$1.97 for a Big Mac might seem cheap today, but, according to results from the household survey of income released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1996-97, shows the average weekly income received by couple families was $890, by one-parent families $432 and by single persons $391,.
The level of income received by couple families was at its peak when they are between 45 and 54 years, at $1,090 a week.
The considerably lower incomes that accompany retirement are evident in the average incomes of those aged 65 years and over. In 1996-97 the average weekly income was $481 for couples and $242 for single persons in this age group.
Not sure who was better off ... us back then or us now.
1862 - John McDouall Stuart discovers the Katherine River.
John McDouall Stuart was a Scottish-born explorer who was determined to cross Australia from south to north. Stuart led a total of six expeditions into Australia's interior, with five of them being attempts to be the first to cross the continent from south to north, commencing from Adelaide. He succeeded on his fifth attempt, reaching the northern waters at Chambers Bay in July 1862.
There were unofficial reports that John McKinlay of South Australia and William Landsborough of Queensland had each crossed Australia from south to north whilst independently searching for the missing Burke and Wills party; however, Stuart was officially the first person to successfully cross the Australian continent from south to north, and return alive.
On his fifth and final attempt, he discovered rich pasture land in the Northern Territory, together with the rivers leading into the northern waters. On 8 July 1862, he named the Katherine River after the daughter of wealthy landowner James Chambers, who helped to finance Stuart's expeditions.
1881 - The ice cream sundae is invented in Wisconsin, US, to satisfy a customer who is denied flavoured soda water because it is a Sunday.
Edward Berner owned a drug store and ice-cream parlour in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. On Sunday, 8 July 1881, a customer by the name of George Hallauer came in and asked for an ice-cream soda. Being a Sunday, Berner was not permitted to sell flavoured soda water, which was considered "scandalous". Berner satisfied the customer by placing ice cream in a dish and pouring over the chocolate syrup usually reserved for ice cream sodas. It was named "sundae" after the day on which it was invented.
Although several US cities stake their claim as the place where the sundae was invented, the Wisconsin State Historical Society recognises Two Rivers as the birthplace of the sundae. In 1973, the society erected an historical marker in Two Rivers Central Memorial Park. The marker reads:
"ICE CREAM SUNDAE - In 1881, George Hallauer asked Edward C. Berner, the owner of a soda fountain at 1404 - 15th Street, to top a dish of ice cream with chocolate sauce, hitherto used only for ice cream sodas. The concoction cost a nickel and soon became very popular, but was sold only on Sundays. One day a ten year old girl insisted she have a dish of ice cream "with that stuff on top," saying they could "pretend it was Sunday." After that, the confection was sold every day in many flavors. It lost its Sunday only association, to be called ICE CREAM SUNDAE when a glassware salesman placed an order with his company for the long canoe-shaped dishes in which it was served, as "Sundae dishes."
1886 - It rains snails near Redruth in Cornwall, England.
It is not unusual to hear stories of creatures falling from the sky: it has been known for frogs, fish, snakes and even turtles trapped in ice to fall from the sky during showers which may occur inland, many kilometres from the coast. Because huge updrafts within a storm or tornado can measure up to and over 150kph, small creatures (and sometimes larger ones) can by caught in the updraft, especially as it passes over well-populated habitats such as creeks and ponds.
During a heavy thunderstorm on 8 July 1886 near Redruth, Cornwall, snails rained down so thickly that they could be collected by the hatful. Thousands of snails fell during the storm, and it was noted that the snails were of a type not previously seen in the district. Sceptics later stated that it was probable the snails did not fall in the storm but, being of a usually-hidden land species, came out in their droves during the flooding rain.
1904 - Sydney's electricity supply is officially switched on.
The development of electric lighting is regarded as a major milestone in history. Inventors began experimenting with electric lighting from the early 1800s, but it was not until the 1870s that English physicist Sir Joseph Swan produced the first electric light bulb. Thomas Alva Edison then perfected the design and demonstrated the first durable and commercially practical incandescent lamp in 1879.
Electric lightbulbs were far more practical, efficient and useful than previous forms of lighting, including outdoor arc lamps which produced intense heat as well as fumes, and for that reason could not be used indoors.
