Japanese police raided the religious cult's headquarters and arrested hundreds of members, including leader Shoko Asahara. To date, Asahara's trial is continuing.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1685  -             The great German composer and organist, Johann Sebastian Bach, is born.

Johann Sebastian Bach was born in Eisenach, Germany on 21 March 1685. He was a German composer and organist of the Baroque Era. The Baroque Era spanned approximately 1600 to 1750, and followed the Renaissance era of musical style. Baroque music was typically harder to perform than Renaissance music as it was written more for virtuoso singers and instrumentalists, and made more complex use of harmony and rhythm.

Bach is arguably one of the greatest composers of all time. His most famous works include the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-Tempered Clavier (a collection of 48 preludes and fugues), Toccata and Fugue in D Minor, Mass in B Minor, much sacred choral music, and the St Matthew Passion. He wrote Cantatas, Masses and Magnificats, Chorales, Oratorios and many other styles and forms of music. When Bach died on 28 July 1750, he left behind the legacy of a musically talented family, many of whom also composed prolifically. His style strongly influenced both Mozart and Beethoven.

1895  -             South Australia's Suffrage Act is proclaimed after being passed by Queen Victoria.

South Australia is recognised as the first state of Australia to grant women the right to vote. It is generally accepted that this right occurred with the passing of a Bill on 18 December 1894. However, a letter from the Attorney-General advising Governor Kintore that Royal Assent would be required to enact the Bill, is dated 21 December 1894. The Bill was enacted when Queen Victoria gave Royal Assent on 2 February 1895.

Queen Victoria's Royal assent granted women an equal right with men to vote, and it also allowed women to stand for election to South Australia's House of Assembly. Women who owned property could also now vote in Legislative Council elections. The announcement proclaiming South Australia's Suffrage Act was gazetted as 'The Constitution Amendment Act 1894' in the "South Australian Government Gazette" on 21 March 1895. The amendment stated the following:

Section 1. The right to vote for persons to sit in Parliament as members of the Legislative Council, and the right to vote for persons to sit in Parliament as members of the House of Assembly, are hereby extended to women.

Section 2. Women shall possess and may exercise the rights hereby granted, subject to the same qualifications and in the same manner as men.

1947  -             Two men die in the first documented case of death by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder.

Homer Lusk Collyer and Langley Collyer were two American brothers, born in 1881 and 1885 respectively. Intelligent and educated, the men were known to be reclusive, tending to shun company. They also suffered OCD - obsessive compulsive disorder - which caused them to hoard anything and everything. Their compulsive hoarding made them targets for thieves who believed valuables were also stocked in the home. This had the result of making the men more reclusive, boarding up windows and setting up booby traps. Homer also suffered many health issues which finally led to him becoming blind, paralysed and totally dependent on his younger brother.

On 21 March 1947, police were tipped off to the presence of a dead body in the house. Workers were unable to get in to the house by conventional means, due to large amounts of junk piled in the doorway and foyer, which included a wall of old newspapers, folding beds and chairs, half a sewing machine, boxes, parts of a wine press among other junk. Patrolman William Baker finally broke in through a window into a second-story bedroom. Behind this window lay, among other things, more packages and newspaper bundles, empty cardboard boxes lashed together with rope, the frame of a baby carriage, a rake, and old umbrellas tied together. After a two-hour crawl, Baker came across the body of Homer Collyer. A Medical Examiner ruled that death had occurred from malnutrition, and that Homer had died less than a day earlier. It was then necessary to find out where the stench in the house originated.

Returning to the house, the cleanup of the junk and search for Homer's brother Langley continued for several weeks. Finally, on 8 April, Langley's decomposing body was found just a few metres from where his brother's body had lain. Investigations showed that Langley had been crawling through a tunnel of newspapers to bring food to his paralysed brother when one of his own booby traps fell down and crushed him. Homer, blind and paralysed, starved to death several days later.

1980  -             The USA announces its intention to boycott the Moscow Olympics due to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.

The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979 was publicly decried around the world. On 27 December 1979 700 KGB spetsnaz special forces troops dressed in Afghan uniforms stormed the Presidential Place in Kabul, killing President Hafizullah Amin. On that day, Soviet ground forces also invaded from the north. It was intended that such action would end the factional struggles within the PDPA, the communist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan. However, the Afghans mounted a resistance movement which ultimately meant that the Soviet-Afghan war continued for ten years.

On 21 March 1980, in protest over the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, USA President Jimmy Carter announced the intention of the US to boycott the Games of the XXII Olympiad to be held in Moscow that year. 64 other countries eventually joined the US in its protest, with only eighty nations participating - the lowest number since 1956.

2233  -             Captain James T Kirk of the Starship Enterprise will be born.

Captain James Tiberius Kirk, played by actor William Shatner, is captain of the starship Enterprise in the fictitious Star Trek universe. According to speculative calculation, James T Kirk will be born in the town of Riverside, Iowa, United States, on 21 March 2233. The town of Riverside is already capitalising on the future birth of the famous captain. The town's summertime "Riverfest" has been altered to "Trek Fest", during which Trekkers flock to the streets in all manner of Star Trek garb, and a sign upon leaving the town proclaims "the Trek Begins". A concrete slab behind a former barber shop marks the site where Kirk will be born.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1802  -             Matthew Flinders names Kangaroo island in South Australia for the fresh food it provides his crew.

Matthew Flinders was the sea explorer who, together with Bass, was the first to prove that Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, was an island and not connected to the mainland. Flinders was also the first to circumnavigate the continent, and between December 1801 and June 1803, he charted most of the coastline of Australia. This included the previously unknown coastline of southern Australia.

Kangaroo Island is a protected and unspoilt island off the coast of South Australia, and Australia's third-largest island after Tasmania and Melville Islands. On 22 March 1802, Flinders and his crew landed on Kangaroo Island. By the time Flinders and his crew passed the eastern point of the Great Australian Bight, they had gone without fresh food for four months, living only on preserved meat. When they landed on the island, they found as plenty of easy game by way of kangaroos, allowing them to feast on fresh food. Flinders recorded in his ship's log: 'the whole ship's company was employed this afternoon in the skinning and cleaning of kangaroos'. He estimated that the crew stewed 'half a hundredweight' of kangaroo forequarters, tails and even heads, and that the entire crew also feasted on kangaroo steaks for many days after that.

Flinders was so grateful for the abundant supply of fresh food that he named the southern island "Kangaroo Island".

1897  -             Edmund Barton heads a conference to discuss the proposed constitution for the Commonwealth of Australia.

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.

The man who became Australia's first Prime Minister, Edmund 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. Discussion of the constitution commenced on 22 March 1897. 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.

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.

1923  -             French mime artist, Marcel Marceau, is born.

Marcel Marceau was born Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg, France, on 22 March 1923. His interest in acting developed after he saw Charlie Chaplin perform, and from 1946 on he studied at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris. In 1947 he performed for the very first time as Bip The Clown, his tragicomic figure with silk dented hat and red flower, signifying the fragility of life. This has become his most famous character. Marceau appeared in several films including the 1968 film Barbarella and appeared as himself to speak the only word, "Non", in the 1976 Mel Brooks comedy film, Silent Movie. In 1978 he established his own school in Paris, the International school of Mimodrame of Paris, Marcel Marceau. In 1996 he established the Marceau Foundation to promote mime in the United States.

Marceau's last world tour covered the United States in 2004 and returned to Europe in 2005. The famous mime died in Cahors, Lot, France on 22 September 2007.

1942  -             Nine Japanese aircraft bomb the town of Katherine in Australia's Northern Territory.

In WWII, the first real attack of the Japanese on an Australian base occurred with the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942. That attack scattered the naval base at Darwin and demoralised Australians. Darwin was bombed by the Japanese a total of sixty times between 19 February 1942 and 12 November 1943. Shortly after this initial attack, numerous other towns in Australia began to come under fire. Some of these raids were conducted on the northwest coastal towns of Broome and Wyndham, and in the east around Townsville and Cairns.

On 22 March 1942, the small town of Katherine, 320 km of Darwin and located in central Northern Territory, was bombed. In the only attack to be made on Katherine, nine Mitsubishi G4M1 "Betty" bombers of the Japanese Navy's Tokao Kokutai, 23rd Koku Sentai made a pass over Katherine at 12.20pm before disappearing, only to return about 15 minutes later to bomb Katherine's airfield. The aircraft dropped an estimated 91 bombs, 84 of which were anti-personnel "Daisey Cutters". Damage within the town was minor, but there was one death, an aboriginal man known only as "Roger".

1974  -             Tasmania records its highest rainfall within a single day.

Although Australia is the driest continent, apart from Antarctica, it is periodically subject to a variety of weather conditions which bring flooding rains. Tasmania's highest recorded rainfall in a single day occurred at Cullenswood on 22 March 1974. The total rainfall on this date was 352 mm. This was the same year that Australia's eastern states were saturated and Brisbane, Queensland experienced severe flooding.

Interestingly, Tasmania - which is not normally regarded as a dry state - recorded the second lowest 24 hour rainfall record, being higher only than South Australia's highest daily total of 272 mm. By contrast, Queensland's highest rainfall total within a single day was 907 mm.

1987  -             A barge carrying 3,200 tons of trash leaves New York Harbor in search of a dumping ground, only to return months later, still carrying the trash.

