Gday...

1551  -             The last outbreak of the deadly 'sweating sickness' occurs in England.

The 'sweating sickness' was a disease first seen in August 1485 among Henry VII's followers at the Battle of Bosworth Field, although there was evidence of it prior to the battle. The disease was characterised by violent inflammation, as seen in acute stomach cramps, headache, muscle pain, lethargy and extensive foul-smelling perspiration. Survival rates for those who contracted the disease were one percent. It was not the same as the plague, as the symptom of foul perspiration was unique, and it inevitably showed a rapid and fatal course. The disease recurred in London in 1506, 1517 and 1528. The final epidemic broke out in England on 16 April 1551.

1889  -             Actor, writer, director, producer, composer and choreographer, Charlie Chaplin, is born.

Charles Spencer Chaplin, Jr, was believed to be born on 16 April 1889 in either London or Fontainebleau, France, but there is some doubt as to both his birthplace and his date of birth. His parents separated soon after he was born, and his somewhat unstable mother eventually suffered a mental breakdown, living out the remainder of her years in an asylum. Chaplin performed on the stage from the age of five, and after his mother's breakdown, he secured the role of a comic cat in the pantomime Cinderella at the London Hippodrome. In 1903 he appeared in 'Jim, A Romance of ****ayne', followed by his first regular job as the newspaper boy Billy in Sherlock Holmes, a part he played into 1906. This was followed by Casey's 'Court Circus' variety show and, the following year, he became a clown in Fred Karno's 'Fun Factory' slapstick comedy company. He immigrated to the United States with the Karno troupe in 1912.

Ultimately, he became an actor, writer, director, producer, composer and choreographer, whose main legacy was some 80 mostly silent films. He is best remembered for his "Little Tramp" character, with his toothbrush moustache, bowler hat, bamboo cane and his idiosyncratic walk. Chaplin's first dialogue picture, The Great Dictator (1940), was an act of defiance against Adolf Hitler and fascism, which ridiculed Nazism and highlighted the plight of the persecuted Jews. However, after the extent of the holocaust became known, Chaplin commented that he would never have been able to make such jokes about the Nazi regime had he known about the actual extent of the genocide.

Chaplin died on 25 December 1977 in Vevey, Switzerland, where he had lived for decades, and was buried in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery. On 1 March 1978, his body was stolen in an unsuccessful attempt to extort money from his family. The robbers, a 24-year-old Polish mechanic and his Bulgarian accomplice, were captured. Chaplin's body was recovered in its unopened coffin, 11 weeks after it was initially taken, near Lake Geneva. After Chaplin's coffin was returned to Vevey, it was reinterred, sealed in concrete.

1920  -             The South Australian city of Hummock's Hill is proclaimed Whyalla.

Whyalla is the third largest city in South Australia, with a population of about 23,000. It sits on the eastern coast of Eyre Peninsula, at the head of Spencer Gulf.

Whyalla was originally founded as Hummock's Hill in 1901 by the Broken Hill Proprietary Company (BHP). Initially constituting a jetty for conveying iron ore, and a cluster of shelters around the jetty, the settlement served an important function, being the end of a tramway bringing iron ore from the Middleback Ranges to be used in the lead smelters at Port Pirie. The first Post Office was opened shortly afterwards that year, and in 1905 the Hummock Hill school opened. Although strategically positioned for the transportation and movement of iron ore, the dry location necessitated importing water in barges from Port Pirie.

On 1 November 1919, the town's Post office was renamed as the Whyalla Post office. On 16 April 1920, the town was officially proclaimed as Whyalla.

1947  -             600 are killed when Texas City explodes as a result of a fire aboard a freighter in the city's port.

In the immediate post-war period, Texas City, USA, was a small industrial city with a population of about 18,000. The city was essentially sustained by a thriving chemicals and oil industry. In April 1947, the French freighter 'Grandcamp' was in port at Texas City. Early on the morning of 16 April 1947, a fire broke out on the Grandcamp. Initial attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful as the ship was so hot that the water from the fire hoses was vaporised.

At 9:12am, the fire caught the freighter's stores of ammonium nitrate, a compound used to make dynamite. The resultant detonation, heard over 240km away, caused great destruction and damage to the port, triggering more explosions at nearby chemical plants and flattening houses in the city. 405 dead were identified, 63 more bodies were never identified and about 100 people were classified as missing, and never found.

The fires also ignited a neighbouring vessel, the High Flyer, which contained an additional 1000 tons of ammonium nitrate. On April 17, the High Flyer also exploded, continuing the fires that had raged during the previous day. Throughout Texas City, fires continued burning for up to a week. The Grandcamp explosion remains the most devastating industrial accident in US history.

2007  -             32 people are killed in America's worst campus shooting.

On 16 April 2007, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Virginia, United States, became the scene of the country's worst mass shooting up to that date.

South Korean student, Cho Seung-Hui, who immigrated with his family to the USA when he was eight years old and grew up in Northern Virginia, had permanent residence status. He was a fourth-year English major at Virginia Tech. Cho had a history of writing morbid and gruesome stories in his English class, and had even been encouraged to seek counselling.

Cho's first victims were killed at around 7:15 am EDT in West Ambler Johnston Hall, a co-ed dormitory that housed nearly 900 students. He then mailed a package, postmarked 9:01 am, to NBC News containing various writings and recordings. Around two hours later, he walked over to Norris Hall, containing the Engineering Science and Mechanics program, and chained the main entrance doors shut. He then entered several classrooms and began shooting students and faculty members. His second attack killed 30 student and faculty victims in at least four classrooms and a second-floor hallway of the building.

Cho was later found dead, having committed suicide as the police cornered him. Whilst Cho railed against the "rich kids, debauchery and deceitful charlatans" in a note he left behind, the motive for his attack remains unclear.

2010  -             A pulsating column of smoke and ash from the erupting Eyjafjallajökull volcano in Iceland reaches an altitude of 8 km.

Eyjafjallajökull, also known as E15, is a stratovolcano in Iceland, with an elevation of 1,666 m. Its name literally translates to "island-mountain glacier", and atop the summit is an icecap which covers a simmering caldera. The volcano is one of a chain across Iceland, and avolcanic ctivity within these volcanoes is not uncommon.

Seismic activity began in the region in late 2009. On 20 march 2010, a small eruption occurred, with lava erupting several hundred metres into the air. A second, larger explosion occurred on 14 April 2010, spewing volcanic ash several kilometres into the air, and opening a series of vents along a 2 km long fissure. Mel****er was suddenly released, flooding nearby rivers. By 16 April 2010, a pulsating eruptive column of hot lava, rocks and fine, glass-like silica-based ash was observed from the volcano, extending some 8 km vertically, and generating lightning.

At this stage, the ash cloud had extended to mainland Europe, carried by an unusually stable jet stream. On the VEI (Volcanic Explosivity Index) scale of 0-8, the explosion rated 2, but the impact of the volcano was far-reaching, particularly for air travel. It posed a major hazard to aircraft, and airports across Europe were shut down for at least a month as the volcano continued to erupt with varying intensity.

Activity in Eyjafjallajökull settled down by late June.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1835  -             Richard Cunningham, brother to Allan Cunningham, is killed by Aborigines whilst exploring with Major Mitchell.

Richard Cunningham, younger brother to botanist and explorer Allan Cunningham, was born in Wimbledon, England, on 12 February 1793. He travelled to Sydney, Australia, where he was appointed Colonial Botanist and Superintendent of Botanic Gardens, Sydney, in 1832, a position he held until his death in 1835.

On 7 April 1835, Richard Cunningham accompanied Major Thomas Mitchell on the latter's second expedition, to prove (or, as Mitchell hoped, to disprove) Sturt's theory that the Darling River flowed into the Murray. Early in the expedition, on 17 April 1835, Cunningham wandered off from where the party had camped in order to collect botanical specimens, becoming lost in the bush. Mitchell spent nearly a fortnight searching for him until deciding to finally continue with the expedition. After mounted police searched for Cunningham some time after Mitchell returned, it was discovered that Aborigines had tended to the botanist who, suffering from exposure at the time, had become delirious. Thinking he was possessed by evil spirits, the Aborigines killed him.

1861  -             Charles Gray, of Burke and Wills' expedition, dies.

Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills led the expedition that was intended to bring fame and prestige to Victoria: being the first to cross Australia from south to north and back again. They left from Melbourne in August 1860, farewelled by around 15,000 people. The exploration party was very well equipped, and the cost of the expedition almost 5,000 pounds. Because of the size of the exploration party, it was split at Menindee so that Burke could push ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller party. The smaller group went on ahead to establish a depot at Cooper Creek. From here, they made several shorter trips to the north, but were forced back each time by waterless country and extreme temperatures. It was not until December 1860 that Burke decided to push on ahead to the Gulf, regardless of the risks.

The small party consisting of Burke, Wills, ex-soldier John King and middle aged former seaman Charles Gray, finally reached the northern coast. Crossing extensive marshes, they came to a salt tidal channel surrounded by mangroves, which prevented them from either seeing or reaching the sea. The group immediately turned around and began the long and arduous trip back to Cooper Creek - a trip which Gray never completed. Gray died in the early hours of 17 April 1861, and his companions spent seven hours trying to dig him a shallow grave in the hard ground of the desert. Burke and Wills themselves perished in mid 1861, and only King survived to tell the tale of their journey.

1935  -             Australian airline Qantas operates its first overseas passenger flight.

Qantas is the name of Australia's original airline service. The name Qantas was formerly an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Qantas was founded in Queensland on 16 November 1920, and operated air mail services subsidized by the Australian government, linking railheads in western Queensland. In 1934, QANTAS Limited and Britain's Imperial Airways, forerunner of British Airways, formed a new company, Qantas Empire Airways Limited. QEA commenced services between Brisbane and Singapore using deHavilland DH-86 Commonwealth Airliners. On 17 April 1935, the first overseas passenger flight from Brisbane to Singapore was operated in a journey which took four days.

Most of the QEA fleet was taken over by the Australian government for war service between 1939 and 1945, and many of these aircraft were lost in action. After the war, QEA experienced severe financial losses, and the airline was taken over by the government under Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley. In 1967, the name was changed to Qantas Airways Limited.

1980  -             Rhodesia, in Africa, gains independence and becomes Zimbabwe.

Rhodesia was the former name of the British colony of Southern Rhodesia in southern Africa, which was governed by a European minority until 1979. The colony was named after Cecil Rhodes, whose British South Africa Company acquired the land in the nineteenth century. In 1953, calls began mounting for independence in many of Britain's African possessions. Thus, the United Kingdom created the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, which consisted of Southern Rhodesia, Northern Rhodesia and Nyasaland (now Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Malawi respectively).

The Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland was dissolved on 1 January 1964. When Northern Rhodesia was granted independence by Britain in October 1964, the name was changed to Zambia. Southern Rhodesia remained a British colony and became known as Rhodesia. Rhodesia gained internationally-recognised independence from Britain in 1980, and became the Republic of Zimbabwe on 17 April 1980.

2005  -             Ownership of a replica of Captain Cook's famous ship Endeavour is transferred to the Australian Government.

James Cook is known for his exploration of Australia's eastern coast in 1770, in a ship known as the 'Endeavour'. The HM Bark Endeavour was an ex-collier purchased by the English navy and converted specifically so it could be used for exploration. It was first launched in 1764 as the Earl of Pembroke. In 1768, it was bought by the British Admiralty to be fitted out for use in a scientific mission to the Pacific Ocean, specifically observing the transit of Venus from the best vantage point, which was Tahiti, and to determine whether or not the great southern land existed.

The Endeavour successfully brought Cook to the south Pacific, where he made important observations and recorded new information about the Australian continent. After charting the coast, Cook continued his journey, formally claiming the eastern half of Australia for Great Britain under the name of New South Wales, before eventually returning to England.