Thanks to the efforts of Governor Richard Bourke, Sydney first received street lighting in the 1830s. It was also the site of the first public demonstration of electric lighting in New South Wales. On 11 June 1863, the city of Sydney was lit up to honour the occasion of the wedding of the Prince of Wales. However, it was only in 1878 that electric lighting was used regularly in Sydney; this involved the use of arc lamps to allow work on the Exhibition Garden Palace in the Botanical Gardens to be completed in time for the International Exhibition the government wished to host.
The first electric light plants were imported into Sydney in 1882. Although inefficient at first, improvements were gradually made, and the government gradually deployed electric lighting in its buildings, and to the homes of individuals. By 1896, the government sought advice from Edison, Swan and various other experts, and subsequently planned ahead to legislate for the eventual establishment of The Municipal Council of Sydney's Electricity Undertaking. On 8 July 1904, the Electricity Undertaking's supply system was officially switched on. At 5:00pm on this day, Sydney's Lord Mayor Samuel E Lees started the steam to fire up the engine and generators, while his wife, the Lady Mayoress, switched on the actual electric current with a special gold presentation key.
1947 - The Roswell Army Air Field announces it has recovered a "flying disk".
Roswell is a city in southeast New Mexico, USA. It is a centre for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It has also become known for what is now called the 1947 Roswell UFO incident.
In early July 1947, an unusual object was reported to have crashed about 120 kilometres northwest of Roswell on a ranch, leaving a large field of debris. The local air base at Roswell investigated after the rancher first reported it to Roswell authorities on July 6. On 8 July 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) announced it had recovered a "flying disk". A few hours after the initial "flying disk" press release, US Army Air Force officials recanted, stated that it was not a UFO, but a weather balloon. When the question of what crashed was revived in the early 1980s, the "Roswell Incident" became a focus of conspiracy theorists and UFO investigators.
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
11:12 AM Jul 8, 2016
1881.....The only problem with a Sunday is you can only have one on a Sunday, Rocky. I reckon it's about time someone came up with one we could enjoy any day of the week.
1886.....That's it, you won't catch me near the snow or ice now Snakes falling from the sky is enough to do that to bloke ya know Rocky. I won't go in a plane now since I saw "Snakes on plane". That documentary turned me away
rockylizard said
08:57 AM Jul 9, 2016
Gday...
1827 - Australian explorer Allan Cunningham discovers the Gwydir River in northern NSW, opening up the area for grazing and pastureland.
Australian explorer Allan Cunningham was born on 13 July 1791 in Wimbledon, England. He came to Australia in December 1816, suffering from tuberculosis. An avid botanist who worked to classify many of Australia's unique plant species, he had been selected by Sir Joseph Banks to be an overseas collector of specimens in his position as 'Botanist to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew'. Australia's climate helped Cunningham regain some of his health, and he was anxious to discover more of the country he came to love. He explored much of northern NSW and southern Queensland (which, at that stage, was still part of the NSW colony) and discovered pastureland and rivers which helped open up the area for farming.
On 9 July 1827, Cunningham discovered the Gwydir River, around which the town of Moree is now built. He named it after Lord Gwydir after his patron Lord Gwydir, who took his title from Gwydir Castle in Wales. It is interesting to note that Gwydir is also an Aboriginal name meaning 'river with red banks'.
Cunningham returned to England in 1831, but came back to New South Wales in 1837 as Government Botanist, a position he resigned after a year.
1857 - The Municipality of the Town of Gawler, South Australia, is proclaimed.
South Australia is the only Australian state to have been founded by free settlers, remaining entirely free of convicts during its early history. The site of its capital, Adelaide, was originally determined by Captain Collet Barker in 1831 and subsequently surveyed by Colonel William Light five years later.