The Mobro 4000 was a barge chartered by entrepreneur Lowell Harrelson to carry a load of trash to a site in North Carolina, towed by Louisiana-based tugboat, the Break of Dawn. Harrelson hoped to implement a new programme which experimented with converting waste into methane. The barge departed New York Harbor on 22 March 1987 with its load of 3,168 tons of garbage, headed for Morehead City, North Carolina. However, rumours began that the barge carried hospital waste such as syringes, gowns and diapers, which had contaminated the contents. North Carolina refused to accept it.

The Mobro continued down the east coast where it was rejected by both Louisiana and Florida. The Mexican navy denied it entrance to their waters. The barge continued on to Belize and the Bahamas, again being rejected, before returning to New York. Upon arrival it was met with a temporary restraining order and a heated legal battle preventing it from docking. In October the trash was finally incinerated in Brooklyn and the resulting ash was buried back where it started, in the Long Island town of Islip.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re

March 20 1995
A Tokyo subway is attacked with Sarin gas

In 1993 or thereabouts, the people, (nutters), who made this gas, purchased a sheep station, near Leonora WA. They experimented and killed sheep on the property. I was in that region, at that time, doing drive in drive out, employment. It seems like yesterday.

Gday...

1743  -             King George II sparks the tradition of standing during the performance of the Hallalujah Chorus from Handel's oratorio 'Messiah'.

Georg Friedrich Händel (his name was later anglicised to George Frideric Handel) was a prolific composer. During his composing career, he wrote around fifty operas, twenty-three oratorios, much church music and numerous outstanding instrumental pieces, such as the organ concerti, the Opus 6 Concerti Grossi, the Water Music, and the Fireworks Music.

Handel's best known work is probably the oratorio, "Messiah", written within a 24-day period, and completed on 14 September 1741. An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus, telling a sacred story without costumes, scenery, or acting. "Messiah" is the story of the prophecy of the coming Messiah as told in the Old Testament, and the life and death of Jesus, set to texts from the King James Bible. Originally conceived as an Easter oratorio, it has become popular to perform it at Christmas, particularly as it culminates with the powerful "Hallelujah" chorus.

During the London premiere of "Messiah" on 23 March 1743, King George II rose to his feet during the Hallelujah chorus and remained standing until its end. Thus began the tradition that still endures today, of the audience standing during the performance of the Hallelujah chorus.

1769  -             The developer of the geologic map, William Smith, is born.

William Smith was born on 23 March 1769 in Churchill, Oxfordshire. Initially a surveyor's assistant, it was while working for Somersetshire Coal Canal that he noticed strata (layers of rock of similar composition) were arranged in a predictable pattern, and that the various strata could always be found in the same relative positions. Further, each particular stratum could be identified by the fossils it contained, and the same succession of fossil groups from older to younger rocks could be found in many parts of England.

From this, Smith extrapolated that strata and their characteristics were consistent throughout the country. By continually taking samples and mapping the locations of the various strata, he produced the first large scale geological map, of the area around Bath, Somerset, in 1799. A geological map is a special-purpose map made for the purpose of showing subsurface geological features. In 1815 Smith published the first geological map of any country, covering the whole of England and Wales.

1903  -             The earliest version of the board game 'Monopoly' is developed.

The popular board game 'Monopoly' is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single seller. The game was developed by Charles B Darrow, but the concept was actually based on a game by Lizzie J Magie, a Quaker from Virginia. Magie's invention was called the Landlord Game, and was designed to promote her political agenda by demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants. Magie applied for the patent on her game on 23 March 1903, and received her patent in January of the following year. The properties on Magie's board were for rent only, not acquisition. Otherwise, the game was played much like the Monopoly of today.

Darrow developed his own version of the game and patented it in 1935. The current form of 'Monopoly' was released on 5 November 1935. It was immediately popular as, during the Depression, people enjoyed the concept of a game in which players could make their fortune, accumulate large sums of money and send other players into financial ruin.

1950  -             Today is World Meteorological Day.

23 March is World Meteorological Day. Every year, World Meteorological Day is celebrated to commemorate the establishment of the Convention of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 23 March 1950. WMO, the headquarters of which are at Geneva, is an intergovernmental organisation with a membership of 187 Member States and Territories. It became the specialised agency of the United Nations for meteorology, operational hydrology and related geophysical sciences, and originated from the International Meteorological Organization (IMO), which was founded in 1873. The purpose of WMO is to promote international cooperation between meteorological stations around the world, standardise meteorological observations, further develop research and training, and extend the application of meteorological findings to different fields.

Cheers - John

Gday..

1827  -             Work begins on Busby's Bore to pipe water to meet the needs of the growing colony in New South Wales.

John Busby, born 24 March 1765, was a mining engineer who emigrated to New South Wales in 1824 to take up the position of Government Mineral Surveyor. He designed and created Sydney's first regular water supply in a project that became known as "Busby's Bore" or "Lachlan Tunnel". Although Sydney had been well supplied by Tank Stream for several decades, by the 1820s, the stream was so polluted from the colonists using it for their sewerage that a new water supply was required. Governor Lachlan Macquarie, a man with a vision for improving the city's infrastructure, commissioned Busby for this task.

The project involved tunnelling 3.6 km through largely sandstone rock from the Lachlan Swamp in what is now Centennial Park to a reservoir in Hyde Park. Construction started on Busby's birthday, on 24 March 1827, and took ten years to complete, being built by convicts who did not make a particularly motivated workforce. As the tunnelling was done entirely by hand, the rock strata also caused some difficulties.

Busby's Bore supplemented Sydney's original supply of drinking water from Tank Stream for around sixty years before it was decommissioned after the water was found to be too contaminated. Near the location where the original Busbys Bore entered the City is Busby's Bore Fountain, which was opened by the Lord Mayor in 1962, and which tells the story of Sydney's early water supply. In 1988, Busbys Bore Commemorative Cairn was also unveiled. In May 2006, it was decided that Busby's Bore would be reopened as part of a project to irrigate the Botanic Gardens, The Domain and Hyde Park with waste water.

1874  -             American escapologist Harry Houdini is born.

Harry Houdini was born Erik Weisz on 24 March 1874 in Budapest, Hungary. When his family moved to the United States in 1878, their family name was changed to Weiss, and Erik became Ehrich. In 1891, Ehrich became a professional magician, and began calling himself Harry Houdini as a tribute to the French magician Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin. His initial focus was on card tricks, but he began experimenting with escape acts which he then perfected through the years. Houdini could free himself from handcuffs, chains, ropes and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope or suspended in water, sometimes in plain sight of the audience. In 1913, he introduced perhaps his most famous act, the Chinese Water Torture Cell, in which he was suspended upside-down in a locked glass and steel cabinet full to overflowing with water.

Houdini was noted for exposing spiritualists and their fake 'supernatural' phenomena, and once offered a $10,000 reward to anyone who could produce such a phenomenon which Houdini could not reproduce by natural means. Houdini died of peritonitis from a ruptured appendix on 31 October 1926.

1882  -             German scientist Robert Koch announces the discovery of the bacillus responsible for tuberculosis.

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch, born 11 December 1843, was a German physician. He became famous for the discovery of the anthrax bacillus in 1877, the cholera bacillus in 1883 and the tuberculosis bacillus, the discovery of which was announced on 24 March 1882. Tuberculosis was the cause of one in seven deaths in the mid-19th century, so the discovery of the bacillus was a vital step in bacteriological research. Three weeks later, on April 10, he published an article entitled The Etiology of Tuberculosis. Two years later, Koch published a second paper in which he expounded "Koch's postulates" - or criteria which must be fulfilled in order to establish a causal relationship between a parasite and a disease - which have since become basic to studies of all infectious diseases.

1942  -             Japanese aircraft bomb Port Moresby.

 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. Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, which had been defended by British Empire Forces, fell in a 70 day campaign that began in December 1941. In January 1942, Japanese forces landed in Rabaul. From here, 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.

On 24 March 1942, Japanese aircraft bombed Port Moresby, New Guinea, hoping to occupy the city as a base from which to debilitate shipping to Australia's east. This was the second attack on the town, with thefirst having occurred around six weeks earlier. The intention was that, by capturing New Guinea, Australia would be cut off from Allied assistance. 18 heavy bombers and three fighters dropped some 20 tons of bombs on Port Moresby's military hospital and the town itself. Surprisingly, there were no casualties.

1989  -             The Exxon Valdez oil tanker runs aground, creating an oil slick disaster in Alaska.

On 23 March 1989, the oil tanker Exxon Valdez departed from the Valdez oil terminal in Valdez, Alaska, heading south through Prince William Sound, with a full cargo of oil. At 12:04 am on 24 March 1989, the tanker hit Bligh Reef, splitting its side open and releasing up to 115,000 m³ of crude oil, though media reports put the figure much lower. The spillage affected 1,900 km of coastline; loss of wildlife estimates were 250,000 seabirds, nearly 3,000 sea otters, 300 harbour seals, 250 bald eagles, up to 22 killer whales and billions of salmon and herring eggs.

Numerous difficulties were encountered with the cleanup. Equipment was not readily available, or not up to the massive task. In the aftermath of the environmental disaster, US Congress passed the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, including a clause banning the Exxon Valdez from Alaskan waters. On 29 January 1990, the trial of captain Joseph Hazelwood began in Anchorage, Alaska, and on 27 February 1990, Exxon and its shipping company were indicted on five criminal counts. Exxon spent around 2 billion dollars cleaning up the spill with 11,000 workers, and a further $1 billion to settle civil and criminal charges related to the case. A lawsuit brought by fishermen, property owners, businesses and communities who claimed they were harmed by the spill was still in progress as of 2002.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1936  -             Prime Minister Joseph Lyons opens the worlds longest submarine telephone and telegraph cable link, extending from mainland Australia to Tasmania.