The Endeavour was sold in 1775 and served as a collier once more until it was purchased by the French in 1790. Renamed 'La Liberte', it was used as a whaling ship until it ran aground off Newport in Rhode Island, in 1793. This may have been the end of the real 'Endeavour'; however, it was not the end of the Endeavour's legacy.

During the 1990s, an authentic replica was constructed at Fremantle, Western Australia, and it is considered one of the most historically accurate replicas in the world. Ownership of the 'Endeavour' replica was transferred to the Australian Government on 17 April 2005. The ship is usually on display at the Australian National Maritime Museum, on Sydney's Darling Harbour, but has been sailed for significant events, such as the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in 2010. Commencing in April 2011, the ship will circumnavigate Australia on an historical journey lasting until May 2012.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1791  -             One of William Wilberforce's early campaigns against the slave trade in Britain is easily defeated in the House of Commons.

William Wilberforce was born on 24 August 1759 in Hull, Britain. He studied at Cambridge University where he befriended England's future prime minister, William Pitt the Younger. In 1780, Wilberforce became member of parliament for Hull, later representing Yorkshire. During his twenties, Wilberforce became a Christian, and his motivation for social reforms was largely a by-product of his active and practical Christianity. He was strongly influenced by former slave-trader John Newton, then the leading evangelical Anglican clergyman of the day and Rector of St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London.

In 1787, Wilberforce became leader of the parliamentary campaign of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. On 18 April 1791, Wilberforce attempted to pass one of many parliamentary bills against the slave trade. His campaign was defeated easily in the House of Commons, as many of the members of parliament stood to profit from their own indirect involvement in the trade.

In 1806, a change of tactics was suggested by maritime lawyer James Stephen. This involved introducing a bill to ban British subjects from aiding or participating in the slave trade to the French colonies, It was a smart move, as the majority of the ships were flying American flags, though manned by British crews and sailing out of Liverpool. The Foreign Slave Trade Act was quickly passed and the tactic proved successful. The new legislation effectively prohibited two-thirds of the British slave trade. In the long run, many MPs who had benefited from the slave trade lost their financial support, and ultimately their position in parliament. This opened the way for a further attempt to pass an Abolition bill.

Further support from Abolitionists enabled the final passing of an Abolition Bill on 23 February 1807. As tributes were made to Wilberforce, who had laboured for the cause during the preceding twenty years, the bill was carried by 283 votes to 16. The Slave Trade Act received the royal assent on 25 March 1807. This Act did not free those who were already slaves; it was not until 1833, after Wilberforce's death, that an act was passed giving freedom to all slaves in the British empire.

1906  -             An earthquake measuring approximately 7.9 on the Richter scale devastates San Francisco.

The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth-largest city in California, USA. San Francisco lies near the San Andreas Fault and Hayward Fault, two major sources of earthquake activity in California, yet it has the highest population density of any major US city apart from New York City.

The most devastating earthquake to hit San Francisco to date occurred on 18 April 1906. It was estimated to be approximately 7.9 on the Richter Scale, and was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada. At the time only 478 deaths were reported, but that figure has been revised to an estimate of between 3000 and 6000. Out of a population of about 400,000, between 225,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless. Whilst the main earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks caused a great deal of damage, fires that burned out of control afterwards destroyed even more property. Some property owners set fire to their damaged buildings, because most insurance policies covered fire losses but did not pay out if the building had only sustained earthquake damage. Damage to the water mains limited resources with which the fire-fighters could extinguish the flames.

The overall cost of the damage from the earthquake was estimated at the time to be around $400,000,000. It was also the first time that images of devastation were captured by photography.

1945  -             Over one thousand Allied bombers attack the German island of Heligoland, killing 128 people.

Heligoland is a small, triangular-shaped island in the North Sea, belonging to Germany. Situated 70 km from the German coast line, Heligoland actually consists of two islands: the populated 1.0 km² main island of Hauptinsel to the west and the Düne ("dune") to the east, which is somewhat smaller at 0.7 km². The two islands were connected until 1720, when a storm flood washed away the land connecting them.

The islands became a major naval base for Germany during the First World War, and the civil population was evacuated to the mainland. The islanders returned in 1918, but during the Nazi era the naval base was reactivated. The civilians remained, but on 18 April 1945, over one thousand Allied bombers attacked Heligoland and obliterated all dwellings. 128 people, all members of anti-aircraft crews, were killed, whilst the civilians remained protected in rock shelters. The civilian population was evacuated the next day, and the islands remained uninhabited for many years.

From 1945 to 1952 the islands were used as a bombing range, and on 18 April 1947, the Royal Navy detonated 6800 tons of explosives in a concerted attempt to destroy the main island. The military installations were destroyed, but most of the island remained. In 1952 the islands were restored to the German authorities. After clearing a huge amount of undetonated ammunition, the German authorities redeveloped Heligoland as a holiday resort.

1968  -             An American millionaire purchases London Bridge which is falling down in London, England, to relocate it to Arizona, USA.

There have been a number of different London Bridges over the past 2000 years. In 46AD, the Romans built the first bridge across the Thames River; it was a simple wooden construction which was burnt down in 1014. The replacement bridge was destroyed by a storm in 1091, and the next bridge after that was destroyed again by fire in 1136. The famous stone bridge which was opened in 1260 suited the city until the necessity arose in the early 1800s for a second crossing over the Thames. Engineer John Rennie started construction in 1825 and finished the bridge in 1831. The design was superior, containing five high arches, and constructed from strong Dartmoor granite. It was opened by King William the fourth on 1 August 1831. However, a necessary widening process some 70 years later weakened the bridge's foundations to the point where it began sinking an inch every eight years.

On 18 April 1968, London Bridge was auctioned and sold for $2,460,000 to Robert McCulloch of the USA, who then paid another $2.7 million to move it to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. There, it was rebuilt brick by brick, and finally opened and dedicated on 10 Oct 1971. Initially, the bridge did not even cross a river. McCulloch later dredged a channel of 1.5km long from the main body of Lake Havasu, creating an island and thus a purpose for the bridge. As a tourist attraction, the bridge now draws around two million visitors annually.

1971  -             Burger King opens its first Australian Hungry Jacks store in Innaloo, Perth.

Burger King is a worldwide chain of hamburger fast food stores. It began in Florida in 1953 under the name of Insta-Burger King, and initially offered a simple selection of burgers, French fries and milkshakes. As it increased its variety of menu items and gained in popularity, it started to expand into other countries.

When the restaurant chain sought to expand into the Australian market, it was unable to trade under the name of Burger King, as the name had already been trademarked by an Adelaide takeaway. The Australian franchisee selected the name of Hungry Jacks from a list of possible alternatives which had previously been trademarked in other countries by the company.

The very first Australian Hungry Jacks was opened in Innaloo, a Western Australian suburb 9km from Perth's CBD, on 18 April 1971. Within ten years, there were 26 stores across Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland. The first store in New South Wales opened in 1981, and Victoria in 1986.

Cheers - John

1971......Interesting Rocky. I always thought "Burger King" did open in Adelaide first , as BK and had to change to Hungry Jacks for the reasons you mentioned when opened in Melbourne. Didn't know they opened in Perth first up.

There ya go, my lesson for the day  

Gday...

1770  -             Lieutenant Cook and his crew first sight the eastern coast of Australia.

Lieutenant James Cook was not the first to discover Australia, as he was preceded by numerous Portuguese and Dutch explorers. However, he was the first to sight and map the eastern coastline. Cook's ship, the 'Endeavour', departed Plymouth, England, on 26 August 1768. After completing the objective of his mission, which was to observe the transit of Venus from the vantage point of Tahiti, Cook went on to search for Terra Australis Incognita, the great continent which some believed to extend round the pole. He first came across New Zealand, which had already been discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642. He spent some months there, charting the coastline. Nearly a year later, he set sail east.

On 19 April 1770, officer of the watch, Lieutenant Zachary Hicks, sighted land and alerted Cook. Cook made out low sandhills which he named Point Hicks, although he did not yet know whether they formed part of an island or a continent. Point Hicks lies on the far southeastern corner of the Australian continent, and Cook chose to fly before unfavourable winds up the eastern coast. Cook went on to chart the east coast of what was then known as New Holland, and claimed it for Great Britain under the name of New South Wales.

1934  -             The famous 'Surgeon's Photo' of the Loch Ness Monster is taken.

Loch Ness, or Loch Nis in Gaelic, is a large, deep freshwater lakein the Scottish Highlands, which extends for about 37 km southwest of Inverness. It is the second largest loch (lake) in Scotland, with a surface area of 56.4 km2, but is the largest in volume. It is 226 m deep at its deepest point. For centuries, witnesses have reported sighting a large monster with a long neck in Loch Ness, Scotland. Famous photographs have been proven to be hoaxes, but still the myth of the monster has persisted.

One such photograph was supposedly taken by surgeon Robert Kenneth Wilson on 19 April 1934. The photograph appears to show the long neck and head of an unidentified water creature rising from the lake's surface. The picture, which became famously known as 'the surgeon's photo', was touted as absolute evidence of the existence of the Loch Ness monster. Sixty years later, on 12 March 1994, a big game hunter by the name of Marmaduke Wetherell admitted on his deathbed that he had faked the photograph. Dr Wilson's name had only been included to add credibility to the photograph, which was in fact nothing more than a fake serpent neck attached to the back of a toy submarine.

1984  -             Australia adopts Green and Gold as its national colours.

Up until the 1980s, three sets of colours were unofficially associated with Australia. Red, white and blue formed the colours of the Australian flag. Blue and gold were Australia's heraldic colours, seen in the wreath on the Commonwealth Coat of Arms granted by royal warrant in 1912, whilst also being chosen as the colours of the ribbon of the Order of Australia in 1975. Green and gold represented Australia in many ways - the green symbolising Australia's landscape and the bush, and the gold symbolising grain harvests, sheep's wool, mineral wealth, beaches and sunshine.

The colours of green and gold have also been informally associated with Australian sporting teams since the late 1800s, but have never been formally adopted as its "national sporting" colours. However, on 19 April 1984, Governor-General Sir Ninian Stephen officially proclaimed Australia's national colours as green and gold. The shades selected most closely resembled the shades of Australia's national floral emblem, the Golden Wattle.

1984  -             Australia adopts 'Advance Australia Fair' as its national anthem.

     'Australians, all, let us rejoice, for we are young and free.'

This is the well-known opening line of Australia's national anthem, 'Advance Australia Fair'. The song was composed by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick in the 1870s as a patriotic song, and first performed publicly in 1878. The occasion was the St Andrew's Day concert of the Highland Society on 30 November that year.

In line with its nationalistic flavour, 'Advance Australia Fair' was performed by a 10,000-voice choir at the inauguration Federation ceremony for the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia, on 1 January 1901. McCormick was subsequently paid one hundred pounds for his composition in 1907. Early in the twentieth century, the song was proposed as a possible national anthem for Australia, to replace the Royal anthem 'God Save the King' (later 'Queen'), but no official decision was made.

The decision to replace 'God Save the Queen' as a national anthem for the colonies began as early as the 1820s. The first legitimate competitions to find a new national anthem were held by the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1943 and 1945. One of several further competitions in the lead-up to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics was the Commonwealth Jubilee celebrations competition held in 1951, which was won by Henry Krips with 'This Land of Mine'.

 Another Australia-wide national anthem quest was held in 1972-3. Following this, in 1977, the government held a referendum and attached a national plebiscite to choose a new anthem. 'Advance Australia Fair' won with 43% against Banjo Paterson's 'Waltzing Matilda' with 28% and Carl Linger's 'Song of Australia' with 10%. In favour of keeping 'God Save the Queen were 19%. In 1984, the Australian government made the final decision to change the national anthem as it sought to reinforce its independence from England.

'Advance Australia Fair' was adopted as the National anthem of Australia on 19 April 1984.

1993  -             Federal agents storm the Branch Davidian cult compound in Waco, Texas, with tear gas.