Gawler is a Local Government Area (LGA) located 44km north of Adelaide. The year after Colonel Light surveyed the capital, he and his assistant, Boyle Travers Finniss, travelled through the area north of Adelaide. Light saw the benefits of establishing a town which would be the gateway to the north, and to the Murray River, the water and transport lifeline for South Australia. Light's recommendation for a survey of the area was initially not taken up, but Henry Dundas Murray, John Reid and a syndicate of ten other colonists noted Light's recommendation and applied for a Special Survey of 4000 acres (1618 hectares). Following this, Light was commissioned to survey the town. William Jacob then laid out the town from Light's plan and the town was officially established on 31 January 1839. It was named Gawler after Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler, second Governor of South Australia.
The first settler in Gawler was John Reid, who arrived in February 1839 to take up his selection near the North Para River. Reid's property became a stopover for new pioneers to the area and overlanders from New South Wales. Gawler developed slowly until the discovery of copper at nearby Kapunda in 1842 sent its growth soaring. When the copper mines were established at Burra in the north, Gawler's importance as a trade and stopping centre increased. The establishment of agricultural areas to the north cemented Gawler's position as a permanent settlement.
With the introduction of Local Government to the region in 1853 and 1854, the districts of Munno Para East, Mudla Wirra, Barossa West (which included Gawler) and Munno Para West were formed. Residents of Gawler, however, were unhappy with the services provided by Barossa West, and lobbied for separation. The Municipality of the Town of Gawler was proclaimed on 9 July 1857.
1894 - Percy LeBaron Spencer, the inventor of the microwave oven, is born.
Percy LeBaron Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven, was born on 9 July 1894 in Howland, Maine, USA. Orphaned when he was young, he was raised by his aunt and uncle. Spencer left school at age 12 to work in a mill, then joined the US Navy in 1912 to learn wireless telegraphy. He joined the Raytheon Company in the 1920s.
He was working as an engineer with the Raytheon company when he was experimenting with and testing a magnetron. The magnetron was invented during WWII and allowed the Allies to pinpoint the exact locations of Nazi war machines and arsenals, as the magnetron produced microwaves which radar then bounced off the arsenals, and back to the Allies. Whilst testing the magnetron after the war, Dr Spencer reached into his pocket for his chocolate bar, and discovered it had completely melted. He made the connection between the melted chocolate and the heat-producing magnetron, and tested his theory on a bag of unpopped corn kernels, which then popped. Next, he placed an egg in front of the magnetron. The egg exploded.
Dr Spencer is therefore credited with discovering one of the critical components of the microwave oven. Development of the microwave oven grew out of his observations, and by 1947 a commercial oven was being sold by Raytheon.
1900 - Queen Victoria approves the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill.
Prior to 1901, Australia was made up of six colonies which had partial self-government, but which were also under British authority. Although the continent had officially been known as Australia since 1824, there was no nation or government of Australia. The Federation movement gained momentum during the 1880s, but before Federation could occur, it was necessary to draft an Australian Constitution - a process which took almost a decade.
Seven delegates were selected from each of the colonies to formulate a draft constitution, along with three delegates from New Zealand. The first constitutional convention, known as the National Australasian Convention, was held from March to April 1891, and at this convention it was agreed to adopt the name 'Commonwealth of Australia'. Further conferences were held in 1893, 1895 and 1896. The final National Convention was held in three sessions over 1897-98, and by early 1898, a draft constitution had been agreed upon. It was brought before each of the colonial parliaments for approval. The constitutional system protected the rights of the states, while establishing a national government to represent their common interests.
Initially rejected by the states, amendments were made at a 'Secret Premiers' Conference early in 1899. The final draft was then approved by the Australian people via referenda held in each colony. It was necessary for the British Parliament to also agree to the constitution, so further alterations were negotiated before the British Parliament passed the bill in July 1900. On 9 July 1900 Queen Victoria signed the Royal Commission of Assent and the bill became the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900.
Interestingly, Western Australia only agreed to the bill several weeks after it was given Royal Assent. Section 9 of the Australian Constitution Act stated that on and after 1 January 1901, the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania would be united and known as the Commonwealth of Australia, but the Act made provision for Western Australia to still join the Commonwealth. On 1 January 1901, federation of the six colonies was achieved and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.
1982 - A man breaks into Buckingham Palace and spends about ten minutes in informal conversation with the Queen.