The telegraph was the precursor to the telephone. Within Australia, the first telegraph line was laid from Melbourne's city centre to Williamstown in 1854, while South Australia followed two years later with a line from Port Adelaide to Adelaide city. The first intercolonial telegraph line connected Melbourne to Adelaide in 1858, leading the way for links to the other Australian colonies over the next few decades.

Meanwhile, Alexander Graham Bell developed telephone technology and demonstrated the first practical telephone in 1876. That same year, experimentation with the telephone commenced in Australia. These early tests were conducted by Charles Todd, South Australian Government Astronomer and Postmaster General, and a leading figure in the development of telegraphy and telephony in Australia. Transmissions enabling the human voice to carry over distances of up to 400 kilometres were successfully trialled. The first telephone exchanges in Australia opened in 1880, in Melbourne and Brisbane. By 1887, each of the capital cities had its own exchange. Although the telephone essentially developed out of improvements to the telegraph, new cables were required to accommodate telephonic communication. In 1898, an extra copper wire for the telephone was added to the Overland Telegraph Line, which connected Australia to the rest of the world.

Despite being separated from the Australian mainland, submarine technology enabled the colony of Tasmania to also be linked. The first telegraph underwater cable had been laid from the island to Victoria in 1859, but it had failed and been replaced in 1869. A new submarine cable was required for the telephone link to the mainland. Extending from Apollo Bay in Victoria to Stanley on the northwest coast of Tasmania, the cable was completed in 1936 and was, at the time, the longest submarine cable in the world. On 25 March 1936, Australias 10th Prime Minister, Joseph Lyons, who was born in the town of Stanley, opened the new telephone and telegraph cable link between Tasmania and the mainland.

1957  -             The European Economic Community, or Common Market, is formed.

The European Economic Community (EEC), also known as the Common Market, was founded on 25 March 1957 with the signing of the Treaty in Rome, and came into operation in January 1958. The original member states included Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and West Germany (now Germany). The EEC had as its aim the eventual economic union of its member nations, ultimately leading to economic and political union of Western Europe. It worked for the free movement of labour and capital, the abolition of trusts and cartels, and the development of joint and reciprocal policies on labour, social welfare, agriculture, transport, and foreign trade. The formation of the EEC was in response to both the giant market enjoyed by the United States and the sharing of political and economic resources apparent in Eastern Europe.

Britain initially declined to join the EEC, establishing the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) in 1960 instead. Significant economic growth by the EEC caused Britain to reconsider by the early 1960s: however, its application for membership was vetoed by France, due to Britain's close ties to the USA. Britain finally gained entrance to the Common Market in 1973, as did Ireland and Denmark. Greece joined in 1981, Portugal and Spain in 1986, and the former East Germany as part of reunified Germany in 1990.

In 1993, the European Union succeeded the EEC, paving the way for the creation of a central European bank and common currency, and a common defence policy. Austria, Finland, and Sweden joined the EU in 1995.

1975  -             King Faisal of Saudi Arabia is assassinated.

Faisal bin Abdelaziz Al Saud was King of Saudi Arabia from 1964 to 1975. He was appointed regent of Saudi Arabia after financial misdealings of his father, Ibn Saud, caused the nation to become bankrupt. He assumed office on 4 March 1964, and on 2 November of that year he became king following the abdication of his brother Saud who left for Greece.

Faisal's rule saw oil production increase, which along with the rise in price of oil, gave the Saudi government previously unknown wealth. This allowed Faisal to introduce various reforms, including girls schools and television. He sought a balance between modernisation and maintaining Saudi Arabia's Islamic heritage. In 1973, Faisal began a program intended to increase the military power of Saudi Arabia. On October 17, he withdrew Saudi oil from world markets, quadrupling the price. Faisal's action was the primary force behind the 1973 energy crisis.

King Faisal was fatally wounded on 25 March 1975 when his nephew Prince Faisal Ibu Musaed allegedly fired three bullets at him with a pistol at point blank range as the king greeted him. The Prince was later found guilty of regicide and was executed in the traditional Islamic way in June 1975. Although the prince's motives remain unknown, it has been speculated that he sought to avenge the death of his elder brother Khalid, who died in a clash with security forces in 1966.

1979  -             The world's first space shuttle orbiter, Columbia, is delivered to the John F Kennedy Space Centre to prepare for launch.

Space Shuttle Columbia, the world's first reusable space vehicle, was the first space shuttle in NASA's orbital fleet. Columbia was named after the Boston-based sloop Columbia captained by American Robert Gray, which explored the Pacific Northwest and became the first American vessel to circumnavigate the world. Following its construction, the orbiter arrived at John F Kennedy Space Center on 25 March 1979 to prepare for its first launch. Its first mission lasted from April 12 to April 14, 1981, during which it orbited the Earth 36 times.

On its final mission, the craft was carrying the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, and the first female astronaut of Indian birth, Kalpana Chawla. Other crew members on the final flight included Rick Husband (commander), Willie McCool (pilot), Michael P Anderson, Laurel Clark, and David M Brown. Columbia re-entered the atmosphere after a 16-day scientific mission on the morning of 1 February 2003. It disintegrated 16 minutes before it was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida, killing all of the astronauts on board. Subsequent investigations indicated that a breach of the shuttle's heat shield on take-off caused it to break up on re-entry.

1995  -             The precursor to all modern Wikis makes its debut.

A wiki is a collaborative content management system or, to put it more simply, a website which allows users to contribute and edit content. The worlds first user-editable website was WikiWikiWeb. Launched on 25 March 1995 by its developer, programmer Ward Cunningham, it was designed as an easier way for programmers to share and exchange their ideas. The word wiki is a Hawaiian word meaning quick. It was selected by Cunningham as he wanted the content to be able to be quickly and easily edited by users. The formats for all modern wikis are descended from this original WikiWikiWeb, including online encyclopaedia Wikipedia, founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger in 2001.

2008  -             New Zealand ghost ship Air Apparent is abandoned.

The Air Apparent was a small yacht which was abandoned off the northern coast of New Zealand on 25 March 2008. The inexperience of the yachts crew caused them to panic when the boats battery died amidst high winds, and they mutinied against skipper, Bill Heritage. When they set off an emergency position indicating radio beacon against the skippers orders, this alerted the coast guard who sent a rescue helicopter, and Heritage was forced to abandon his yacht.

Air Apparent continued to sail alone, reaching Norfolk Island some 800 nautical miles away, where it was reported by the French Navy patrol ship La Moqueuse on a trip from Noumea to Nelson. Fourteen months after the yacht was abandoned on 25 March, fishermen from the small north Queensland sugar town of Bowen towed it ashore. It was found to have suffered significant water damage as a result of the hatch being left open, but skipper Bill Heritage was amazed it was still afloat.        

Cheers - John

Gday...

1812  -             An earthquake devastates Caracas, Venezuela, killing 20,000.

Caracas is the capital of Venezuela, the northern-most country in South America. The city lies in the contours of a narrow mountain valley which is separated from the coast by a steep mountain range, Cerro Ávila, that rises above 2600 m.

On 26 March 1812, Caracas was destroyed by an earthquake. More than twenty thousand people in the city died, whilst a total of 45,000 people were killed in the further-reaching effects of the earthquake across Venezuela. At the time, the disaster was portrayed by authorities as a divine punishment to people rebelling against the Spanish Crown, following the declaration of Independence from Spain in 1811. The town recovered and was rebuilt after almost 90% of it was devastated.

1838  -             George Grey discovers evidence to suggest other Europeans had explored Australia's northwest hinterland prior to white settlement.

Sir George Edward Grey, born 14 April 1812, was Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony (South Africa), Premier of New Zealand and a writer. Prior to his political career, however, he was an explorer to one of Australia's remotest regions - the northwest. He was the first known adventurer to this region.

Grey's first expedition to the area was in late 1837, but it was beset with numerous problems including Aboriginal attack and intense heat and humidity (in some areas, over 50 degrees C) compounded by lack of water. Grey himself was speared in the hip and spent two weeks recovering. His first sight of luxuriant country beyond the Macdonald Range convinced him to continue, and after several more days, he discovered the Glenelg River, named after Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary of State.

Shortly after this, Grey discovered evidence that he was perhaps not the first European to explore the hinterland of northwest Australia. On 26 March 1838, and over the ensuing three days, he discovered numerous Aboriginal cave paintings near the head of the Glenelg River. Some of the figures depicted seemed to be wearing long garments, with helmets or hats. Another cave held an unusual painting of a non-Aboriginal man's figure, over 3m long, wearing a flowing reddish gown. Theories suggest that these paintings were early depictions of Portuguese or Spanish mariners or priests who may have visited the area long before any European settlement on the western coast.

1931  -             Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy is born.

Leonard Simon Nimoy, who gained worldwide fame as Star Treks Mr Spock, was born on 26 March 1931 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the second son of Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine. The interest he showed in acting from a very young age was encouraged by his grandfather. He undertook acting lessons, first at Boston College, and then at the historic Pasadena Playhouse in California. Here, he found himself drawn to method acting, which enabled him to develop a more intense understanding of characters psychologies, allowing for a better stage presence as an actor. Nimoy took Marlon Brando as his role model, even dressing as Brando did.