The Branch Davidians were a religious group which split from the Seventh-day Adventist church. In 1981 a young man named Vernon Wayne Howell moved to Waco, Texas where he joined the Branch Davidians. He became leader at the cult's Mt Carmel complex, located some fifteen kilometres out of Waco, and in 1990 changed his name to David Koresh. He began to declare himself to be the Second Coming of Christ, began filling the cult member's heads with apocalyptic warnings and insisted that they arm themselves.

On 28 February 1993, agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided the Branch Davidian cult compound in Waco. As the agents attempted to enter the complex, a gun battle erupted, ultimately leaving four ATF agents and six Davidians dead. The standoff between the Branch Davidians and the FBI continued for 51 days. Negotiations stalled, as the Davidians had stockpiled years of food and other necessities prior to the raid. When federal agents moved in to end the siege at dawn on 19 April 1993 with tear gas, a fire broke out that killed approximately eighty cult members. Koresh was shot by his right-hand man, Steve Schneider, but the reasons for this remain unknown. Only eight Branch Davidians escaped with their lives.

1995  -             168 people are killed in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Oklahoma City is the capital and the largest city of the US state of Oklahoma. With a population of 1.3 million residents in the metropolitan area as of 2004, it is the 29th-largest city in the USA.

On 19 April 1995, Oklahoma City was the target of a terrorist attack. At 9:02am, a rented truck containing about 2,300 kg of explosive material exploded in the street in front of the Alfred P Murrah federal building, a US government office complex. The truck bomb was composed of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertilizer, and nitromethane, a highly volatile motor-racing fuel. 168 were killed in the explosion, including 19 children attending a day-care centre in the building. 800 more people were injured, while over 300 buildings in the surrounding area were destroyed or seriously damaged, leaving several hundred people homeless and shutting down offices in downtown Oklahoma City.

Within an hour of the explosion, Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh was arrested, travelling north out of Oklahoma City after being pulled over for driving without a licence plate by an Oklahoma highway patrolman. At McVeigh's trial, the United States Government asserted that the motivation for the attack was to avenge the deaths two years earlier of Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, whom he believed had been murdered by agents of the federal government. Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death for the bombing and was executed by lethal injection at a US penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on 11 June 2001.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard
I have been away for a few days
Your history blog is very interesting reading, so thanks for that. I would like to add the following information

Re April 16 1947 - 600 are killed when Texas City explodes as a result of a fire aboard a freighter in the city's port.

Taking nothing away from this very tragic incident, which was the largest non military, and non nuclear explosion up to that time.
When the fire started the Captain ordered steam instead of water to be pumped into the hold/s, to save the cargo.
Amongst the cargo were small arms ammunition, fertiliser (Ammonia Nitrate), and bunker oil for the ships engines.
The Ammonia Nitrate being an oxidiser, should have only burned, with perhaps a very small explosion, as it decomposed.
The theory is that the bunker oil, mixed with the Ammonia Nitrate, which is the equivalent of ANFO (Ammonia Nitrate & Fuel Oil).
ANFO itself should not explode without initiation (detonator). Unfortunately, the small arms ammunition became the detonator.
Although ANFO had been invented in the 1930s it was not widely used in the mining industry. It was after this tragedy that ANFO started to take over from dynamite in the open pit mining

Re April 18 Re 1791 - One of William Wilberforce's early campaigns against the slave trade in Britain is easily defeated in the House of Commons.

Not many records were kept of the slave trade. I suppose even back in those days, the slave traders would have known that it would not have been very pleasant, if the boot had been on the other foot.
Near the docks in Liverpool England, there are steel rings imbedded into the wall.
Some say the rings were used to secure the horses, which pulled the carts, others say they were used to secure the slaves, as Liverpool was a transit port, for the slave trade.

April 18 1971 - Burger King opens its first Australian Hungry Jacks store in Innaloo, Perth.

I well remember the burger place in Adelaide in 1965, it was a bit of a hang out, for us teenagers.
There was also some sort of burger place in Perth in 1966, not sure if they were connected, or owned by different people

Re April 19 1995 - 168 people are killed in the Oklahoma City bombing.

Once again, I am not taking anything away from this tragic incident.
Back in the day, being in the open pit explosive playground, some of us wondered how ANFO, (the first reports said that ANFO was the explosive used), could have been so damaging.
We later learned that diesel, the normal fuel oil used in ANFO, had not been used.
The madman bomber, had used nitro, the preferred car racing fuel. His explosive was therefore Ammonia Nitrate & Nitro Methane (ANNM), a high explosive, which is also very unstable, as it is easily detonated.

Gday...

1839  -             George Grey's expedition is saved by friendly Aborigines.

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.

His first expedition to the area was in late 1837, but 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. He departed on his second expedition to the northwest in February 1839. After discovering the Gascoyne River, the longest in Western Australia, Grey's party continued southwards in two whaleboats. The boats were wrecked in the pounding surf near today's Geraldton, necessitating an arduous journey on foot. Leaving weaker members of the party behind to be rescued later, Grey took five of his men and set off to make a final dash for Perth. They finished all their provisions in four days, and for the next three days, travelled without food or water. They were sustained briefly by a pool of liquid mud until, on 20 April 1839, friendly Aborigines found the party and gave them enough food to regain their strength to continue the journey.

In all, the expedition covered five hundred kilometres on foot. Meanwhile, all but one of the men who had been left back near Geraldton survived to be rescued by a relief party.

1862  -             Louis Pasteur completes the first test of pasteurisation.

Louis Pasteur was born on 27 December 1822 in Dole, Jura, France. Known as the founder of microbiology, he moved into this field when he discovered the role of bacteria in fermentation. Pasteur's research showed that some microorganisms contaminated fermenting beverages. Extrapolating from this knowledge, Pasteur then developed a process in which liquids such as milk were heated to kill all bacteria and moulds already present within them. This process became known as pasteurisation. The first test of pasteurisation was completed by Louis Pasteur and his associate, Claude Bernard, on 20 April 1862.

His experiments with bacteria conclusively disproved the theory of spontaneous generation and led to the theory that infection is caused by germs. Recognising that infectious diseases are caused by microorganisms, Pasteur's research soon led others to investigate sterilisation, disinfection, vaccines, and eventually antibiotics. Pasteur created and tested vaccines for diphtheria, cholera, yellow fever, plague, rabies, anthrax, and tuberculosis.

1908  -             Two trains collide at the Sunshine railway station in Victoria, Australia, killing 44 people.

Sunshine is a railway station in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It serves the Sydenham suburban line and the Melton greater metropolitan line and is located in the suburb of Sunshine, about 13.5 km by rail from Flinders Street Station in the city's centre.

On the evening of 20 April 1908, a Melbourne-bound train from Bendigo collided with the rear of a train from Ballarat, which was just leaving the station. Around 1,100 people were aboard the two trains; 44 were killed in the accident, and over 400 injured. Most of the casualties were from the Ballarat train, as the two locomotives hauling the Bendigo train took much of the impact, leaving the passengers unscathed. Subsequent investigations suggested that the accident may have been caused by the driver of the Bendigo train reading the green signals for the Ballarat train in front, and believing they were his own.

1999  -             Twelve students and a teacher are killed in the Columbine High School massacre in the USA.

Columbine High School is situated near Denver, Colorado, USA. On 20 April 1999, teenage students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold arrived at Columbine High School in separate cars at 11:10am. They then proceeded to the school's cafeteria where they placed two duffel bags with 9 kg propane bombs inside set to explode at 11:17am. The teenagers hoped to kill at least 500 people. However, when the bombs failed to detonate, Harris and Klebold armed themselves with two sawn-off shotguns, a 9 mm semi-automatic carbine, and a 9 mm TEC-9 semi-automatic pistol (all placed in a duffel bag and backpack), and walked back into the school building. At 11:19am, they began their shooting rampage which ultimately left twelve students and a teacher dead, before they turned their guns on themselves and committed suicide.

One enduring legacy comes out of the shooting: that of the story of Rachel Scott, the teenager who bravely upheld her Christian beliefs in the face of death. Taunted for and questioned about her faith in God, Rachel's last words were a confirmation of the faith she lived and was willing to die for. Her brave stand helped others by bringing hope and healing out of an otherwise senseless tragedy.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

This is a great topic, and very informative, thanks for that

Re 1862 - Louis Pasteur completes the first test of pasteurisation.

Back in the day, Louis Pasteur and his wife Marie, probably did more for curing dieses, than anyone else, up to that time.
In those days it was common for many children to die at an early age.

Only two of their five children survived to become adults.
This was probably their main motivation to find out why.

The learned people of that time, thought that it was just a hit or miss affair, that some caught dieses, while others did not.
Noted surgeons of the day, always wore their gardening clothes, in the hospitals, as any blood would ruin their fine clothes.

Louis Pasteur, was the first to bring up the theory of germs, being passed from hand to mouth.

Gday...

1861  -             Explorers Burke, Wills and King stagger into their base camp at Cooper Creek upon their return from the Gulf of Carpentaria, and find it deserted.

Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills led the expedition that was intended to bring fame and prestige to Victoria: being the first to cross Australia from south to north and back again. Their purpose was to find a route which could pave the way for a new telegraph line to be laid from Darwin to Melbourne, making Melbourne the centre of Australia's communication with the rest of the world.

The party departed Melbourne in August 1860, farewelled by around 15,000 people. The exploration party was very well equipped, and the cost of the expedition almost 5,000 pounds. Because of the size of the exploration party, it was split at Menindee so that Burke could push ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller party. The smaller group went on ahead to establish the depot which would serve to offer the necessary provisions for when the men returned from the Gulf. In November 1860, Burke and Wills first reached Cooper Creek, where they established a base camp. From here, they made several shorter trips to the north, but were forced back each time by waterless country and extreme temperatures. It was not until mid-December that Burke decided to push on ahead to the Gulf, regardless of the risks. He left stockman William Brahe in charge with instructions that if the party did not return in three months, Brahe was to return to Menindee.

The small party consisting of Burke, Wills, King and Gray finally reached the northern coast in February 1861. After being prevented from seeing the sea by mangroves, the group immediately turned around and began the long and arduous trip back to Cooper Creek - a trip which Gray never completed. The trek to the Gulf and back took over four months, and during that time Gray died. A full day was spent in burying his body.

Finally, on 21 April 1861, the remaining three men staggered back into the base camp at Cooper Creek, and found it deserted. They discovered lettering freshly blazed on the coolibah tree at the depot, giving instructions to dig for the supplies Brahe had left. Among the supplies, they discovered they had missed the relief party by just seven hours - about the amount of time it took to bury Gray.

The tragedy of the situation was that, after digging up the cache, the men then attempted to move on further down Cooper Creek, but failed to leave further messages emblazoned on the Dig tree indicating that his party had returned and were now making for Mt Hopeless. When Brahe returned to check the depot several weeks later, he found no evidence of Burke's return, and saw no need to dig up the cache beneath the tree. Had he done so, he would have found evidence of Burke and Wills' return. Shortly after this, Wills returned to the Dig Tree to see whether a rescue party had arrived. Wills buried his journals and a message informing any potential rescue party of his location down the creek, but again failed to leave any message on the Dig Tree.

In the end, both Burke and Wills died. Only King survived, aided by Aborigines. He alone helped to piece together the fateful events of the expedition, and how the parties had missed each other at the base camp.

1910  -             American author and satirist, Mark Twain, born during the appearance of Halley's Comet, dies as the comet returns.

American writer Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on 30 November 1835, in Florida, Missouri. He grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, and later worked as a licensed Mississippi river-boat pilot. Writing from a mixture of experience and imagination, the pseudonym 'Mark Twain' was spawned in 1861 when he signed a humorous travel account with that name. He acquired this name as a result of his time as a boat pilot, when a boatman's call would announce "Mark twain", meaning that the river was only two fathoms deep, the minimum depth for safe navigation.