On 9 July 1982, Michael Fagan, a 31 year old unemployed father of four, scaled the walls and drainpipes of Buckingham Palace, then broke into the Queen's apartments at about 7:15 BST. He managed to evade guards and electronic alarms before surprising the Queen in her bedroom. He sat on the end of the Queen's bed and engaged in informal conversation with her for about ten minutes before police arrived. During this time, the Queen calmly informed a footman of the intruder when Fagan asked for a cigarette.
Since it was then a civil rather than criminal offence, Fagan was not charged for trespassing in the Queen's bedroom. He was charged with theft after stealing half a bottle of wine when he had previously broken into Buckingham Palace on 7 June. The charges were dropped when he was committed for psychiatric evaluation. The attack highlighted concerns about the Queen's personal security.
2009 - The successful removal and relocation of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, USA, is completed.
The Cape Hatteras lighthouse is a famous lighthouse on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, USA. It is the tallest lighthouse in use in the US. Completed in 1803, the original structure was eventually demolished following the construction of a new and improved lighthouse between 1868 and 1870. The new lighthouse became the tallest lighthouse tower in the US, with the light projecting from 191 feet, or 58 m, above the water. The tower stands 63 metres tall from the base of the foundation to the tip of the roof, and the structure contains 268 steps.
By 1935, erosion had so threatened the tower that the water was actually reaching its base. After attempts to hold back the erosion process through dikes and breakwaters proved futile, the tower was abandoned and a functional light placed on a steel tower further inland from the shore. After a few years, wooden revetments, a more effective method for erosion control, helped reclaim some of the shoreline, and the lighthouse was declared safe for use and recommissioned on 23 January 1950.
Further erosion of the shoreline necessitated the relocation of the entire tower in 1999. The granite underlying the foundation of the lighthouse was mined out and replaced with steel supports. Using hydraulic jacks, these steel supports then moved the entire tower along a system of track beams. The actual removal operation began on 17 June 1999 and was completed on 9 July 1999. On this date, the tower was then lowered onto a new concrete pad 2900 feet (883m) away, and its temporary steel foundation replaced with brick. The lighthouse survived the move and a ceremonial relighting was held on 13 November that year.
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
09:48 AM Jul 9, 2016
1982.....I remember that well Rocky. Bet ya security is different now though.
jules47 said
10:14 AM Jul 9, 2016
Where would some people be without Percy LeBaron Spencer? I know people who ONLY cook with microwave, including boiling water for their coffee!!!
rockylizard said
09:10 AM Jul 10, 2016
Gday...
1852 - Sydney, Australia, is incorporated as a city.
The city of Sydney is Australia's largest city, though it is not the country's Capital city. Originally known as Sydney Town, it was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Captain Arthur Phillip, who led the First Fleet from Britain. He named it after the British Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, in recognition of Sydney's role in issuing the charter authorising Phillip to establish a colony. The state capital of New South Wales, Sydney boasts a current population of around 4.3 million. It is built along the shores of Port Jackson, one of the world's most spectacular natural harbours.
Sydney began to develop a sense of order and prominence under Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. Macquarie was instrumental in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony, commissioning the construction of roads, bridges, wharves, churches and public buildings. He founded new towns such as Richmond, Windsor, Pitt Town, Castlereagh and Wilberforce (known as the "Macquarie Towns"), as well as Liverpool. He was also the greatest sponsor of exploration the colony had yet seen.
Following Macquarie's tenure, Sydney continued to grow and prosper. It was first incorporated as a city on 10 July 1852, earning it the title of Australia's "first city".
1910 - Australia's Commonwealth Naval Forces are granted the title of Royal Australian Navy by King George V.
From the time that Australia was first colonised in 1788, up until 1859, Australia's naval defence depended on detachments from the Royal Navy in Sydney. A separate British naval station was established in Australia in 1859, while a Royal Navy squadron, paid for and maintained by Australia, was retained in Australian waters through to 1913.
In 1909, the decision was made to establish an Australian Fleet Unit. The first ships comprising this fleet arrived in Australian waters during November of 1910. These Commonwealth Naval Forces became the Royal Australian Navy on 10 July 1911, following the granting of this title by King George V.