Nimoys first role was role in the 1952 film Kid Monk Baroni, in which he played the main character. Although not a huge success at the time, the film attracted a greater audience while Nimoy served with the US Army Reserve in 1953-54: by the time he left the Army Reserve, he had gained prominence as an actor. He was offered numerous roles in television shows such as Dragnet, The Rough Riders, Sea Hunt, Bonanza, Rawhide, The Untouchables, The Twilight Zone, Dr Kildare and Perry Mason. However, it was after Nimoy appeared in a 1965 episode of The Lieutenant that his talents attracted the attention of producer and writer Gene Roddenberry, who was casting for the new science fiction series Star Trek.

Nimoy was perfect for the role of half-Vulcan, half-human science officer Mr Spock, and Roddenberry encouraged him to make the role his own, adding unique touches to cultivate the stoic and practical character. The iconic Vulcan salute was developed by Nimoy himself, and is believed to have been based on a Jewish blessing. The Vulcan nerve pinch was also Nimoys idea, as he wanted a more sophisticated method than phasers for rendering enemies unconscious. The original series of Star Trek aired from 1966 to 1969 and earned Nimoy three Emmy Award nominations. It became more popular after it was sold into syndication, and stations were able to air it at times more suited to its fans and potential audience. A new audience created a broad market for the franchise, thus paving the way for the success of six Star Trek movies based around the characters of the original series, all of which featured Mr Spock. After his Star Trek years, Nimoy continued to be involved in a number of other acting and directing projects, both on-screen and on stage.

Leonard Nimoy died on 27 February 2015 from complications arising from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which he had developed as a result of years of heavy smoking earlier in his life.

1934  -             The Flying Doctor Service announces that it will expand from Queensland into Western Australia.

Australia's Flying Doctor Service began with the vision of Reverend John Flynn. After Flynn was posted as a Presbyterian minister to Beltana, a tiny, remote settlement 500 kilometres north of Adelaide, he reported on the difficulties of ministering to such a widely scattered population. This resulted in him being appointed as the first Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission, the bush department of the Presbyterian Church. At that time, only two doctors served an area of 300,000 square kilometres in Western Australia and 1,500,000 square kilometres in the Northern Territory. Realising the need for better medical care for the people of the outback, Flynn established numerous bush hospitals and hostels.

Flynn realised that technology such as radio and the aeroplane could assist in providing a more effective medical service. After receiving advice from Australian World War 1 pilot, Clifford Peel, on the capabilities and costs of then-available planes, Flynn turned his considerable fund-raising talents to the task of establishing a flying medical service. On 15 May 1928, the Aerial Medical Service was established at Cloncurry, in western Queensland. Flynn also collaborated with Alfred Traeger, who developed the pedal radio, a lighter, compact radio for communication, readily available to more residents of the outback for its size and cost.

Initially conceived as a one-year experiment, Flynn's vision continued to expand, providing a valuable medical service to people in remote areas. On 26 March 1934, it was announced that the Flying Doctor Service would extend from Queensland into Western Australia. This was to be the first of numerous expansions into each of the other states.

In 1942 the service was renamed the Flying Doctor Service. Queen Elizabeth II approved the prefix "Royal" in 1955 following her visit to Australia, and the service became the Royal Flying Doctor Service, or RFDS.

1937  -             Spinach growers in Crystal City, Texas, erect a statue of Popeye in gratitude to him for saving their dying industry.

Popeye the Sailor Man is a famous comic strip character, created by Elzie Crisler Segar and first appearing in the King Features comic strip Thimble Theatre on 17 January 1929. Popeye is naturally tough, but an adaptation of his character into animated cartoons saw him popping open a can of spinach and swallowing the contents whenever he needed a burst of super-human strength. Prior to the emergence of Popeye, spinach farmers in Crystal City, Texas, USA, were facing a decline in demand for their product. On 26 March 1937, the farmers were so grateful to Popeye for reviving their dying industry that they erected a statue of him in the town.

The statue that stands outside Crystal City Hall is only a reproduction of the real statue. To protect the original from vandals and mascot-collectors, the real statue remains within the walls of the Crystal City Hall.

1984  -             Australia introduces the $100 note.

Decimal currency was first introduced in Australia on 14 February 1966. The new Australian dollar replaced the Australian pound as the nominal currency of Australia (different to the Pound Sterling), and introduced a decimal system. Initially, the Australian dollar was introduced at a rate of two dollars per pound, or ten shillings per dollar. The Australian dollar, AUD or A$, is the official currency of the Commonwealth of Australia, including the Australian Antarctic Territory, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Heard Island and McDonald Islands and Norfolk Island, as well as the independent Pacific island states of Kiribati, Nauru and Tuvalu.

The introduction of decimal currency saw the first banknotes of $1, $2, $5, $10 and $20. The $50 was first issued in 1973, and on 26 March 1984, the first $100 note was issued.

1996  -             A bronze statue to Captain Matthew Flinders' cat is unveiled at the New South Wales State Library.

Matthew Flinders was the sea explorer who, together with Bass, was the first to prove that Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, was an island and not connected to the mainland. Flinders was also the first to circumnavigate the continent, and between December 1801 and June 1803, he charted most of the coastline of Australia.

Accompanying Flinders on most of his journeys between 1799 and 1804 was his cat, Trim. Trim was born on His Majesty's ship 'The Rousabout' during a journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Botany Bay in 1799. Trim quickly endeared himself to whichever crew accompanied Flinders on his many journeys. Described as black with a bushy tail, a white star on his chest, white paws and a white chin, Trim showed himself to be a cat of superior intelligence and personality. After falling overboard numerous times, Trim became adept at swimming, catching a rope thrown to him and climbing back on board ship. Trim travelled with Flinders to Moreton Bay on the 'Norfolk', to England in 'The Reliance' and circumnavigated Australia in 'The Investigator'.

Flinders was returning to England on 'The Janty' when he was shipwrecked on a coral reef in what Flinders referred to as the Great Equinoxial ocean on the night of 17 August 1803. Trim accompanied Flinders through two months of sheltering in tents on islands. When ships arrived to assist Flinders and his crew, Trim elected to follow his master in the schooner 'Minikin' rather than join the crew who travelled to China on a larger, sturdier ship. When Flinders was forced to land at the Isle of France due to the Minikin's leaking, he was captured by the French and detained on the island of Mauritius on the grounds that he was a spy. For some time, Trim enjoyed the company of a French woman and her daughter on the island, until one night he sadly disappeared, never to be seen again. Flinders was distraught, and during his next few years' internment at the island, penned an historic and little-known essay, a tribute to his beloved cat Trim.

On 28 March 1996, a bronze statue was unveiled commemorating Trim. Sculpted by John Cornwell, it now stands on the windowsill of the Mitchell Library in Macquarie Street, Sydney, fittingly positioned just behind a statue of his master, Matthew Flinders. The unveiling was performed by Rear-Admiral David Campbell, in the presence of State Librarian Dagmar Schmidmaier and around four hundreds dignitaries and guests.

Cheers - John

Now I know I get confused easy theses days as I get older Rocky,  but you have me really confused today mate

The other day you told us about Captain James T Kirk was going to be born in 2213. Today you tell us that Spock (Leonard Nimoy) was born this day in 1931.

See how I am confused mate   The sums don't work out right  

Gday...

1838  -             Eyre discovers Lake Hindmarsh in South Australia.

Edward John Eyre was born on 5 August 1815 in Hornsea, Yorkshire. After coming to Australia, he gained valuable bush skills whilst droving cattle overland from Sydney through to the Liverpool Plains, Molonglo and Port Phillip. He was keen to open new stock routes through the country, and aimed to be the first to overland cattle from Sydney to the fledgling colony of South Australia.

On 21 December 1837, Eyre departed from Limestone Plains where Canberra now stands, with one thousand sheep and six hundred cattle. His route took him first to Melbourne where he replenished his supplies, then he hoped to head directly west to Adelaide, thus avoiding returning along the better-known route of the Murray River. Conditions were difficult, with the countryside in the grip of late summer drought, and he was beaten back by the impenetrable mallee country of western Victoria. Eyre was forced to retrace his steps to the Murray River. The party struggled from lack of water and drove the animals as quickly as they could to the almost-dry Wimmera River. On 27 March 1838, Eyre was guided by friendly Aborigines to a previously unknown freshwater lake, where waterfowl was abundant. Eyre named it Lake Hindmarsh, after the first Governor of South Australia, Sir John Hindmarsh.

The overlanding venture ended up covering close to 2,500 kilometres and took nearly seven months. Because of his unsuccessful short-cut, Eyre was not the first to overland cattle to South Australia: he was beaten by drovers Joseph Hawdon and Charles Bonney.

1848  -             A brutal murder is committed in colonial Brisbane, but the murderer's legacy eventually leads to the founding of the University of Queensland.

The colony of the Moreton Bay District was founded in 1824 when explorer John Oxley arrived at Redcliffe with a crew and 29 convicts. The settlement was established at Humpybong, but 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 September 1825, the settlement was given the name of Brisbane. The area was opened up for free settlement in 1838, and in 1839, there were calls to cease transportation to Moreton Bay. In May 1842, Moreton Bay was declared a free settlement.