Twain is best known for stories such as "The Adventures of Tom Sawyer" (1876), "The Prince And The Pauper" (1881), "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" (1884), "A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court" (1889) and "The Tragedy of Pudd'nhead Wilson" (1894). As well as short stories, speeches, and essays, he penned some autobiographical works, including "The Innocents Abroad" (1869), "A Tramp Abroad" (1880), "Life on the Mississippi" (1883), and "Mark Twain's Autobiography." He continued writing under the pseudonym of Mark Twain until his death on 21 April 1910.

When Twain was born, Halley's Comet could be seen in the sky. A year before his death, Twain commented, "I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it... The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'"

1918  -             Notorious German flying ace, the Red Baron, is killed.

German flying ace, the Red Baron, was born Manfred von Richthofen on 2 May 1892. He joined the army in 1911 and by the time World War 1 began in 1914, he had been promoted to lieutenant. As a German fighter pilot during World War 1, he became the most famous flying ace, shooting down Britain's leading ace, Major Lanoe Hawker. Flying an aircraft painted bright red, he was known in Germany as "Der Rote Kampfflieger" or "the red fighter pilot". The Red Baron recorded a total of 80 victories before he was shot down and killed on 21 April 1918 over the Somme Canal in France. Accounts vary as to who shot down the Red Baron. Initial credit went to Captain Roy Brown, a Canadian in the Royal Air Force, who was also killed in the fray, whilst many other reports suggest that Australian gunners scored the victory.

[but we know who the real hero was ]

1970  -             The Hutt River province in Western Australia secedes from the Commonwealth of Australia.

The Hutt River Province Principality is a large farming property about 595 km north of Perth, Western Australia, and is about 75 square km in size. It was founded on 21 April 1970 by farmer Leonard George Casley when he and his family and associates proclaimed their secession from Western Australia.

The year 1969 saw the climax of a long-running dispute between Casley and the Western Australian government over what Casley believed to be unreasonable wheat quotas which would spell ruin for his farm, family and business. Casley resorted to an apparent provision in British common law which he felt allowed him to secede and declare independence from the Commonwealth of Australia. Casley was elected administrator of the new "sovereign state" by his family and later became the self-styled His Royal Highness Prince Leonard of Hutt. Exports of the principality include wildflowers, agricultural produce, stamps and coins, while tourism is also important to its economy. Although actual residents are very few, it claims to have a world-wide citizenship of 13,000. Neither Australia nor any other nation has acknowledged recognition of the Province publicly.

1989  -             Student protests in China begin, ultimately leading to the Tiananmen Square massacre.

Tiananmen Square is a large open area in central Beijing, China. The world's largest public square, it contains the monument to the heroes of the revolution, the Great Hall of the People, the museum of history and revolution, and the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. As such, many rallies, protests and demonstrations have been held in the square; the most notorious were, arguably, the student protests of 1989 which led to the Tiananmen Square Massacre on 4 June 1989.

Hu Yaobang, a leader of the People's Republic of China, was a dedicated reformer who was deposed from his position. His ideas of freedom of speech and freedom of press greatly influenced the students. Following his death, approximately 100,000 students gathered at Tiananmen Square on 21 April 1989 to commemorate Hu and protest against China's autocratic communist government. When protestors were denied their demands to meet with Premier Li Peng, students all over China boycotted the universities, marching to Tiananmen Square and calling for democratic reforms. The demonstrators were joined by workers, intellectuals, and civil servants, filling the square with over a million people.

The government declared martial law in Beijing in May, and on 3 June, troops and tanks were sent in to retake the square. On 4 June 1989, between 2,000 and 4,000 students were massacred by the tanks and infantry, although exact figures have never been determined due to suppression by the Chinese government. Many protestors were also arrested and executed in the months following the protests. The event sparked international condemnation of China, and harsh economic sanctions were imposed on China until the nation released some of those who were arrested.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1788  -             Governor Arthur Phillip sets out to explore Sydney Harbour.

Captain Arthur Phillip was Governor of the colony of New South Wales, the first settlement of Europeans on Australian soil. Phillip was a practical man who suggested that convicts with experience in farming, building and crafts be included in the First Fleet, but his proposal was rejected. Thus, he faced many obstacles in his attempts to establish the new colony, including the fact that British farming methods, seeds and implements were unsuitable for use in the different climate and soil.

On 22 April 1788, less than three months after the arrival of the First Fleet to Australia, Phillip set out to explore Sydney Harbour, in search of more land suitable for settlement. Together with eleven men and enough provisions for six days, Phillip travelled as far as he could by boat up Sydney Harbour, tracing the Parramatta River to the point where Parramatta itself would be established six months later, as Rose Hill. The party then spent four days travelling overland towards the Blue Mountains. Further progress was halted by ravines and untraversible countryside, and insufficient supplies, and Phillip returned to Sydney Cove determined to send out further exploration parties.

1834  -             The island of St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean becomes a British Crown Colony.

St Helena is an island measuring approximately 16km by 8 km, with a total area of 122 km2. It is located in the south Atlantic Ocean, some 2000 km off the west coast of Africa, and regarded as one of the world's most isolated islands.

St Helena was originally discovered by the Portuguese in 1502, after which it became an important stopover for ships sailing to Europe from Asia and South Africa. In 1658, English joint-stock and trading company, the East India Company, was granted a charter by political leader Oliver Cromwell to govern St Helena. English settlers came to the island in 1659, establishing plantations with the use of slaves from Africa.

The island is perhaps best known for being the location to which self-proclaimed Emperor of France, Napoleon Bonaparte, was exiled until his death in 1821. During this time, St Helena was still a possession of the East India Company, but tge British government maintained law and order. Following Napoleon's death, authority on the island reverted to the East India Company.

On 22 April 1834, control of Saint Helena was passed from the East India Company to the British Crown, meaning that the island became a crown colony. Many long-term inhabitants left due to administrative cost-cutting, while trade routes moved away from the island with the development of steam ships which did not depend on trade winds. St Helena was used to intern around 6000 prisoner from the Boer War in 1900 and 1901, but from an all-time high population of 9,850 in 1901, the number of permanent residents on St Helena has now dwindled to around 4,250 inhabitants.

1887  -             A cyclone hits near Broome, Western Australia, killing 140.

Australia's northwestern coast is located in one of the most cyclone-prone areas of its coastline. The pearling industry developed in the region in the late 1800s, and pearling luggers populated the waters off the town of Broome. Many fleets of pearlers were lost to cyclones over several decades. When a cyclone hit on 22 April 1887, a pearling fleet once more bore the brunt of the storm; thirteen vessels were destroyed and 140 people killed. Eighty Mile Beach (some sources say Ninety Mile Beach), near Broome, was littered with bodies and debris washed up from the battered fleet.

1917  -             Australian artist Sidney Nolan is born.

Sidney Nolan, who became one of Australia's best known painters of the twentieth century, was born in Melbourne on 22 April 1917. He was one of the leading figures of the "Heide Circle" of artists which also included Albert Tucker, Joy Hester and Arthur Boyd. He became close friends with arts patrons John and Sunday Reed, living with the Reeds at their home, "Heide", just outside Melbourne, which has since become the Heide Museum of Modern Art. Here, Nolan began painting his famous "Ned Kelly" series, a series of stylised depictions of bushranger Ned Kelly. Nolan is known for painting a wide range of personal interpretations of historical and legendary figures, including Burke and Wills, and Eliza Fraser. Nolan captured whole themes in much of his work, as seen in the series Gallipoli, The St Kilda period, Dimboola, Leda and the Swan and the Sonnets. Nolan died on 28 November 1992 in London, where he had lived since the 1950s.       

1970  -             The first annual "Earth Day" is held.

Earth Day is an annual day observed in over 175 countries, designed to increase people's awareness and appreciation of the natural environment. The concept of Earth Day was developed by US Senator Gaylord Nelson in response to the devastation caused by the widespread 1969 oil spill in Santa Barbara, California. Senator Nelson used the ideas from student anti-Vietnam war movements which organised teach-ins to call for an "environmental teach-in". This event, which became the first annual Earth Day, was held on 22 April 1970.

Nelson first conceived the idea in September 1969 after he was made aware of the environmental disaster of the Californian oil spill. The concept of a national environmental teach-in was spread to college and university campuses across the US, where student organisers took up the challenge to educate others about the dangers to the environment posed by modern society. An estimated 20 million people participated that first year. For the first two decades, the movement was restricted to the US, but in 1990, it was taken abroad to 144 other countries.

There was, in fact, another Earth Day which preceded the inaugural annual observance. On 21 March 1970, the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere, San Francisco and several other cities celebrated Earth Day. This event was said to have been pioneered by John McConnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco. However, the scale of the Earth Day held a month later eclipsed McConnell's event.

2000  -             Six year old Cuban refugee, Elian Gonzalez, is seized by armed federal agents at his relatives' home in Florida.

Each year, thousands of refugees leave Cuba and attempt to cross to Florida, USA, in unsuitable vessels. Many such attempts result in the deaths of the refugees. In November 1999, a young Cuban mother and ten others died making the crossing, but her six year old son, Elian Gonzalez, together with three other survivors, floated safely in to the Florida coast on an inner tube. The boy, staying with his mother's relatives in Florida, became the centre of an intense custody dispute as his father sought to bring Elian back to Cuba.

On the morning of 22 April 2000, around two dozen US federal agents broke down the door of the house where Elian was staying and seized the boy. The raid was ordered after negotiations failed with Elian's relatives, and crowds gathered outside the house to prevent Elian from being taken. Outrage followed the publication of a photograph showing a terrified Elian and a caretaker hiding in a closet while a masked agent pointed a gun in their direction. Following a series a court hearings, Elian returned to Cuba with his father in June 2000. He is purported to have settled back into life in the small town of Cardenas, in central Cuba.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re 1834 - The island of St Helena in the Atlantic Ocean becomes a British Crown Colony

My Grandfather on my Mother side, and my Father, both first visited Saint Helena, when they were very young sailors, on their respective merchant ships.
Both said that it was the most isolated place they had ever been to.

It had never been inhabited, prior to the Portuguese finding it in the early 15th century, although it was lush with vegetation, and had plenty of fresh water, but no animals

Napoleon Bonaparte, who was imprisoned on that Island, died of possible arsenic poisoning.
Back in the day arsenic was a favourite method of poisoning, as when given in small doses, it was nearly undetectable.
Also back in the day, arsenic was used as the green dye, in green wallpaper, and paints.
Napoleon had the interior of his house painted bright green, as that was his favourite colour

Tony Bev wrote:

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Hello rockylizard

Re 1970 - The Hutt River province in Western Australia secedes from the Commonwealth of Australia

I well remember this (tongue in cheek), diplomatic incident. It was a very newsworthy event here in the West, back in the day

---

Prince Leonard is a charming man - we camped at Hutt River Province two years ago,  he gave us a tour of his memory room, told us many stories of his many worldwide ambassadors, people like Steve Irwin for example - and the chapel - with his and his lovely wife's thrones.  Some beautiful painting adorn the walls.  Well worth a visit or a stopover - if you have a passport with you, they will stamp it, but you can buy a visa if you like.

Gday...

1564  -             Today is the traditional, though unofficial, date of William Shakespeare's birth.

William Shakespeare, also spelled Shakspere, Shaksper, and Shake-speare, because spelling in Elizabethan times was not fixed and absolute, was born in Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, in April 1564. 23 April 1564 is the unofficial date which has been settled upon as Shakespeare was baptised on 26 April of that year, and baptisms were usually performed within a few days of birth. Shakespeare also died on the same date, 23 April, in 1616.

Shakespeare is known for the dozens of plays he wrote, which continue to remain a popular theatrical genre centuries after his death. Nicknamed the "Bard of Avon", he was equally skilled at creating high drama, romance and slapstick comedy. Shakespeare's better-known plays include Antony and Cleopatra, As You Like It, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, King Lear, Macbeth, The Merchant of Venice, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Othello, Romeo and Juliet, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, and Twelfth Night. Many popular quotes in today's language derive from these plays. Shakespeare also wrote over 150 sonnets, and other narrative poems.