Late in 1911, the Federal Parliament of Australia selected Captain's Point, Jervis Bay, as the site of the future Royal Australian Naval College. As the Australian Capital Territory was inland, it was determined that the national seat of government needed access to the ocean, so the Jervis Bay Territory was surrendered by New South Wales to the Commonwealth in 1915 under the "Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915".
1921 - Harvey Ball, inventor of the Smiley face, is born.
Harvey Ross Ball was born on 10 July 1921 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Whilst still at school he was apprenticed to a local sign painter, and later attended Worcester Art Museum School where he studied fine arts. He then served over two decades in the National Guard, and was posted in Asia and the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he worked for a local advertising firm until he started his own business, Harvey Ball Advertising, in 1959.
The invention of the Smiley face came about in an attempt to boost employee morale after it dropped when State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, MA (now known as Allmerica Financial) purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio. Ball was employed as a freelance artist to create a smiley face to be used on buttons, desk cards, and posters. The Smiley was invented within ten minutes, and earned Ball just $45. The use of the Smiley was part of the company's friendship campaign whereby State Mutual handed out 100 smiley pins to employees. The aim was to get employees to smile while using the phone and doing other tasks. The buttons were very popular, and by 1971, over 50 million Smiley Face buttons had been sold.
Ball never applied for a trademark or copyright for his design, a move which he never regretted. However, he founded the World Smile Corporation, which licenses Smileys and organises World Smile Day, which in turn raises money for the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation, a non-profit charitable trust which supports children's causes. World Smile Day is held on the first Friday of October each year and is a day dedicated to "good cheer and good works". The catch phrase for the day is "Do an act of kindness - help one person smile".
1936 - The Thylacine, commonly referred to as the Tasmanian Tiger, is named a protected animal.
The Thylacine was a dasyurid, or carnivorous marsupial, living in Australia up until the twentieth century. It is believed that the Thylacine existed on the Australian mainland until the introduction of the dingo thousands of years ago. Although the Thylacine was often called the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf, it was neither of these. Its body was similar in shape to that of the placental wolf, but it was a marsupial, putting it in an entirely different class. It stood 58-60cm tall, with a body and tail length of up to 180cm.
When Europeans settled in Tasmania, the Thylacine's fate was sealed. Farmers shot the creatures, fearing them as a threat to livestock, while hunters prized them as trophies; these acts were supported by the government of the time which offered a bounty of one pound for every dead adult Thylacine and ten shillings for each dead Thylacine joey. This bounty system, introduced in 1830, was not terminated until 1909. By this time, the Thylacine was very rare, and being sought for zoos worldwide. Australian authorities were slow to protect native wildlife, with the result that many species became extinct or on the verge of extinction. In a last attempt to protect the remaining specimens, Tasmania named the Thylacine a protected animal. On 10 July 1936, the governor of Tasmania, Sir Ernest Clark, announced that "... in exercise of the powers and authority conferred upon me by the Animals and Birds Protection Act, 1928, do, by this proclamation, transfer Native Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) from Schedule 3, Part 1, to Schedule 2, Part 1, of that Act .
The last known specimen of the Thylacine died in the Hobart Zoo in September that same year. The last captive animals were exhibited in zoos, where their needs were not understood, and the Thylacines in Hobart died from exposure. Despite numerous apparent "sightings" over the years, not one of these has ever been confirmed, and in 1986, the Thylacine was officially classified as Extinct.
1940 - In WWII, the Battle of Britain begins, in which Germany attempts to destroy the Royal Air Force and gain control of British air space.
The Battle of Britain was a major campaign in the second World War. Germany aimed to destroy the Royal Air Force and aircraft production, thereby gaining a position of dominance in the war. Secondary objectives were to destroy ground infrastructure, as well as intimidating and demoralising the British people.
British and German sources differ on the actual dates of the campaign, with the former claiming it ran from 10 July 1940 to 31 October 1940, and the latter stating it began in August 1940 and ended in May 1941. Regardless, the British were victorious in the Battle of Britain, marking the first failure of Hitler's war machine. The victory also altered American opinion that Britain could not survive the attack. While there were surprisingly few military casualties, British civilian losses from July to December 1940 totalled 23,002 dead and 32,138 wounded.