Becoming a free settlement did not mean Brisbane was free of crime. On the morning of 27 March 1848, residents discovered there had been a brutal murder in their midst. Parts of the body of forester Robert Cox, who had been butchered the day before, were found around Kangaroo Point, a settlement on the Brisbane River. While a local cook was arrested, and subsequently hanged, it was later revealed that the wrong man had been convicted.

Patrick Mayne was a local butcher who had committed the murder and stolen the money in order to establish his own shop. Mayne went on to become one of the settlement's wealthiest people and an excellent businessman, and he was later elected to Brisbane's first municipal council. Following a deathbed confession of the murder in 1865, it transpired that Mayne suffered from schizophrenia, and had violent tendencies. His children were ostracised, and several suffered from mental illness also. Using their father's wealth, two of the children, James and Mary, donated the land upon which the prestigious University of Queensland now stands.

There remains some doubt as to whether Patrick Mayne did actually commit the murder. Regardless, the man's legacy lives on in the University of Queensland.

1930  -             Brisbane and Sydney are joined by standard-gauge rail link.

From the beginning of the development of a railway network in Australia, each of the colonies adopted their own gauge, or width of railway track. In Victoria, Tasmania and parts of South Australia, the gauge was 1600 mm; in Western Australia, Queensland and the remainder of South Australia, it was a narrow 1067 mm, while Tasmania also changed to 1067 mm in the late 1800s; and New South Wales adopted the standard European gauge of 1435 mm. Passengers crossing Australia from Brisbane to Perth were required to change trains six times.

There were also difficulties for train travellers between Sydney and Brisbane. For decades, the only rail link between Queensland and New South Wales was at Wallangarra, near the northern New South Wales town of Tenterfield. Here, because of the different gauges, passengers were required to transfer to a new train, while freight had to be transhipped in freight sheds. It was clear that a direct rail link was needed between the capital cities of these two eastern states.

On 27 March 1930, a standard-gauge rail link was opened at South Brisbane, with the ribbon being officially cut by Mrs A E Moore, wife of the Premier of Queensland. The coastal route shaved 101 miles, or 162 km, off the inland route, and saved five to six hours in travel time.

1964  -             An earthquake of magnitude 9.2 strikes Alaska, killing 125.

Alaska is the northernmost state of the United States, bordered by Canada to the east, the Gulf of Alaska and the Pacific Ocean to the south, the Bering Sea to the west, and the Arctic Ocean to the north. It was also the scene of the most powerful earthquake in US and North American history.

At 5:36pm Alaska Standard Time on 27 March 1964, a fault between the Pacific and North American plates ruptured near College Fjord in Prince William Sound. With a magnitude of 9.2, the quake lasted for three to five minutes in most areas, generating huge tsunamis that swept down upon the Alaskan coast. The earthquake affected some 250,000 km² of the state: much damage was caused by liquefaction, creating landslides, huge fissures and vertical displacement of up to 11.5m in some areas. 131 people were killed as a result of the earthquake: nine in the earthquake itself, 106 from tsunamis in Alaska, and 16 from tsunamis elsewhere. Property damage was estimated at over $300 million (1964 dollars), the equivalent of $1.8 billion in 2005 US dollars.

1977  -             583 are killed as two jumbo jets collide on a runway in Tenerife, the Canary Islands.

The Canary Islands constitute an archipelago of seven islands in the Atlantic Ocean. They are located off the northwestern coast of Africa and form an autonomous community of Spain. On the evening of 27 March 1977, a Boeing 747 belonging to Dutch national airline KLM, and a Pan American 747 travelling from Los Angeles to the island of Las Palmas, collided on the runway at Los Rodeos airport, Tenerife.

Both aircraft, along with at least three others, had been diverted to Tenerife after a terrorist bomb threat closed the airport on nearby Las Palmas. Los Rodeos was a small regional airport, unable to cater for so many large aircraft, having just one runway and one major taxiway parallel to it, as well as several small taxiways connecting them. The diverted aircraft were parked on the long taxiway, meaning that it could not be used for taxiing. Instead, departing aircraft were required to taxi along the runway to position themselves for takeoff. Fog limited the visual range to 300m.

The collision occurred when the KLM jumbo preparing for take-off clipped the Pan-Am plane which was taxiing across the runway. The lower fuselage of the KLM plane hit the upper fuselage of the Pan Am plane, ripping apart the centre of the Pan Am jet above the wing. The KLM plane slammed into the ground belly-up 150 m past the point of collision and slid down the runway. 583 people were killed in the resultant explosion and fireball; no-one aboard the KLM jet survived. 335 of the 396 aboard the Pan Am flight survived, including the captain, who was later cleared of any blame. The crash was blamed on the KLM pilot who had not checked if he was clear for take-off.

1980  -             123 oil rig workers are killed after a North Sea accommodation platform collapses.

The North Sea is in the Atlantic Ocean, located between Norway, Denmark and the UK. North Sea oil was discovered in the early 1960s, with the first North Sea oil coming on line in 1971. It contains the majority of Europe's oil reserves and is one of the largest non-OPEC producing regions in the world. Most reserves lie beneath waters belonging to the United Kingdom and Norway.

On 27 March 1980, gales in the North sea generated huge waves which hit the accommodation section of the Norwegian oil platform Alexander Kielland, resulting in its collapse. The accommodation platform contained bedrooms, lounges, kitchens and leisure facilities for workers, most of whom were Norwegian, though there were some Americans and Britons on board. It was later discovered that there was a previously undetected crack in one leg of the platform, weakening the structure. Whilst some workers were able to reach the lifeboats before the platform fully capsized, the accident killed 123 oil rig workers.

2013  -             Australias longest road bridge, spanning the Macleay River and surrounding floodplains in New South Wales, is opened to traffic.

The Macleay River is a river in the New South Wales mid-coast. Over its 298km east-southeast course, it is joined by 26 tributaries before emptying into the ocean near the town of South West Rocks. Because of this, it is subject to flooding. The main eastern highway, the Pacific Highway, crosses the Macleay River floodplains and continues through the nearby town of Kempsey. Due to regular flooding and the location of a major highway through the town, a new Kempsey bypass was planned to alleviate many of the problems associated with flooding and regular roadworks to repair damage. The bridge was constructed as part of the 14.5km bypass.

Unnamed for several months, the Macleay River Bridge, also known by locals as the Kempsey Bridge, was opened to traffic on 27 March 2013, after first being opened for pedestrians for a preview walk on 24 February. With a length of 3.2km, it features 941 concrete super-T beams, each 34m long and 1,500mm deep, supported by 93 piers.

The bridge overtook the Hornibrook Highway in Queensland as Australias longest bridge. Joining Brighton on Brisbanes north shore to the Redcliffe Peninsula, this was Australias longest bridge from when it opened in 1935 until it was dismantled in 2011.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1908  -             Witches Falls, the world's third oldest national park, is declared the first National Park in Queensland.

Witches Falls is a thick, lush rainforest region located in the Gold Coast hinterland in southeast Queensland. It is now part of the Tamborine National Park, and encompasses large sections of land from the plateau and down to the foothills of Tamborine Mountain. Witches Falls and Mount Tamborine comprise the most northerly remnant of ancient lava flows from Mt Warning in northern New South Wales.

Witches Falls was gazetted the first National Park in Queensland on 28 March 1908. This makes it Australia's second-oldest National park after the Royal National Park, established in 1879, near Sydney, NSW, and the world's third-oldest national park, after Yellowstone (USA).

1922  -             Neville Bonner, the first Aboriginal parliamentarian, is born.

Neville Bonner was born on 28 March 1922 at Ukerabagh, near Tweed Heads in northern New South Wales. He worked as a farm labourer before settling on Palm Island, near Townsville, Queensland in 1946, where he rose to the position of Assistant Settlement Overseer. In 1960 he moved to Ipswich, where he joined the board of directors of the One People Australia League (OPAL), a moderate indigenous rights organisation, becoming its Queensland president in 1970. He joined the Liberal Party in 1967 and held local office in the party. Following the resignation of Liberal Senator Annabelle Rankin in 1971, Bonner was chosen to fill the vacancy. He thus became the first indigenous Australian to sit in the Australian Parliament. He was elected in his own right in 1972, 1974, 1975 and 1980.

In 1979 Bonner was named Australian of the Year, and in 1984 he was awarded the title Officer of the Order of Australia. From 1992 to 1996 he was member of the Griffith University Council, and he was awarded an honorary doctorate in 1993. Bonner died at Ipswich on 5 February 1999: the Queensland federal electorate of Bonner, created in 2004, was named in his honour.

1942  -             Critchley Parker sets off in search of a new Jewish homeland within Australia.

Zionism was a political movement and an ideology that supported the formation of a Jewish homeland, prior to the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Even before Hitler began his campaign of exterminating the Jewish race, the British Zionist League sought a new homeland for Jews hoping to flee the increasingly dangerous climate of pre-war Europe. The Kimberley region in northwest Australia was considered as a possibility, but vetoed by then-Prime Minister John Curtin.

Critchley Parker was a young Tasmanian Zionist who took it upon himself to locate an appropriate site for the new Jewish homeland in Tasmania. On 28 March 1942, he set out to explore the area around Port Davey in the state's southwest. Parker's diary entries reflect his enthusiasm at the possibilities of settlement in the hitherto-untamed region. However, when he struck difficulties due to rain and gales and signalled for help, his pre-arranged signal went unseen. After some three weeks of subsisting on water and aspirin, he died in the wilderness, an Australian martyr for a Jewish cause.