1873  -             William Gosse departs Alice Springs on an expedition, during which he discovers Ayers Rock.

Explorer William Gosse, of the South Australian Survey Department, became the first European explorer to see Ayers Rock, quite by accident. His expedition into the central interior departed Alice Springs on 23 April 1873, heading in a northwesterly direction. The need to find water for his camels forced him to take a more southerly course than he had originally planned. It was then that he sighted Ayers Rock in central Australia, recording that, "This rock is certainly the most wonderful natural feature I have ever seen". The second largest monolith in the world, second only to Mt Augustus which is also in Australia, Ayers Rock was named after the former Premier of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. It is now known by its native name of Uluru.

1874  -             Alf Gibson, companion to explorer Ernest Giles, disappears in the desert, resulting in the naming of the Gibson Desert.

Ernest Giles emigrated to Australia in 1850 and was employed at various cattle and sheep stations, allowing him to develop good bush skills. He made several expeditions in the Australian desert. The first, lasting four months, commenced in August 1872 and resulted in discoveries such as Palm Valley, Gosse's Bluff, Lake Amadeus, and the first sighting of Mount Olga.

Alf Gibson was a young stockman who accompanied Giles on his next expedition, which departed in August 1873. On this expedition, Giles was able to approach closer to the Olgas, but his attempts to continue further west were thwarted by interminable sand, dust, biting ants and lack of water. After a two month recovery period at Fort Mueller, Giles set out north towards the Rawlinson Range, from which he again tried to penetrate westwards, but was once more thwarted by Aboriginal attack and insufficient water. In April 1874, Giles decided to make one last attempt to reach the west, taking Gibson with him. After one day, lack of water caused Giles to send the packhorses back to their camp. A day or two later, Giles's horse was unable to continue, so the men began their return to the base camp, sharing Gibson's horse.

On 23 April 1874, Giles instructed Gibson to return to the camp for help, leaving Giles to walk. Giles reached where the men had left water kegs and continued on with a supply of water that lasted him six more days. On the third day of his trek, he saw that the packhorses had veered off their original course east, and headed south, deeper into the desert. Gibson had followed the tracks. After reaching the base camp the next day, Giles immediately took another man and attempted to search for Gibson, but no trace of him was ever found. In his journal, Giles noted that he named the waterless country Gibson's Desert, "after this first white victim to its horrors".

1896  -             Following Edison's invention of the motion picture, the first film is presented to a large audience in a movie theatre.

Thomas Alva Edison was born on 11 February 1847 in Milan, Ohio, USA. Childhood illness meant that he was a slow starter and easily distracted in his schooling. After his teacher described him as "addled", his mother, a former schoolteacher herself, took charge of her son's education, stimulating his curiosity and desire to experiment.

He began selling newspapers on the railroad at age 12, and learned how to operate a telegraph. In 1868, his first invention was an electric vote-recording machine. The invention which first gained Edison fame was the phonograph in 1877, but in 1876 he had moved his laboratory to Menlo Park, New Jersey, where he invented the first prototype of a commercially practical incandescent electric light bulb, in 1879.

By the late 1880s he started experimenting with moving pictures. In his laboratory he produced the Kinetograph, a motion picture camera, and the Kinetoscope, which was a peephole motion picture viewer. Late in 1889, he showed his first motion picture. Motion pictures quickly became popular, to the point where Edison needed to build a projector suitable for showing films to bigger audiences. His company developed a projector known as the Projectoscope. The first moving pictures to be shown in an actual movie theatre in America were presented to audiences on 23 April 1896, in New York City.

2001  -             Australian newspaper 'The Sydney Morning Herald' erroneously reports that the British Flying Saucer Bureau has closed down due to lack of UFO sightings.

The British Flying Saucer Bureau was founded in 1953. In its heyday, it boasted a worldwide membership exceeding 1500. However, on 23 April 2001, Australian newspaper 'The Sydney Morning Herald' reported that, due to a lack of UFO sightings or evidence of extraterrestrial activity, the Bureau was closing down.

However, it seems it was an example of erroneous reporting by a number of publications around the world, initiated by a report from a British newspaper. Chairman and co-founder of the Bureau, Denis P Plunkett, was shocked to read a report on the Bureau's closure in a later edition of UFO Magazine. It seems that an informal comment to a local journalist in his native England had been misconstrued. Plunkett had merely stated that the Bureau was suspending lectures over the summer break, and this had been misinterpreted as the Bureau itself closing.

Cheers - John

Gday...

 a ring of light???

.....or could it just be your ring of confidence when you are out there skinny dipping?     

Are you really sure which ring it might be???

Cheers - John

Gday...

1066  -             Halley's comet first appears to the English.

Halley's Comet, officially designated 1P/Halley, is from the Kuiper belt and visits the inner solar system in a 76-year orbit. Its nucleus is potato-shaped, with dimensions around 8 by 8 by 16 kilometres. Its surface is composed largely of carbon, and other elements include water, carbon monoxide, methane, ammonia, other hydrocarbons, iron, and sodium.

Halley's comet was first observed on 24 April 1066 by both the English and the Normans who were preparing to invade England. At the time it was seen as an ill omen, a view that was confirmed when, later that year, Harold II of England died at the Battle of Hastings. The comet was observed at regular intervals in the ensuing centuries, although it was not confirmed as the same comet until Edmond Halley observed the comet in 1682. Halley theorised on the possibility that, based on previous sightings, the same comet reappeared every 75-76 years. Halley calculated that it would next appear in 1757, which was close, although it was first sighted on 25 December 1758 by Johann Georg Palitzsch, a German farmer and amateur astronomer. The delay was caused by the attraction of Jupiter and Saturn, and was in fact computed by a team of three French mathematicians, Alexis Clairault, Joseph Lalande, and Nicole-Reine Lepaute, prior to its return.

Following Halley's calculations, earlier visits of comets were noted in historical records. Chinese astronomers observed the comet's appearance in 240 BC and possibly as early as 2467 BC. Halley's Comet has reappeared in 1835, 1910 and 1986. It is due to return next in 2061.

1804  -             The first cemetery is established in the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, Australia.

The first European explorer to report the existence of what is now called Tasmania was Dutch seaman Abel Janszoon Tasman, of the Dutch East India Company. In November 1642, he discovered a previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named it "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

Hobart is the capital city of Tasmania, Australia, and is the second oldest city in Australia, with Sydney being the oldest. The city began as a penal colony at Risdon Cove on the Derwent River in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 to offset British concerns over the presence of French explorers. On 24 April 1804, the first cemetery was established on Van Diemen's Land. Named St David's Cemetery, it has since been transformed into St David's Park.

1846  -             Major Mitchell discovers the Maranoa River.

Major Thomas Mitchell was born in Craigend, Scotland, in 1792. He came to Australia after serving in the Army during the Napoleonic Wars, and took up the position of Surveyor-General of New South Wales. He undertook four separate expeditions into the NSW interior.

Mitchell departed on his fourth and final expedition on 16 December 1845, in search of a great river that he believed must flow from southern Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He left from Orange in central New South Wales, and headed into what is now western Queensland. As he crossed today's border of Queensland, he discovered the Maranoa River on 24 April 1846. The river, which was almost dry in the aftermath of summer, was named after an Aboriginal word meaning 'human hand'. It was on this journey that Mitchell also discovered and named the Balonne, Culgoa, Barcoo and Belyando rivers, which mostly flowed south-west into the Darling. Although this area was not as rich as the land he had found in Victoria on his third expedition, it would prove to be excellent grazing country in the future.

1980  -             An attempt by US troops to rescue 52 hostages in Iran ends in disaster.

On 1 November 1979 the new leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, urged his people to demonstrate against United States and Israeli interests. On 4 November 1979, militant Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran, taking 66 people captive. The Ayatollah then took over the hostage situation and agreed to release non-US captives, and female and minority Americans, claiming these groups were among the people oppressed by the US government. 52 hostages remained at the mercy of the Iranian government for the next 444 days.

US President at the time, Jimmy Carter, was unable to resolve the hostage crisis diplomatically. Following his failure, he initiated a rescue attempt, Operation Eagle Claw, on 24 April 1980. A group of C-130 transport airplanes rendezvoused with nine RH-53 helicopters at an airstrip in the Great Salt Desert of Eastern Iran, near Tabas. Two helicopters broke down in a sandstorm and a third one was damaged on landing. The mission was aborted, but as the aircraft took off again one helicopter clipped a C-130 and crashed. Eight US servicemen were killed and several more injured.

The crisis came to an end 270 days later, soon after Carter lost the November 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan. Thanks to the assistance of intermediaries such as Algerian diplomat Abdulkarim Ghuraib, the hostages were formally released into US custody on 20 January 1981.

1990  -             The Hubble Space Telescope is delivered to outer space.

The Hubble Space Telescope was, for its time, the largest and most sophisticated telescope for studying the expanse of outer space. Named after American astronomer Edward Hubble and initially funded in the 1970s, it was launched with the Space Shuttle 'Discovery' on 24 April 1990.

The Hubble Space Telescope suffered setbacks in its early days of implementation. Following its launch, scientists determined that the main mirror had been ground incorrectly, and this limited its capabilities considerably. Full and high-quality function was restored after a servicing mission in 1993. During its time in space, the Hubble has provided exceptional photographs of supernovas, distant galaxies, star clusters and black holes - enough to whet man's appetite for further space exploration.

The successor to the Hubble is the Webb Telescope, with a planned launch of 2014. Unlike the Hubble, the Webb will be able to detect and observe phenomena in infrared radiation, enabling man to see even deeper into outer space.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re 1066 - Halley's comet first appears to the English

The last Halleys Comet sighting in 1986, for the normal person on the ground, was by all accounts a bit of a fizzler, as it was the worst sighting in the previous 2000 years.

The sighting in 1066 would have been spectacular, due to it being much closer to the earth, and the lack of earth background lighting.

After the Battle of Hastings an embroidered tapestry was made, and one panel shows people looking up at the comet, which had appeared earlier in the year.
Records say that the light emitted was about one quarter of the light emitted by the moon.

Gday...

1719  -             Daniel Defoe's novel "Robinson Crusoe" is first published.

Robinson Crusoe is a novel written by Daniel Defoe and first published on 25 April 1719. The full title of the novel is:

The Life and strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe of York, Mariner: Who lived Eight and Twenty Years, all alone in an un-inhabited Island on the coast of America, near the Mouth of the Great River of Oroonoque; Having been cast on Shore by Shipwreck, where-in all the Men perished but himself. With An Account how he was at last as strangely deliver'd by Pyrates. Written by Himself.

"Robinson Crusoe" is about the fictitious character of an English castaway who has to survive for 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela before being rescued, on 19 December 1686. The story is unique in that it is written in autobiographical style, seeming to give an account of actual events. This style of writing was not common in the 18th century.

"Robinson Crusoe" is believed to have been based on the true story of Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk, who lived for four years on the remote Pacific island of Más a Tierra, although in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island.

1809  -             Australias first postmaster is appointed.

In the early years of settlement in Australia, there was no official postal service. The earliest postal service was carried out by boat along the Parramatta River, with the cost of private mail at twopence per letter. Deliveries were irregular but, as sending letters was a luxury largely restricted to officers and their families, improving the service was not a high priority. Of concern, however, was the fact that mail arriving by ship was being obtained by people fraudulently. An honest postmaster was needed to oversee mail arrivals and prevent this from happening.