1985 - The Greenpeace flagship, the 'Rainbow Warrior', is sunk in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, after an explosion resulting from deliberate sabotage.
The Greenpeace flagship, the 'Rainbow Warrior', was named after a North American Indian legend, and launched in 1978. The ship arrived in New Zealand in July 1985 in preparation for leading a flotilla of boats to Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean to protest against French nuclear tests on the atoll.
Just before midnight on 10 July 1985, while the Rainbow Warrior waited in Auckland Harbour, underwater charges which had been placed by frogmen on the hull of the ship exploded, sinking the vessel. One person was killed in the explosion, Portuguese photographer Fernando Periero. An investigation later revealed that the saboteurs were two French secret agents. In a major cover-up operation, the French Government denied its involvement. Within a couple of months, however, the French defence minister Charles Hernu had resigned and New Zealand was paid $7m in compensation by the French Government. A new 'Rainbow Warrior' was launched in 1987.
Cheers - John
jules47 said
06:24 PM Jul 10, 2016
Thanks again John!
rockylizard said
08:41 AM Jul 11, 2016
Gday...
1974 - Australian Prime Minister Whitlam appoints the man who would later dismiss him, Sir John Kerr, as Governor-General.
Edward Gough Whitlam became the 21st Prime Minister of Australia on 2 December 1972 in the first ALP electoral victory since 1946. The Whitlam government embarked on a massive legislative social reform program which was forward-thinking and progressive in many ways. On 11 July 1974, Whitlam appointed Sir John Kerr, Chief Justice of New South Wales, as the Governor-General of Australia, succeeding Sir Paul Hasluck. Kerr had joined the Australian Labor Party in 1948 but became somewhat disillusioned with party politics following the Labor split in 1955. When Whitlam appointed Kerr he did not know that Kerr's political views had changed and that he had come to see the role of Governor-General differently from Whitlam.
By 1975 the office of Governor-General had come to be regarded by many as ceremonial and politically unimportant. Although the Australian Constitution gave the Governor-General wide-ranging powers, including the power to appoint and dismiss Ministers and to dissolve Parliament, Whitlam and others held the view that the Governor-General's exercise of these powers must always be done on the advice of the Prime Minister. Kerr disagreed with this view, arguing the Constitution very clearly set out the Governor-General's powers.
The Governor-General's powers were very clearly put to the test in 1975. Whilst initially popular, the fast pace of Whitlam's reforms engendered caution amongst the electorate, and the economy was beset by high inflation combined with economic stagnation. The opposition Liberal-National Country Party coalition held a majority in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament. In an unprecedented move, the Senate deferred voting on bills that appropriated funds for government expenditure, attempting to force the Prime Minister to dissolve the House of Representatives and call an election. The Whitlam government ignored the warnings and sought alternative means of appropriating the funds it needed to repay huge debts. With Whitlam unable to secure the necessary funds, Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed Whitlam as Prime Minister on 11 November 1975, and appointed Liberal opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister. This was done on the condition that Fraser would seek a dissolution of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, thus precipitating a general election.
This date is another milestone for former Prime Minister Edward 'Gough' Whitlam: he was born on 11 July 1916.
1979 - US Space laboratory, Skylab I, plunges back to earth, scattering debris across parts of Western Australia.
Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit. Launched on 14 May 1973, it was designed to test various aspects of human endurance in space by having teams of astronauts living in Skylab for up to 84 days at a time. Each Skylab mission set a record for the duration of time astronauts spent in space.
In all, the space station orbited Earth 2,476 times during the 171 days and 13 hours of its occupation during the three manned Skylab missions. Astronauts performed ten spacewalks totalling 42 hours 16 minutes. Skylab logged about 2,000 hours of scientific and medical experiments, including eight solar experiments. Skylab had been in orbit for six years when it made its descent on 11 July 1979, with many chunks of hot debris falling across southern Western Australia. Most of the pieces were found on a 160km wide strip of land between the Perth-Adelaide highway and the Indian Pacific railway line.