1979  -             A partial nuclear meltdown occurs at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania, USA.

The Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station is located near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, USA. It was the site of a near-nuclear accident, a partial core meltdown, on 28 March 1979. At around 4:00am, the main feedwater pumps in the secondary non-nuclear cooling system failed in the TMI-2 reactor. This caused a reduction in feedwater flow which led to overheating and partial melting of its uranium core and production of hydrogen gas. The partial meltdown released radioactive material and forced the evacuation of thousands of nearby residents.

The crisis lasted twelve days. The accident was ultimately attributed to a combination of human error and equipment failure. Despite the fears of radiation leaking into the atmosphere, research released in 2002 indicated that incidences of cancer in the area were not significantly higher than elsewhere.

2008  -             A strange object found on an outback property in Queensland is identified as 'space junk'.

Charleville is a town in western Queensland, some 750 km west of the Brisbane, the state's capital. Around 80km from Charleville is the small town of Cheepie which, although it once boasted a police station, blacksmith, railway station, tent boarding houses, butcher shop, bakery and two vegetable gardens, is now just a ghost town.

On 7 November 2007, Cheepie farmer James Stirton found a 20kg burnt and unidentifiable object on his 40,500-hectare property. He noticed the object was about 54 cm in length, hollow, and covered in a carbon-fibre material. Stirton took it in to the Charleville school, where staff requested that a representative from the Brisbane Planetarium come and examine it. The identity of the object was confirmed on 28 March 2008 by Brisbane Planetarium curator Mark Rigby. The item, named 2006-047-C, was identified as a helium or nitrogen tank from a rocket which had been used to launch a US solar satellite into space in October 2006.

There is an estimated 5000 tonnes of space junk obiting the Earth at any given time, so falling space junk is more common than people realise.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard
Re 1979 - A partial nuclear meltdown occurs at the Three Mile Island Nuclear Generating Station in Pennsylvania, USA.

I can clearly remember this situation.
From memory back in the day, that Nuclear power plant was supposed to have every conceivable fail safe mechanism available.
They eventually blamed human error in not picking up, a malfunctioning valve.

Gday...

1738  -             Inventor of the concept of the guillotine, Joseph Guillotin, is born.

A guillotine is an instrument for capital punishment by which the victim is decapitated. The machine consists of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy blade. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, beheading the victim.

The inventor of the guillotine was Joseph Ignace Guillotin, born on 29 March 1738 in Saintes, France. He was not a torturer; on the contrary, Dr Guillotin was a humanitarian physician and a member of a minor political reform movement that wanted to banish the death penalty completely. He sought a painless method for capital punishment as an interim step towards completely banning the death penalty. Prior to the guillotine, members of the French nobility were beheaded with a sword or axe, often requiring several blows. Commoners might be hanged or quartered, whereby their limbs were tied to four oxen and the animals were driven in four different directions, ripping the person apart.

Guillotin worked with German engineer and harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt to develop the concept of a machine that would behead painlessly. The final product was designed by Dr Antoine Louis, secretary of the College of Surgeons. In 1791, a law was passed in France requiring all capital punishment to be carried out by guillotine. Assistant executioner and carpenter Leon Berger further modified and improved the machine in 1870.

1841  -             The isolated town of Eyre is named, after Eyre's party finds fresh water two metres below the sandy surface.

Edward John Eyre was the first white man to cross southern Australia from Adelaide to the west, travelling across the Nullarbor Plain to King George's Sound, now called Albany. Eyre originally intended to cross the continent from south to north. He was forced to revise his plans when his way became blocked by the numerous saltpans of South Australia, leading him to believe that a gigantic inland sea in the shape of a horseshoe prevented access to the north.

Following this fruitless attempt, Eyre regrouped at Streaky Bay, on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. He then continued west reaching Fowler's Bay on 17 November 1840, where he replenished his food and water supplies from a government cutter. He had to choose between attempting another northward trek, or heading west, which had never before been attempted. Eyre chose to go west in a gruelling journey across the Nullarbor, during which his party faced starvation and thirst. On 29 March 1841, the men reached the coast after a journey of 180km without water. They feasted on fish caught in the shallows and, digging behind the sand dunes, they located fresh water at a depth of only 180cm. This spot was named Eyre, and after the advent of telegraph across Australia, a relay station was constructed near the site of the well.

1901  -             Sir Edmund Barton is officially elected as the first Prime Minister of Australia.

Edmund Barton first entered politics in 1879, when he successfully stood for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the University of Sydney constituency. 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.

On 1 January 1901, federation of the six Australian colonies was achieved and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. 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. Hopetoun, in what became known as the Hopetoun blunder, initially invited Sir William Lyne, the Premier of New South Wales, and an anti-Federationist in the referenda prior to Federation, to head the government. Lyne was unable to form a caretaker cabinet when Barton, leading the Protectionist party, refused to serve under him, whilst influential politician Alfred Deakin also convinced leading Victorian and South Australian politicians to decline to serve under Lyne. Hopetoun then turned to Barton.

Upon his appointment, Barton cleared the way for the first Commonwealth elections, resigning his New South Wales seat on 20 March. Barton won the Federal seat of Hume in the inaugural Federal elections on 29 March 1901. In this position, Barton was also elected as Prime Minister. None of the parties won by a clear majority, but the Protectionist party under Edmund Barton won more seats than any other party - 31 of the 75 seats. Barton remained Prime Minister from January 1901 to September 1903.

1912  -             Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott writes his final diary entry on his ill-fated expedition.

Robert Falcon Scott was born on 6 June 1868 in Devonport, England. He was a Royal Naval officer and explorer who commanded the National Antarctic Expedition in Discovery which began in 1900. On 31 December 1902, Scott's expedition reached the farthest point south of any known exploration party. Following new discoveries in the Antarctic region, Scott was keen to be the first to reach the South Pole. He took with him Lieutenant Henry Bowers, Dr. Edward Wilson, Petty Officer Edgar Evans and army Captain Lawrence Oates. Upon reaching the Pole on 17 January 1912, he found that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten him to it.

Scott's party made slow progress, due to a combination of particularly severe weather, and their own determination to forge ahead laden with their rock samples. Evans died after a fall which resulted in a quick physical and mental breakdown. Oates lost a foot to frostbite and was suffering residual effects of an old war wound. Feeling he was holding the party back, he departed their shelter one morning, uttering the famous words, "I am just going outside. I may be some time." He did not return.

On 29 March 1912, Scott made his final diary entry. He wote:

"Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more."

The bodies of the remaining three members of Scott's party were found in their final camp on 12 November 1912, just twenty kilometres from a substantial depot of supplies. With them were their diaries detailing their journey and their demise. A large ice cairn was then constructed over their frozen bodies to mark their final resting place.

1974  -             The Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury.

The Mariner 10 space probe, the last spacecraft in the Mariner program, was launched on 3 November 1973. It was the first to use the gravitational pull of one planet, Venus, to reach another, Mercury. Its mission was to measure the atmospheric, surface, and physical characteristics of Mercury and Venus.

The Mariner 10 first flew by Venus on 5 February 1974. After taking some 4000 photographs of Venus, Mariner 10 then flew by Mercury on 29 March 1974, taking the first photographs detailed enough to reveal the planet's cratered surface and a faint atmosphere of predominantly helium. Gravity assist enabled the spacecraft to return at six-month intervals for close mapping passes over the planet, but only half of Mercury was able to be photographed, as the other half was always in the dark when the spacecraft returned.

Engineering tests were continued until 24 March 1975, when the supply of attitude-control gas was depleted and the mission was terminated. Commands were immediately sent to the spacecraft to turn off its transmitter, and radio signals to Earth thereby stopped.

1979  -             The US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations concludes its report regarding the assassination of President John F Kennedy.

The US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of former President John F Kennedy in 1963 and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.

On 29 March 1979, after investigating for two years, the committee concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, the members of which were not identified. However, the committee reported that it did not believe the conspiracy included the governments of the Soviet Union or Cuba, nor the FBI, the CIA, or the Secret Service. It also stated it did not believe the conspiracy was carried out by any organised crime group, nor any anti-Castro group, but that it could not rule out individual members of either of those groups acting together. The committee also reported that it believed there was a strong likelihood that there were two gunmen involved. The Secret Service was rebuked for its failure to protect the President.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

This is very interesting reading, and I am sure that many others visit this topic, so thanks for that

Re 1979 - The US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations concludes its report regarding the assassination of President John F Kennedy.

Back in the day, we called it the cover up, of the cover up

Gday...

1772  -             France makes its first formal claim to Australian territory.

Over 150 years before English explorer Lieutenant James Cook ever sighted eastern Australia, the Dutch landed on the Western coast. In 1616, Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog landed at Cape Inscription, where he left a pewter plate with an inscription recording his landing. However, it was the French who made the first formal claim to Western Australian soil.

On 30 March 1772, French vessel Gros Ventre, under the command of Louis-François-Marie Aleno de Saint-Aloüarn, anchored off Turtle Bay on the northern coast of Dirk Hartog Island, Shark Bay. Mid-morning, Saint-Aloüarn sent a crew to reconnoitre the mainland. After venturing inland for some 14km without sighting any other living person, officer Mingault or Mengaud (spellings vary in documentation) took formal possession of the land, raising the flag. The occasion was documented, and the papers placed in a bottle and buried at the foot of a small tree, together with two coins (écus) of 'six francs' each, enclosed in lead capsules. The ship's log refers to this Bay as the 'Baie de Prise de Possession' (the Bay of Taking of Possession).