Australia's first postmaster was Isaac Nichols. Nichols had arrived with the Second Fleet on the Admiral Barrington in October 1791 after being found guilty of stealing and sentenced to seven years transportation. However, he was found to be a diligent worker, greatly trusted by Governor Hunter. Although accused of receiving stolen goods in New South Wales in 1799, his innocence was upheld by Hunter, who believed evidence had been planted against him. He ordered the suspension of Nicholss fourteen-year sentence, but it was not until Philip Gidley Kings government that Nichols was awarded a free pardon, in January 1802. An enterprising man, he bought several properties and even established a shipyard, becoming quite prosperous. In 1809, Nichols was first appointed superintendent of public works and assistant to the Naval Officer. One month later, the same month that Governor Macquarie arrived in New South Wales, Nichols was appointed the colony's first postmaster on 25 April 1809. Nichol retained this position until he died in 1819.

1874  -             Marconi, inventor of the wireless telegraph, is born.

Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy, on 25 April 1874. Marconi is best known for the development of a wireless telegraphy system, which came to be known as "radio". Marconi demonstrated the transmission and reception of Morse Code based radio signals over a distance of 2 or more kilometres (and up to 6 kilometres) on Salisbury Plain in England in 1896. He made the first wireless transmission across a body of water on 13 May 1897 from Lavernock Point, South Wales to Flat Holm Island. He also received the first trans-Atlantic radio signal on 12 December 1901 at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland (now in Canada) using a 400-foot kite-supported antenna for reception. This was significant in that, prior to this transmission, it was believed that a radio signal could only be transmitted in the line of sight.

Marconi was awarded a British patent for radio communication, specifically "Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for" on 2 July 1897, and this was followed by the US patent on 13 July 1897. Marconi was awarded the 1909 Nobel prize in physics. After Marconi died on 20 July 1937, radio stations throughout the world observed two minutes of radio silence in tribute.          

1896  -             South Australian women become the first in Australia to vote in an election.

Women in South Australia gained the right to vote in 1894, and voted for the first time in the election of 1896. It is generally recognised 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. The first election after women gained the right to vote was the Legislative Council election of 25 April 1896, for which women enrolled quickly and in considerable numbers.

South Australia was the first colony in Australia and only the fourth place in the world where women gained the vote. The issue of women voting had been discussed since the 1860s, but gained momentum following the formation of the Women's Suffrage League at Gawler Place in 1888. Between 1885 and 1894, six Bills were introduced into Parliament but not passed. The final, successful Bill was passed in 1894, but initially included a clause preventing women from becoming members of Parliament. Ironically, the clause was removed thanks to the efforts of Ebenezer Ward, an outspoken opponent of women's suffrage. It seems that Ward hoped the inclusion of women in Parliament would be seen as so ridiculous that the whole Bill would be voted out. The change was accepted, however, allowing the women of South Australia to gain complete parliamentary equality with men.

1859  -             Work commences on the construction of the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean and Red seas.

The Egyptian pharaohs were the first to conceive the idea of linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea. During the Pharaonic age, a canal was dug linking the two seas, but neglect through the centuries saw it gradually filled in again. It was not until November 1854 that French engineer Ferdinand De-lesseps managed to sign a concession with the Egyptian government to dig the Suez Canal, establishing an international company for its management. Work commenced on the construction of the canal on 25 April 1859, and continued for ten years.

Over 2.4 million Egyptian workers were involved in the digging of the canal; over 125,000 lost their lives during the construction. The Suez Canal was opened for navigation on 17 November 1869. Currently, it transports around 14% of the total world trade, 26% of oil exports and 41% of the total goods and cargo destined for ports in the Arab Gulf. Prior to its construction, shipping was required to go south of the Cape of Good Hope.

1915  -             ANZAC troops land at Gallipoli during World War I.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Every year Australians and New Zealanders celebrate ANZAC Day to commemorate the troops landing on 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli on the Turkish Aegean coast. Because of a navigational error, the ANZACs came ashore about a mile north of the intended landing point. Instead of facing the expected beach and gentle slope they found themselves at the bottom of steep cliffs, offering the few Turkish defenders an ideal defensive position. Of the 1500 men who waded ashore that first day, 755 remained in active service at the end of the day. The remainder were killed or wounded. Establishing a foothold, the ANZACs found an advance to be impossible. After eight months of stalemate, the Allies withdrew from the peninsula, leaving about 8700 dead amongst the troops.

From 1916 onwards, in both Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC services were held on or about April 25, mainly organised by returned servicemen and school children in cooperation with local authorities. ANZAC Day was gazetted as a public holiday in New Zealand in 1921. In Australia, it was decided at the 1921 state premiers conference that ANZAC Day be observed on April 25 each year. Initially, it was not observed uniformly in all the states.

In Australia and New Zealand, ANZAC Day commemoration features solemn "dawn services", a tradition started in Albany, Western Australia on 25 April 1923, and now held at war memorials around both countries. Marches by veterans from all past wars are held in capital cities and towns nationwide. This is usually followed by social gatherings of veterans, hosted either in a pub or in an RSL Club, often including a traditional Australian gambling game called "two-up", which was an extremely popular past-time with ANZAC soldiers. Although the last ANZAC veteran has now died, the tradition lives on as Australia and New Zealand choose to remember the sacrifice of their young men during WWI.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re 1859 - Work commences on the construction of the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean and Red seas.

I think that I remember reading many years ago, that the early years of digging the Suez Canel, was with forced labour, using mainly pick, shovel, and baskets.
It appeared that any person not fit enough for the conditions, died.
At the end of the construction they were using steam shovels, and in the sections where there was no rock, they flooded the area and used floating dredges.

Gday...

1865  -             President Abraham Lincoln's assassin, John Wilkes Booth, is hunted down and shot.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865, and the first president from the Republican Party. He is notable for opposing the expansion of slavery into federal territories, and for the ramifications of his stand, which led to the American Civil War. Lincoln was a diplomatic and strategic wartime leader. He personally directed the war effort, which ultimately led the Union forces to victory over the Confederacy. Lincoln is most famous for his roles in preserving the Union and ending slavery in the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Lincoln was assassinated whilst attending a performance of the play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theatre on 14 April 1865. He was shot at close range by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathiser who was dissatisfied by the outcome of the American Civil War. Nine hours later, Abraham Lincoln died. Booth was hunted down by a military posse and finally located in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia. He was shot and killed on 26 April 1865 by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Booth's last words were spoken as he stared at his hands and reportedly muttered, "Useless! Useless!" Four co-conspirators were convicted and hanged, while three others were given life sentences.

Life, however, continues to be full of irony. Some time later, Lincoln's son Robert lost his footing in a crowd on a railway platform and fell between the platform and a moving train. Without hesitation, another man swung down quickly and pulled Lincoln to safety. The man was Booth's brother Edwin.

1890  -             Australian poet Banjo Paterson publishes his iconic bush ballad 'The Man From Snowy River'.

'The Man From Snowy River' is a bush ballad by Australian poet and writer A B Banjo Paterson. Andrew Barton Paterson was born in 1864, near Orange, New South Wales. He was a proficient student and sportsman, and after leaving school at 16, he took up the position of an articled clerk in a law firm: by the age of 23 he was a fully qualified solicitor. Paterson, who lived during Australias late colonial period and early years of Federation, was passionately nationalistic and popular among many Australians searching for their own identity separate from Britain. In 1885, Paterson began publishing his poetry in the Sydney edition of The Bulletin under the pseudonym of 'The Banjo', the name of a favourite horse. On 26 April 1890, he published 'The Man From Snowy River', a poem which captured the imagination of the nation.

'The Man From Snowy River' tells the story of a young stockman who, through wild and dangerous terrain, successfully chases down a valuable horse that has escaped from a station in Australias high country. The ballad was based on a real character, Irishman Jack Riley, whom Paterson met when he visited friends at Bringenbrong Station, a large property in the Upper Murray region. Riley lived in a basic timber hut near Tom Groggin Station, and shared many stories with Paterson as they camped overnight. One story in particular captured Patersons imagination, as Riley vividly described a thrilling horse chase through perilous territory, giving rise to the scenes that were later developed in 'The Man From Snowy River'.

1939  -             Australia's longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, becomes Prime Minister for the first of his terms.

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

On 28 August 1941, party dissension led Menzies to resign as Prime Minister. However, after forming the Liberal Party of Australia from the remnants of the UAP in 1944, Menzies regrouped to become Prime Minister for the second time on 19 December 1949 when the new Liberal Party, in coalition with the Country Party, beat Labor. He then remained as Prime Minister for another 16 years, a record which has not been broken in Australian politics. He retired in 1966, and died in 1978.

1970  -             The National Carillon in Canberra is accepted by Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of the people of Australia.

Canberra was named the Federal capital of Australia in 1913. The city has several distinguishing features; among them is the National Carillon. The National Carillon is located on Aspen Island in Lake Burley Griffin. It consists of a tower 50 metres in height, containing a chamber for the bells, a clavier for operating the bells, a practice clavier and various other smaller rooms. There are 55 bronze bells, varying in weight from 7kg to six tonnes, and covering a range of four and a half octaves. The bells were cast in England by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough.

The National Carillon was presented to Australia as a gift from the British Government to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Canberra. It was accepted by Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of all Australians on 26 April 1970. The inaugural recital was performed by John Douglas Gordon, after whom the Aspen Island footbridge is now named.

1986  -             The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurs.

Chernobyl is a city in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. It is located 14.5 kilometres south by south-east of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is notorious for the Chernobyl accident of 26 April 1986. Regarded as the worst accident in the history of nuclear power, clouds of radioactive particles were released, and the severely damaged containment vessel started leaking radioactive matter. 31 people died, 28 of them from acute radiation exposure. Between 100,000 and 200,000 people were evacuated from the city and other affected areas, but because there was no containment building, a plume of radioactive fallout drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, UK, and the eastern United States.

The incident began with a steam explosion that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and the subsequent nuclear meltdown. Blame for the accident has been attributed to a combination of error by the power plant operators, and flaws in the reactor design, specifically the control rods. Health officials have predicted that over the next 70 years there will be a 2% increase in cancer rates in much of the population which was exposed to the radioactive contamination released from the reactor. Another 10 people have already died of cancer as a result of the accident. Chernobyl remains inhabited by a small number of residents who chose to return to their homes after the accident, but most of the evacuated population now lives in specially constructed towns.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re 1986 - The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurs.

Although Chernobyl was an outdated nuclear reactor design, which some experts said was just an accident waiting to happen, it was also a manmade disaster.

It was a mistake by man, and not a mechanical failure, which caused this disaster.
It appears that they disabled the automatic shutdown mechanisms, which was against their own rules and regulations, before they shut down the plant for routine maintenance

Gday...

1521  -             Sailor and explorer Magellan is killed by natives in the Philippines.

Ferdinand Magellan was born in Sabrosa, near Vila Real in the province of Trás-os-Montes, Portugal, in the year 1480. He became the first person to lead an expedition sailing westward from Europe to Asia and to cross the Pacific Ocean.

In 1519, with the intention of reaching the Spice Islands by sailing west around South America, Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean, sailing across it. He did not complete his final voyage as he was killed during the Battle of Mactan in the Philippines, on 27 April 1521. Magellan did not complete the entire circumnavigation, but as the leader of the expedition, he is credited with being the man who led the first successful attempt to circumnavigate the Earth. He died further west than the Spice Islands, which he had visited on earlier voyages, making him one of the first individuals to cross all the longitudes of the globe.

The Strait of Magellan is a navigable, but extremely hazardous, route immediately south of mainland South America, and an important natural passage between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans. Magellan was the first European to navigate the strait in 1520, during his global circumnavigation voyage.

1802  -             Matthew Flinders climbs Arthur's Seat in Victoria.

Arthur's Seat is a low but striking hill on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Located 75 kilometres southeast of the city of Melbourne, Arthur's seat rises to a height of 305 metres above sea level. The hill was named by Acting Lieutenant John Murray in January 1802, after Arthur's Seat Hill in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Captain Matthew Flinders was famous for his circumnavigation and charting of the entire Australian continent in 1802-1803. Entering Port Phillip Bay six weeks after John Murray, Matthew Flinders climbed Arthur's seat on 27 April 1802. From the summit, he could view the entire Bay, and was impressed by its vastness, stating "even at this elevation its boundary to the northward could not be distinguished". Following this, Flinders spent the next three days exploring Port Phillip Bay in his boat.