1991 - A solar eclipse is observed stretching from Hawaii to South America, and lasting up to 7 minutes in some areas.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, casting its shadow over the Earth. The 11 July 1991 eclipse was observed best by scientists in observatories atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. First contact (when the moon first began its progression across the face of the sun) occurred at 6:30am, and totality (total coverage of the sun) began at 7:28. The longest eclipse for the next 141 years, totality lasted 6 minutes and 52 seconds on the centreline on the Baja peninsula of Mexico.
1992 - Seven people are drowned after being washed into the sea at the Kiama blowhole, on the New South Wales coast.
Kiama is an attractive town and Local Government Area 120 km south of Sydney on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. The name "Kiama" is derived from the Aboriginal word Kiarama, which means "place where the sea makes a noise". This is in reference to the famous Kiama Blowhole, a natural cavern at Blowhole Point. The ideal conditions in which to view the blowhole are when the seas are running southeast: at these times, the blowhole can erupt in a spray of water up to 60m in height.
Kiama was discovered by explorer George Bass on 6 December 1797. Bass noted the evidence of volcanic activity in the distant past, and of the blowhole itself, he wrote:
"The earth for a considerable distance round in the form approaching a circle seemed to have given way; it was now a green slope ... Towards the centre was a deep ragged hole of about 25 to 30 feet in diameter and on one side of it the sea washed in through a subterraneous passage ... with a most tremendous noise ..."
This beautiful attraction was the scene of a tragedy on 11 July 1992. Seven people drowned at the Kiama blowhole after they were washed into the ocean by a powerful wave whilst watching the phenomenon. Afghani refugee Fared Cina, his wife Angella, and their young daughter Baran drowned, along with Mrs Cina's nephew Arash. Also killed were Nasarin Zobair, her daughter Kahlida and her son Mustafa.
1995 - The Bosnian Serb army takes control of the United Nations "safe haven" of Srebrenica, ultimately resulting in the killing of thousands of Muslim men of military age.
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an armed conflict which took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several ethnically defined factions within Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a consequence of the former state of Yugoslavia being broken up. The war was finally brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Paris on 14 December 1995.
The massacre in Srebrenica took place towards the end of the Bosnian conflict. Between 11 July 1995 and 19 July 1995, Bosniak (Muslim) men of military age were taken prisoner, detained in inhumane conditions, and then executed in their thousands. They were shot dead with machine guns and piled into mass graves. The massacre was one of the largest in Europe since WWII. Bosnian Serb army General Ratko Mladi and other Bosnian Serb army officers were indicted for various war crimes, including genocide, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The most recent research places the number of civilian and military victims at around 100,000-110,000 killed and 1.8 million displaced.
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
09:17 AM Jul 11, 2016
1974......Gough's win as Prime Minister and his dismissal are both remembered as historic events and I as well as many will never forget them.
rockylizard said
08:11 AM Jul 12, 2016
Gday...
1690 - Today is Orange Day in Northern Ireland, commemorating the Battle of Boyne when Englands Protestant King William of Orange defeated the forces of Irelands Catholic King James.
Protestants in Northern Ireland celebrate Orange day annually on July 12. Orange Day marks when England's Protestant King William of Orange defeated the forces of Ireland's Catholic King James on 1 July 1690 in the Battle of the Boyne. James II of England and VII of Scotland had been deposed and had subsequently raised an army in Ireland where a Parliament had acknowledged him as king. Conflict ensued when James II lost the throne to William of Orange, with forces from both sides fighting on the banks of the Boyne River, just outside of the town of Drogheda on Ireland's east coast.
Though not militarily decisive, the symbolic importance of the Battle of the Boyne has made it one of the most infamous battles in British and Irish history and a key part in Irish Protestant folklore. It is still commemorated today, principally by the Orange Order. Once the Gregorian calendar was adopted, the day came to be commemorated on 12 July every year.
1818 - George Evans discovers the Castlereagh River in NSW.
George Evans was born on 5 January 1780. As the Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Evans undertook many expeditions with explorer John Oxley. In 1818, Oxley, with Evans as second-in-command, set out to follow the westward course of the Macquarie River, which Evans had discovered in 1813. Oxley's progress was obstructed by impassable marshes and, while trying to find a way around them, he sent Evans to the north-east.