The first of the coins, dated 1766, was recovered in 1998 in an expedition led by Mr Philippe Godard of Noumea, together with Max Cramer, Kim Cramer, John Eckersley, Tom Bradley and Chris Shine of Geraldton. This prompted another expedition which retrieved a bottle containing only sand, with no trace of the document, despite the contents being carefully analysed by an archaeological team.

1791  -             Convict James Ruse is given the first land grant in the colony of New South Wales.

James Ruse was born on a farm in Cornwall around 1759. At age 22, he was convicted of burglary and, due to severe over-crowding in British gaols, spent over four years on the prison hulks in Plymouth Harbour. He was one of the convicts who was transported in the First Fleet to New South Wales, sailing on the 'Scarborough'. By the time he arrived in New South Wales, his seven-year sentence was almost over.

Governor Phillip was aware of the need to build a working, farming colony as soon as possible. Thus, in November 1788, Phillip selected Ruse to go to Rose Hill (now Parramatta), west of Sydney Town, and try his hand at farming. Ruse was allocated one and a half acres of already cleared ground and assisted in clearing a further five acres. He was given two sows and six hens and a deal was made for him to be fed and clothed from the public store for 15 months. In return, if he was successful, he was to be granted 30 acres. Ruse's farming venture was indeed successful, and in February 1791, he declared that he was self-sufficient. Governor Phillip rewarded Ruse with thirty acres, including the area he was already occupying, on 30 March 1791. This was the first permanent land grant in the new colony.

1816  -             Convict architect Francis Greenway is appointed Civil Architect and Assistant Engineer to the colonial government.

Francis Greenway was born near Bristol, England in 1777. He was already practising as an architect when he was convicted of forgery in 1812 and subsequently transported to New South Wales for fourteen yeas. He arrived in Sydney aboard the transport ship General Hewitt in February 1814. His wife and children followed five months later.

Greenway was permitted to work in his trade very soon after his arrival, opening an office in George Street and being awarded a ticket-of-leave. On 30 March 1816, Greenway was appointed Civil Architect and Assistant Engineer by Governor Lachlan Macquarie. Greenways first commission was to design the lighthouse on South Head, or the Macquarie Tower. Other buildings designed by Greenway include the Windsor Courthouse, the Female Factory at Parramatta, the Convict Barracks in Sydney, and various churches in Windsor and Liverpool.

1853  -             The great artist, Vincent van Gogh, is born.

Vincent Willem van Gogh was born on 30 March 1853 in Zundert, in the southern Netherlands. Van Gogh was not recognised for his talent during his lifetime. However, he is posthumously considered one of the greatest and most prolific painters in European history. He produced all of his work - some 900 paintings and 1100 drawings - in a ten year period. Van Gogh had an enormous influence on neo-Impressionism, Impressionism and early abstraction, and on many other aspects of 20th-century art. The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam is dedicated to Van Gogh's work and that of his contemporaries.

Van Gogh suffered a mental breakdown after only ten years working as an artist. The story goes that in December 1888, Van Gogh cut off the lower half of his left ear and took it to a brothel, where he presented it to a prostitute friend. The reason for this unusual behaviour has been theorised upon by many; the most likely cause was that it was the result of an argument with his painter friend Paul Gauguin, although that does not explain his bizarre behaviour. Regardless of the reason, shortly after this incident, van Gogh admitted himself to a mental institution. Two years after this, suffering from severe depression, Van Gogh shot himself in the chest and died two days later, on 29 July, 1890.

1981  -             An attempt is made to assassinate US President Ronald Reagan.

Ronald Wilson Reagan, born on 6 February 1911, was the 40th President of the United States (19811989) and the 33rd Governor of California (19671975). Before entering politics, Reagan was also a broadcaster, film actor, and head of the Screen Actors Guild. He was elected to the Presidency in 1980 in an electoral college landslide, beating incumbent President Jimmy Carter and giving the Republican Party a majority in the US Senate for the first time in 26 years. He became known for his confrontational foreign policy towards the Soviet Union and Socialist movements around the world.

On 30 March 1981, as he was leaving the Hilton Hotel after addressing a union convention in Washington, DC, Reagan, his press secretary James Brady, Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy, and MPDC officer Thomas Delehanty were shot during an assassination attempt. Five or six shots were fired; a bullet missed Reagan's heart by less than one inch. Brady was seriously wounded, and a Secret Service agent and a Washington policeman also were injured. The would-be assassin was John Hinckley Jr, the 25-year-old son of an affluent oil industry executive. Hinckley was motivated by an obsession with actress Jodie Foster and a desire to impress her. At a jury trial the following year, Hinckley was found not guilty by reason of insanity and was committed to hospital. Reagan fully recovered, as did the Secret Service agent and policeman, but Brady was left paralysed and confined to a wheelchair.

Reagan died on 5 June 2004 at the age of 93, after a ten-year battle with Alzheimer's Disease.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1902  -             The world's first powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft is said to have occurred in New Zealand, even before the famous Wright brothers.

Much controversy exists around the many competing claims of early aviators. The world's first powered flight of a heavier-than-air aircraft is credited to the Wright brothers in Ohio, USA, on 17 December 1903. There are claims, however, that the world's first such flight was undertaken by twenty-five year old New Zealander, Richard Pearse, on 31 March 1902 (some sources quote 1903).

Pearse was a creative and unassuming inventor who essentially built his flying machine out of farm parts. It incorporated tricycle type landing gear and ailerons, or movable flaps on the wings to control its rolling and banking movements. Pearse's initial flight was an estimated distance of 300m and limited to a straight line, ending prematurely when the flying machine landed in a hedge some 4 metres off the ground. As Pearse did not realise the historical value of his flight, he did not arrange for any photographs to be taken of his flight, and evidence that it occurred has only been provided through the reports of eye witnesses.

The claim is disputed mostly along the argument that, though his flight was powered, it does not truly come under the category of "controlled and sustained", unlike the Wright brothers. Regardless of semantics, however, his design was superior and Pearse is regarded as one of the true pioneers of flight.

1945  -             WWII diarist, Anne Frank, dies.

Anne Frank was born on 12 June 1929. As persecution of the Jews escalated in WWII, she was forced to go into hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands. She, her family and four other people spent two years in an annex of rooms above her fathers office in Amsterdam. After two years of living in this way, they were betrayed to the Nazis and deported to concentration camps. At the age of 15, Anne Frank died after a typhus epidemic spread through the camp killing an estimated 17,000 prisoners at Bergen-Belsen. The date has been variously estimated as 31 March 1945, just two months before the end of the war. After the war, it was estimated that of the 110,000 Jews deported from the Netherlands during the Nazi occupation, only 5,000 survived.

Anne Frank's legacy is her diary. It was given to her as a simple autograph/notebook for her thirteenth birthday. In it she recorded not only the personal details of her life, but also her observations of living under Nazi occupation until the final entry of 1 August 1944.

1950  -             Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl publishes his book, Kon-Tiki, an account of his famous journey across the Pacific Ocean.

Thor Heyerdahl, born on 6 October 1914, in Larvik, Norway, was an anthropologist and marine biologist who developed an interest in the origins of settlement in the islands of the south Pacific. In 1947, he proposed an expedition to prove that people from South America could have settled Polynesia in the south Pacific before European exploration made any impact in the area. He and a crew of 5 sailed on the Kon-Tiki, a simple balsawood raft made in a design similar to that used by South American natives. Heyerdahl sailed the Kon-Tiki for 101 days over a distance of nearly 7,000km across the Pacific Ocean before crashing into the reef at Raroia in the Tuamotu Islands on 7 August 1947. Heyerdahl published the account of his journey in the book entitled "Kon-Tiki" on 31 March 1950.

Heyerdahl believed his journey proved his theory of the origins of the south Pacific peoples, and the subsequent documentary he produced received wide acclaim. However, more recent research and DNA testing has shown that the natives of the area bear more similarities to the people of southeast Asia than to the people of South America.

1990  -             Riots erupt in central London over the controversial poll-tax.

A poll tax is a tax of a uniform, fixed amount per individual, as opposed to a percentage of income. In 1990, British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher introduced a poll tax with reductions for people with low incomes or disabilities. Each person was charged for the services provided in their community. Due to the amount of local taxes paid by businesses varying, as did the amount of grant provided by central government to individual local authorities, there were substantial differences in the amount charged between boroughs, with Conservative boroughs often charging less.

As the charges began to rise, up to 18 million people refused to pay the tax. Enforcement measures became increasingly draconian, and unrest mounted and culminated in a number of riots. The most serious of these happened in London on 31 March 1990, during a protest at Trafalgar Square, London, which soon escalated into riots which then spread to Charing Cross Road, Pall Mall, Regent Street and Covent Garden. Between 100,000 and 200,000 protestors turned out in a mostly peaceful demonstration, until an unruly few thousand resisted the police presence, resulting in violence. Ultimately, 113 people were injured as well as 20 police horses, over 400 protestors were arrested and property damage was estimated at £400,000. Prime Minister Thatcher resigned in November of that year.

2007  -             The people of Sydney, Australia initiate the very first Earth Hour.