Arthur's seat is now a major tourist attraction on the Mornington Peninsula, and offers a chairlift to the summit as a unique alternative to the winding road that ascends the hill.

1810  -             Beethoven composes the piano piece, 'Für Elise'.

Ludwig van Beethoven was a brilliant composer born in Bonn, Germany, in December 1770. His talent was recognised when he was very young, but only began to develop fully after he moved to Vienna in 1792 and studied under Joseph Haydn. This marked his "Early" composing career, when he tended to write music in the style of his predecessors, Haydn and Mozart. His first and second symphonies, the first six string quartets, the first two piano concertos, and the first twenty piano sonatas, including the Pathétique and Moonlight, were written in this period.

Beethoven's "Middle" period of composing began shortly after he was beset with deafness. His music of this period tended towards large-scale works expressing heroism and struggle, and included six symphonies, commencing with the "Eroica", and including the rich and penetrating Fifth Symphony. It was during this period that Beethoven composed a short, romantic composition, the Bagatelle in A minor, that became known as "Für Elise". It was written on 27 April 1810 for Therese Malfatti, whom Beethoven was considering marrying at that time - a marriage which never eventuated. There is some debate as to whether the name Elise was simply a nickname for Therese, or whether the publisher could not read Beethoven's handwriting.

1937  -             The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is completed.

The Golden Gate Bridge is a suspension bridge spanning the Golden Gate, the opening into the San Francisco Bay from the Pacific Ocean. It connects the city of San Francisco on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula and a portion of the south-facing Marin County headlands near the bayside town of Sausalito.

The bridge, including the approach, spans 2.7 km long; the main span, or distance between the towers, is 1,280 m, and the clearance below the bridge is 67 m at mean high water. Each of the two towers rises 230m above the water. The diameter of the main suspension cables is 0.91m, just under a metre. The Golden Gate Bridge was the largest suspension bridge in the world when it was built in 1937. Begun in 1933, it was completed on 27 April 1937 and opened to pedestrians on 27 May 1937. The following day, President Roosevelt pushed a button in Washington DC, signalling the start of vehicular traffic over the Bridge. During the bridge's construction, a safety net was set up beneath it, significantly reducing the expected number of deaths for such a project. 11 men were killed from falls during construction, and approximately 19 men were saved by the safety net. 10 of the deaths occurred near completion, when the net itself failed under the stress of a scaffold fall.

An internationally recognised symbol of San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge has been declared one of the modern Wonders of the World by the American Society of Civil Engineers.

1968  -             The first Kentucky Fried Chicken in Australia opens.

Kentucky Fried Chicken, now commonly known as KFC, was begun by Colonel Sanders. Harland Sanders's father died when he was young, and his mother had to work to support her children, so Sanders learned to cook for his family. Through working a series of jobs, Sanders gained the finances to acquire his own service station in Corbin, Kentucky, where he began to cook chicken for patrons. As his popularity grew, he was employed as a chef in a motel and restaurant, where he began perfecting the recipe that would eventually become a household name. He used the same 11 herbs and spices which are used in KFC today, and his use of a pressure cooker enhanced the process by ensuring quicker cooking, which helped seal in the flavour.

Colonel Sanders opened his first Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah, in the 1950s. The first Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet opened in Australia in Guildford, in Sydney's western suburbs, on 27 April 1968. Since then, the number of KFC stores in Australia has grown to more than 600.

1971  -             Relics from the wreck of The Batavia are recovered in Houtman Abrolhos, off the coast of Western Australia.

The 'Batavia' was a ship built in Amsterdam in 1628. On 29 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Texel for the Dutch East Indies to obtain spices. During the voyage two of the crew, Jacobsz and Cornelisz, planned to hijack the ship, with the aim of starting a new life somewhere using the supply of trade gold and silver on board. After stopping at South Africa for supplies, Jacobsz deliberately steered the ship off course away from the rest of the fleet, planning to organise a mutiny against the captain at some stage.

In June 1629 the ship struck a reef near Beacon Island, part of the Houtman Abrolhos island group off the Western Australian coast. 40 drowned but most of the crew and passengers were taken to nearby islands in the ship's longboat and yawl. The captain organised a group of senior officers, crew members and some passengers to search for drinking water on the mainland. Unsuccessful, they then headed north to the city of Batavia, now Jakarta. Their amazing journey took 33 days, and all survived.

After they arrived in Batavia, a rescue attempt was made for the other survivors, but it was discovered that a mutiny had taken place. Cornelisz had planned to hijack any rescue ships, and organised the murder of 125 men, women and children. The rescue party overcame the mutineers, executing the major leaders, including Cornelisz, while others were taken to be tried in Batavia. The mutiny and murders brought infamy to the story of the lost Batavia.

On 27 April 1971, relics and artefacts from the Batavia wreck were salvaged, later followed by the stern of the ship. In 1972 The Netherlands transferred all rights to Dutch shipwrecks on the Australian coasts to Australia. Some of the items, including human remains, which were excavated, are now on display in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Australia. Others are held by the Geraldton Region Museum. Included in the relics is a stone arch which was intended to serve as a welcome arch for the city of Batavia.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1789  -             Fletcher Christian leads the mutiny against Captain Bligh on the 'HMS Bounty'.

Fletcher Christian was born in Cumberland, England, on 25 September 1764. He went to sea at the age of sixteen, and two years later he sailed aboard HMS Cambridge where he met William Bligh for the first time. Bligh, born on 9 September 1754, had also started his seagoing career at the age of 16, quickly rising through the officer ranks. Bligh and Christian were very close during their early years together.

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

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

1908  -             Oskar Schindler, the man responsible for saving over a thousand Jews during the Holocaust, is born.

Oskar Schindler was born into a wealthy business family on 28 April 1908 in Zwittau, now Svitavy, Bohemia, which was then part of Austria-Hungary, but is now the Czech Republic. As a businessman himself, he sought to profit from the German invasion of Poland in 1939, buying a factory in Krakow at a low price and employing Jews as cheap labour. Schindler initially hid wealthy Jewish investors, possibly for profit, but later he began shielding his workers without regard to cost.

After witnessing a 1942 raid on the Kraków Ghetto, where soldiers shipped the ghetto inhabitants to the concentration camp at Plaszow, Schindler was appalled by the murder of many Jews who had tried to hide. He worked to transfer the Jews to a safer place, using his own skills of persuasive speech and bribing government officials to avoid being investigated.

Shindler spent millions to protect and save the Jews. After the war, he emigrated to Argentina, but returned to Germany in 1958, bankrupt. Schindler died in Germany on 9 October 1974, at the age of 66.

1949  -             Melbourne is announced as the host city for the Games of the XVI Olympiad.

Melbourne was announced as the host city for the Games of the XVI Olympiad on 28 April 1949, beating bids from Buenos Aires, Mexico City and six other American cities by a single vote. The Olympic Games commenced with an opening ceremony in November 1956. Because Melbourne is located in the southern hemisphere, the Olympics were held later in the year than those held in the northern hemisphere. Strict quarantine laws prevented Melbourne from hosting the equestrian events, and they were instead held in Stockholm on June 10, five months before the rest of the Olympic games began.

Despite boycotts by several countries over international events unrelated to Australia, the games proceeded well, and earned the nickname of "The Friendly Games". It was at the first Australian-held Olympics that the tradition began of the athletes mingling with one another, rather than marching in teams, for their final appearance around the stadium.

1996  -             Port Arthur, Australia, becomes the scene of an horrific massacre of innocent men, women and children.

Port Arthur, on the Tasman Peninsula in Tasmania, Australia, was once the site of one of Australia's most brutal penal settlements, but is now a top tourist attraction. However, the peace of the small town was shattered by a gunman on 28 April 1996. On that day 28 year old social misfit, Martin Bryant, started shooting indiscriminately, ultimately murdering 35 men, women and children, and wounding dozens more.

Around 11am, Bryant stopped at Seascape cottage just outside Port Arthur, where he shot and killed David and Sally Martin who had bought the guesthouse Bryant wanted to buy. Shortly after lunchtime, he entered the Broad Arrow cafe, ordered and ate a meal, then began shooting the tourists in the cafe. Within a few minutes, twenty people were dead, and Bryant continued on his murdering rampage first through a nearby carpark then further up the road, killing drivers, passengers and pedestrians, including chasing down 6-year-old Alannah Mikac who tried to hide behind a tree. After his killing spree, Bryant returned to the guesthouse where, after holding the police at bay for 18 hours, he then set fire to the house, hoping to escape in the confusion. He was captured by the police and taken to the Royal Hobart Hospital, where he was treated for burns and kept under guard.

Bryant pleaded guilty to the massacre. Having been deemed intellectually impaired and mentally unstable, he is currently serving a life sentence in Hobart's Risdon Prison, in protected custody for his own safety. He has attempted to commit suicide on a number of occasions, and he remains under threat from other prisoners who cannot forgive him for stalking a child.

Among those killed were the family of Walter Mikac - his wife, Nanette and their two daughters, Madeline, age 3, and six-year-old Alannah. Subsequently, Mikac became recognised as the face of the worst mass murder in Australian history. Mikac is a co-founder of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation, which was set up in their memory to provide support for children who are the victims of violent crime. Crown Princess Mary of Denmark is the patron of the Alannah and Madeline Foundation.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1770  -             Lieutenant James Cook discovers and names Botany Bay.

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

Cook was hired in 1766 by the Royal Society to travel to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun. Following this, Cook's next orders were to search the south Pacific for Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent that many believed must extend around the southern pole. He came across New Zealand, which Abel Tasman had discovered in 1642, and spent some months there, charting the coastline.

Nearly a year later, Cook set sail west for New Holland, which was later to become Australia. On 29 April 1770 Cook's vessel, the Endeavour, sailed into Botany Bay, after first sighting the eastern coast of Australia ten days earlier. He described the bay as being "tolerably well sheltered", and initially named it Stingray Bay, after the large numbers of stingray he noted. The name was later changed to Botany Bay due to the vast numbers of new and unique botanical specimens noted by the ship's botanists, including Joseph Banks. Cook named Cape Solander and Cape Banks after Banks and Finnish botanist Daniel Solander. He then landed at Kurnell, allowing the cabin boy, Isaac Smith, to be the first known European to step foot on the soil of "New South Wales".

1789  -             Australia's first bushranger, John 'Black' Caesar, is tried for theft, leading him to make escape plans.

John Caesar, nicknamed "Black Caesar" was Australia's first bushranger. Most likely born in Madagascar, he was a slave on a sugar plantation until he escaped and headed for London. The theft of 240 shillings resulted in his transportation on the First Fleet, and he one of the first black people to be part of Australia's colonisation.

Due to difficulties with establishing farms and the limited supplies purchased during the journey of the First Fleet, Governor Arthur Phillip was forced to reduce convict rations in the early part of the penal settlement. This meant that hunger was rife. 'Black' Caesar was a big man and powerfully built, and like many convicts, resorted to theft to feed his hunger. He was tried and punished on 29 April 1789. Two weeks later, he escaped to the bush, taking stolen food supplies and a musket with him.

Caesar apparently had difficulty hunting native wildlife, and began stealing food from both free settlers and convicts' supplies. He was caught on 6 June 1789, and following his trial, was sent to Garden Island to work. Escaping yet again, on 22 December, he survived for only a short while before giving himself up on 31 December.

Governor Phillip pardoned Caesar, but sent him to Norfolk Island as a free settler, where he fathered a child. Three years later he returned to Sydney and took up his life of bushranging once more. He was captured several months later. He enjoyed brief recognition when he directly assisted the capture of the Aborigine Pemulwuy, who had led numerous attacks against Europeans and their occupation of aboriginal land. In 1795, Caesar escaped once more, but on 15 February 1796 was shot and killed by a bounty hunter.