'Earth Hour' has developed into a world-wide event, designed to raise awareness of sustainability issues. Across the world, cities, businesses and residents turn off lights and other unnecessary electrical appliances for one hour in a symbolic observance of our use of Earth's resources.

Earth Hour is now organised by the WWF, but it had its origins in Sydney, Australia well before the original Earth Hour in 2007. At that time, the WWF met with the Leo Burnett Sydney advertising agency to come up with a way to gain the interest and awareness of Australians regarding issues of climate change as the result of people's current lifestyle. By 2005, the campaign had developed a working title of "The Big Flick". The advertising agency then worked to develop a title that would go beyond merely turning off lights - and hence, 'Earth Hour' was born. When Fairfax media agreed to support the idea via its newspaper 'The Sydney Morning Herald', the campaign really took off.

The very first Earth Hour occurred between 7:30 and 8:30pm on 31 March 2007. At the time, 2.2 million homes and businesses in the Sydney area switched off their lights for the period of one hour. Since then, Earth Hour has expanded to the point where, in 2011, it was observed in over 130 countries.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard
1902 - The world's first powered flight of a heavier-than-air craft is said to have occurred in New Zealand, even before the famous Wright brothers.

Very interesting read, as this is the first time I had heard of this flight.
Regardless of who was the first, controlled flight was a historic step for mankind

Gday...

1582  -             Today is April Fool's Day, a time of famous hoaxes and pranks.

Today is April Fool's Day, generally celebrated with hoaxes and practical jokes. It is possible that April Fool's Day originated in India with the celebration of the Spring equinox, where it was often marked by fooling people by sending them on fruitless errands. One school of thought suggests that it began around 1582 in France following the introduction of the Gregorian calendar, when New Year's Day was moved from March 25 - April 1 (New year's week) to January 1. There remains much dispute about the actual origins of the day.

Some popular hoaxes of April Fool's Day have been:

* In 1957, the BBC television program Panorama ran a hoax showing the Swiss harvesting spaghetti from trees. A lot of people called up wanting to know how they could grow their own spaghetti trees.

* In 1998, Burger King ran an ad in USA Today, saying that people could get a Whopper for left-handed people, the contents of which were designed to drip out the right side. Thousands of customers went into restaurants to request the new burger.

* In 1965, the BBC purported to conduct a trial of "smellovision", a new technology allowing the transmission of odor over the airwaves to all viewers. Many viewers reportedly contacted the BBC to report the trial's success.

* In 1976, British astronomer Patrick Moore announced on BBC Radio 2 that at 9:47am, the planet Pluto would pass behind Jupiter, causing a brief gravitational alignment that would counteract and reduce the Earth's own gravity. Listeners were told that if they jumped in the air at the exact moment that this planetary alignment occurred, they would experience a strange floating sensation. When 9:47am arrived, BBC2 began to receive hundreds of phone calls from listeners claiming to have felt the sensation. One woman even reported that she and her eleven friends had risen from their chairs and floated around the room.

* One year, Dutch television news reported that the government had new technology to detect unlicensed televisions (in many European countries, television licence fees fund public broadcasting), but that wrapping a television in aluminium foil could prevent its detection. Within a few hours, aluminium foil was sold out throughout the country.

Australian identity Dick Smith has also been in on April Fool's Day hoaxes. In 1978, a barge appeared in Sydney Harbour towing a giant iceberg which Smith claimed to have come from Antarctica, and which he intended to carve up and sell for 10c per ice-cube as genuine Antarctic ice. The scheme was only revealed when rain washed away the firefighting foam and shaving cream of which the berg was really made, uncovering the white plastic sheets beneath.

1874  -             The Forrest brothers depart Geraldton in search of a stock route to the east.

John Forrest was born on 22 August 1847 near Bunbury in Western Australia. Between the years of 1869 to 1874, Forrest led three expeditions, two of them with his brother Alexander (born 1849), to explore the uncharted areas of Western Australia. On 1 April 1874, the brothers departed Geraldton with three experienced white men, two aborigines and enough supplies for eight months, in search of a stock route and pasture land to the east. It was on this journey that the Forrests discovered Weld Springs, which seemed to have an "almost unlimited supply of water." It was named after Frederick Weld, the Governor of Western Australia. The explorations of John and Alexander Forrest filled in the missing gaps regarding Australia's interior, but the only good pastureland was very patchy and scattered, and not particularly conducive to settlement.

1897  -             Aboriginal tracker Jandamurra, who led the rebellion to defend his land from white man, is killed.

Jandamurra, or 'Pigeon', was an Australian Aboriginal police tracker assisting in the capture of Myall Aborigines of the Kimberley region in northwestern Australia, who were spearing stockmen and their stock. Over the course of several evenings, Jandamurra was helping to guard the Aborigines in the police station overnight. During this time, they managed to convince Jandamurra to join their cause. Jandamurra shot the police constable and freed the Aborigines. He then led the others in an attack on a convoy of white settlers, thus procuring horses, guns and other supplies. The Aborigines eluded capture by hiding in the caves and surroundings of isolated Windjana Gorge and Tunnel Creek.

The rebellion lasted several years as the men fought against the white men encroaching on Bunaba land. In 1894, a police posse tracked down the Aborigines, and both white men and Aborigines were killed. It was thought Jandamurra was among the dead, but he escaped after playing "possum". The police then recruited an excellent Aboriginal tracker from the Pilbara. This tracker, who knew the ways of Aboriginal mysticism and had no fear of Jandamurra, tracked down Jandamurra, killing him at Tunnel Creek on 1 April 1897.

1918  -             The British Royal Air Force is founded.

The Royal Air Force (RAF), which is the air force of the United Kingdom, is the worlds oldest independent air force, being the first air force to become independent of army or navy control. It had its origins in 1911 when the first air battalion of the British armys Royal Engineers was formed at Larkhill in Wiltshire. Later that year, the Royal Naval Flying School at Eastchurch was established in Kent by the British navy. The two were then incorporated into the Royal Flying Corps in 1912. The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was created in July 1914 and, within a month was deployed when Britain declared war on Germany in World War I.

During the war, the strength and doggedness of German air raids highlighted to British military strategists the importance of a separate air body to implement tactical bombing attacks against Germany. On 1 April 1918, the Royal Flying Corps and the Royal Naval Air Service merged to form the Royal Air Force. The first official mission of the RAF was implemented that same day by Bristol F.2B fighters of the 22nd Squadron. Just seven months later, by the time World War I came to a close, the RAF had gained air superiority along the western front.

1946  -             A tsunami hits Hawaii, killing 165.

Hawaii is an island state of the United States of America, though it lies about 3200 km from the US continental coastline. Hawaii is located in the Pacific Ocean and, because its lies above a hot spot, it is known for its active volcanoes. Being surrounded by the Pacific Ring of Fire, an area of seismic activity, it is subject to tsunamis, most of which are generated along the coasts of Japan, the Kamatchka Peninsula of far eastern Russia, the Aleutian Islands of Alaska and South America.

Though not all of these tsunamis have caused major damage, the one which struck the islands at around 7:00am on April Fools Day, 1 April 1946, was particularly devastating. This tsunami was generated by a magnitude 7.8 earthquake near Unimak Island in the Aleutian Islands. A massive wave 35 metres in height the equivalent of a twelve storey building completely destroyed the steel-reinforced US Coast Guard's Scotch Cap lighthouse on Unimak, killing all five lighthousekeepers and crew members inside. Less than five hours after the quake, Hawaii was swamped by a tsunami which, at its maximum height, was 13.7 m, and which struck seven times within 15 minutes. The entire waterfront of Hilo city was destroyed, and this was where most of the deaths occurred. 23 schoolchildren and 4 teachers were killed while collecting fish deposited by the first two non-destructive waves in Laupahoehoe Point: when the third, lethal, wave hit, they were thrown into the sides of the school buildings and staff houses before being dragged out to sea. In all, 165 people lost their lives in Hawaii, with damage estimated at US$26 million (in 1946 dollars). As a result of this tsunami, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center was established by the US in Hawaii in 1948.

1978  -             Australian entrepreneur Dick Smith pulls off the Great Sydney Harbour iceberg hoax.

Australian Dick Smith was born on 18 March 1944 in Roseville, Sydney. A multi-millionaire, he is known not only for his entrepreneurial and business skills, but also his patriotic support of the Australian way of life. One of the qualities he holds dear is the ability of Australians to laugh at themselves.

On 1 April 1978, Dick Smith pulled off the April Fool's Day "Great Sydney Harbour iceberg hoax", nominated one of the most imaginative April Fool pranks ever. For several months, he had been planning a genuine trip to Antarctica to consider the feasibility of using Antarctic icebergs to supply fresh water to Australias driest cities such as Adelaide: thus, the media believed him when he announced on the Friday preceding April Fools Day that an iceberg would be arriving from Antarctica sometime in the coming week. He did not say that it would arrive on April Fools Day, as that would have been too obvious. The iceberg was created out of plastic sheeting on a barge just out of Sydney Harbour in the early hours of 1 April, and topped with foam from several dozen cans of shaving cream. As the barge entered the harbour, 300 of Smiths employees began ringing radio stations to alert them to the strange sight. In a 2003 interview, Smith recalled, "Switchboards were jammed and by the time we towed the barge in, the headlands were covered with people. The navy even rang to offer us somewhere to moor." The hoax was only revealed when rain washed away the foam, exposing the plastic sheeting.

Cheers - John