1841  -             Eyre's overseer, Baxter, is killed by two of the Aborigines who accompanied the expedition.

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, taking with him his overseer, John Baxter, and three Aborigines. 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, which had never before been attempted, in a gruelling journey across the Nullarbor, during which his party faced starvation and thirst. On the night of 29 April 1841, as Eyre watched the horses some distance from their camp, two of the Aborigines shot Baxter who tried to stop them from raiding the meagre supplies. After Baxter died, Eyre was left with just one loyal companion, the Aborigine, Wylie. The anguish Eyre felt was recorded in his journal entry: "Ages can never efface the horrors of this single night."

Baxter could not be buried in the hard limestone surface: Eyre wrapped his body in a blanket and left it there high above the Great Australian Bight at the point now known as Baxter Cliffs. A monument now marks where Baxter was killed.

1901  -             The new Australian Commonwealth Government announces a Federal Flag design competition.

The Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed on 1 January 1901. Shortly after this, on 29 April 1901, the Commonwealth Government announced a Federal Flag design competition. There were 32,823 entries in the competition, and most featured the Union Jack, the Southern Cross, or native animals.

Five almost identical entries were selected to share the 200 pound prize. The entries belonged to Ivor Evans, a fourteen-year-old schoolboy from Melbourne; Leslie John Hawkins, a teenager apprenticed to an optician from Sydney; Egbert John Nuttall, an architect from Melbourne; Annie Dorrington, an artist from Perth; and William Stevens, a ships officer from Auckland, New Zealand. On 3 September 1901, the new Australian flag flew for the first time from the top of the Exhibition Building in Melbourne. The flag was simplified, and approved by King Edward VII in 1902.

1941  -             The town of Meeberrie, Western Australia, is hit by an earthquake.

The tiny town of Meeberrie, Western Australia, lies in the Murchison River region in the central west of the state. During World War II, it was the site of Australia's largest magnitude earthquake onshore to date.

Beginning around 9:38am on 29 April 1941, Meeberrie was hit by an earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale. The epicentre was around 200km northwest of Kalbarri, and the effects were felt as far away as Port Hedland to the north, and Albany to the south. There was little damage in Meeberrie as the town's population is small, but damage to buildings was extensive, with all the walls of the Meeberrie homestead being cracked through from floor to ceiling. Rainwater tanks split open and the ground was visibly cracked over a significant range. Cracks ranged from 8 metres to 18 metres in length and 1cm to 5cm in width, to 45cm deep.

Little information is available on the earthquake as, being wartime, no further investigations were carried out. There were also no government bodies assigned the duty of investigating seismic activity. The quake was recorded by seismographs as far away as Sydney.

1945  -             Notorious concentration camp, Dachau, is liberated by US troops.

The Dachau concentration camp was a Nazi concentration camp near the city of Dachau, north of Munich, in Bavaria, southern Germany. It was the first Nazi concentration camp and served as a prototype and model for the others that followed. Over 200,000 prisoners from more than 30 countries were housed in Dachau during the years that it operated. From 1941, Dachau was also used for extermination purposes. Camp records list 30,000 persons killed in the camp, with thousands more who died due to the conditions in the camp, including a typhus epidemic in 1945.

ON 29 April 1945, the 45th Infantry Division of the US Seventh Army, led by Lieutenant Colonel Felix S Sparks, liberated Dachau. The troops were so horrified by conditions at the camp that they shot about 35 of the camp guards, while another 515 were arrested or managed to escape. The troops found 32,000 prisoners at the point of death, crammed 1600 to each of 20 barracks, which had been designed to house 250 people each. They also found 39 railroad cars, each filled with one hundred or more bodies. There was controversy over the US massacre of the guards, and also over the fact that, in their indignation at the conditions, the US troops forced local citizens to come into the compound and help clean up.

1952  -             The ANZUS Treaty between Australia, New Zealand and the United States goes into force.

ANZUS stands for the "Australia, New Zealand, United States Security Treaty". The treaty signalled a military alliance between the three nations, with Australia and the United States indicating their cooperation on defence matters in the Pacific region. It was signed on 1 September 1951, and went into effect on 29 April 1952.

The Treaty developed as a result of the cooperation between Australia, New Zealand and the US in the Pacific arena during World War II. By 1951, the US wished to allow for Japan's rearmament as a result of the Korean War breaking out, including a provision that Japan grant the United States the territorial means for it to establish a military presence in the Far East. However, Australia remained wary of the country which had threatened Pacific security during the war. Australia and New Zealand only agreed to Japan's rearmament when Australia and New Zealand's proposal for a three-way security treaty was accepted by the United States. The treaty specifically stated the intention of the three signatories to work to strengthen and maintain peace in the Pacific Area, including Japan. Most recently, the treaty was invoked in Australia following the terrorist attacks in the United States in 2001.

Due to tension between New Zealand and the US over nuclear-armed or nuclear-powered ships of the US Navy visiting New Zealand ports in 1984, New Zealand no longer participates to any extent in ANZUS. However, the treaty is still current between New zealand and Australia, and the US and Australia.

1988  -             Australian icon, the Stockman's Hall of Fame, is opened in Longreach, Queensland.

The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre is a complex in Longreach, Queensland, Australia, to pay tribute to the explorers, overlanders, pioneers and settlers of outback Australia.

The memorial was the vision of Australian artist Hugh Sawrey, who conceived the idea in 1974. The location of the Stockman's Hall of Fame in Longreach, western Queensland, was selected in October 1978. The selection was made on the basis of the site having once been a teamster's stop beside a large waterhole off the Thomson River. Architect Feiko Bouman won the design competition for the building in 1980, and construction commenced five years later, in July 1985. The Australian Stockman's Hall of Fame and Outback Heritage Centre was officially opened by Her Majesty the Queen, Elizabeth II, on 29 April 1988, the same year as Australia's bicentenary celebrations.

Unique aspects of life in outback Australia are showcased through the various galleries of 'Discovery', 'Pioneers', 'Outback Properties', 'Life in the Outback' and 'Stock workers'. Displays are presented through a variety of media. The centre is also used to host a variety of events such as Opera in the Outback, the Drovers Reunion, Musters and Pro Rodeos, and Sheep Shearing competitions.     

Cheers - John

Gday...

1803  -             The United States purchases the Louisiana Territory from France.

The Louisiana Purchase was the acquisition by the United States of more than 529,911,681 acres or 2,144,476 km2 of territory from France in 1803, at the cost of about 3¢ per acre, or 7¢ per hectare. The French territory of Louisiana included far more land than just the current US state of Louisiana. The lands purchased comprised 22.3 percent of the territory of the United States, from modern Louisiana up to North Dakota and portions of Montana, west as far as today's New Mexico, Wyoming and Colorado and east to Iowa and Minnesota west of the Mississippi River. The Louisiana Purchase Treaty was signed on 30 April 1803, during the presidential term of Thomas Jefferson.

1831  -             Captain Collet Barker, original discoverer of the site for Adelaide, is killed by indigenous Australians.

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, the only Australian state to have been founded by free settlers, remaining entirely free of convicts during its early history.

The site of Adelaide was originally determined by Captain Collet Barker. Barker was sent by Governor Darling in April 1831 to explore southern Australia, following up on Charles Sturt's discovery of the mouth of the Murray River. Barker explored around the eastern side of Gulf St Vincent, climbed Mt Lofty, and selected a suitable port for the future city of Adelaide. On 30 April 1831, Barker arrived at the sand spit where the Murray River enters the Southern Ocean. He elected to swim the channel, strapping his compass to his head. Somewhere, in the sandhills on the eastern side, Barker disappeared.

It was determined later, on the information of an aboriginal woman, that Barker had been speared to death by Aborigines and his body thrown into the sea. His remains were never discovered.

The city of Adelaide was subsequently surveyed and designed by Colonel William Light, first Surveyor-General of South Australia, who arrived in South Australia in 1836 to follow up on Barker's expedition. Light explored Encounter Bay and nearby regions until he discovered Port Adelaide which Barker had noted in his journals.

1900  -             Legendary train driver Casey Jones is killed in a locomotive accident.

Johnathan Luther "Casey" Jones was born in 1863. As a youngster he was fascinated by trains, and as a teenager he worked for the Mobile and Ohio Railroad as an apprentice telegrapher. Working his way up through the ranks of the railroads, he became an engineer, working for the Illinois Central Railroad. By 1890 he was recognised by his peers as one of the best locomotive engineers in the business.

In 1899, Jones was given a regular passenger run on the Cannonball route which ran between Chicago and New Orleans. On 29 April 1900 Jones was in Memphis, Tennessee from the northbound Cannonball when he agreed to take the southbound Cannonball because the scheduled engineer was sick. He left Memphis at 12:50 am, 95 minutes behind schedule, but made up a great deal of the lost time with his skilled driving. On the morning of 30 April 1900, he noted a stationary freight train ahead of his speeding locomotive. After ordering his fireman to jump, Jones applied the brakes. The Cannon Ball crashed and Jones was killed, but the passengers were saved. Jones's story has since been celebrated in 'The Ballad of Casey Jones'.

1991  -             Approximately 140,000 people are killed as a powerful cyclone hits Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is a country in southern Asia, on the Bay of Bengal. Much of the land is composed of the great combined delta of the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna Rivers. Apart from the Chittagong Hills along the border with Myanmar, most of the country is no more than 90 m above sea level. The low-lying delta region, combined with the country's tropical monsoon climate, means that Bangladesh is subject to severe flooding from monsoon rains, cyclones, and storm surges which bring major crop damage and high loss of life.

On the evening of 29 April 1991, a powerful tropical cyclone made landfall just south of the Chittagong district of southeastern Bangladesh, with windspeeds up to 250kph. By the time the cyclone dissipated on 30 April 1991, between 125,000 and 140,000 people had been killed, and up to 10 million left homeless as a result of the 6m storm surge. Most deaths were from drowning, with the highest mortality among children and the elderly.

The storm caused an estimated $1.5 billion in 1991 US dollars in damage. The high velocity winds and the storm surge completely devastated the coastline and severely damaged the Bangladesh Navy and Bangladesh Air Force, both of which had bases in Chittagong.

2006  -             Two Tasmanian miners are found alive after being trapped underground for five days.

Beaconsfield is a small town in the northeast of Tasmania, Australia, about 39 km north west of Launceston on the West Tamar Highway. The district was first settled in 1805 and became a centre for limestone quarrying. The mining of limestone led to the discovery of gold in 1869 which caused the area to boom immensely, and by 1881 Beaconsfield was known as the richest gold town in Tasmania.

On the evening of Anzac Day, 25 April 2006, a small earthquake caused a rock fall in the mine. Eleven miners came out safely, but three remained trapped in the shaft about 1 kilometre below the ground. On the morning of 27 April the body of 44-year-old Larry Knight was found in the shaft. On the evening of 30 April 2006, the other two miners were discovered to be alive, after being trapped in the mine for five days. Their survival was claimed as nothing less than a miracle. They were protected by the 1.2m square cage they were in at the time, and which was where they spent most of their following fourteen days. Brant Webb, 37, and Todd Russell, 35, survived by drinking mineralised water that dripped from the rocks throughout the mine. The family of Larry Knight put aside their grief to share the jubilation of the rest of the town.

The operation to rescue the trapped miners was a long and difficult one, as numerous obstacles were faced. However, Webb and Russell were finally freed at 4:47am on Tuesday, 9 May 2006, the same day selected for Larry Knight's funeral. A bell at Beaconsfield's Uniting Church, which had not been rung since the announcement of the end of WWII, pealed in celebration as the news broke, and residents immediately started to converge on the mine site. The men surfaced an hour later, after being initially taken by 4WD to the mine's "crib room", a room the size of a cafeteria and located about 700 metres below the ground, for recovery and health checks.

Cheers - John