Ten days later, Evans returned to report that on 12 July 1818, he had found another river and better pasture country. Evans named the river the Castlereagh after Lord Castlereagh, Secretary for the Colonies. Evans's discovery further fuelled Oxley's belief that there must be an inland sea, as so many rivers seemed to flow in a westward direction. Over the ensuing decades, Australian exploration was dominated by the belief that the continent harboured a large inland sea.
1920 - The Panama Canal, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Caribbean sea, is formally dedicated, six years after it was unofficially opened.
The Panama Canal is a ship canal about 82km in length, linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via the Caribbean Sea through central America. A canal through Nicaragua was initially preferred by the US, but the Panama site was chosen after a French company acquired the rights to the canal from another bankrupted French company. An American representative of the French company, William Nelson Cromwell, persuaded the United States to take up the Panama route. The canal was ultimately built by the United States between 1904 and 1914 on territory leased from Panama.
The canal saves a total of about 12,500 km on a trip from New York to San Francisco by sea. US President Woodrow Wilson officially opened the Panama Canal on 12 July 1920. However, traffic had been using the canal since its unofficial opening on 15 August 1914, when Canal cement boat Ancon, piloted by Captain John A Constantine, the Canal's first pilot, made the first official transit.
Panama took over control of the Panama Canal on 31 December 1999.
1937 - American actor and comedian Bill Cosby is born.
African-American actor and comedian, Bill Cosby, was born William Henry Cosby Jr on 12 July 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite his mother being a hard-working housekeeper and his father serving as a mess steward with the US Navy, financial difficulties forced the family to sell their house and move to a housing project in the Germantown district of North Philadelphia. Although the neighborhood was rough, Cosby's mother provided a firm moral ground for her sons by reading to them from the Bible and from authors such as Mark Twain. Cosby also enjoyed the serial radio programs of the time, such as The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Lights Out, and the humour of Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Fred Allen, and George Burns with Gracie Allen.
A veteran stand-up performer, Cosby gained his start working clubs and making comedy albums. He then moved into television with a ground-breaking role in the 1960s action show I Spy, with actor Robert Culp. I Spy was an adventure show that catered to cold-war America's appetite for James Bond-style espionage fantasies. Despite it starring an African-American in times when the concept of racial equality was considered by few, the show succeeded, largely in part to Cosby's skill and convincing performance. Following the show's debut in 1965, Cosby was honoured with an Emmy award for outstanding actor in a dramatic series, and again in the next two consecutive years.
In 1969 Cosby starred in his own situation comedy series, The Bill Cosby Show. He also created the humorous educational cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. The following decade, Cosby produced and starred in his own TV sitcom, 'The Cosby Show', which ran from 1984 to 1992. The Cosby Show was unique for being the first sitcom based around a successful, middle-class African-American family.
Cosby and his wife have four daughters: their only son, Ennis, was killed whilst changing a tyre in 1997, the victim of a murder-robbery.
1971 - The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time.
The Australian Aboriginal flag is dominated by a yellow sun in the centre, red in the lower half and black in the upper half. It was first flown at Victoria Square, Adelaide on National Aborigines' Day, 12 July 1971.
The flag was created by Aboriginal activist and artist Harold Thomas. Thomas chose the red ochre to represent the red soil of Australia, and the black to represent the Aboriginal people of Australia and the pride of being black in Australia. The yellow sun was chosen for its commonality as a colour used in aboriginal art, but also because Thomas regarded it as a symbol for all people.
On 14 July 1995, together with the Torres Strait Islander Flag, the Aboriginal flag was proclaimed by the Australian government as one of the "Flags of Australia" under Section 5 of the Flags Act 1953.
Cheers - John
jules47 said
07:51 PM Jul 12, 2016
Thanks John - a good read.
rockylizard said
07:53 AM Jul 13, 2016
Gday...
1940 - 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart is born.
Patrick Stewart is best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and the ensuing Star Trek films "Generations", "First Contact" and "Insurrection". He was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England on 13 July 1940. His first appearance on stage was at age 9 in a local outdoor history pageant as Tom of Towngate. Whilst studying drama at secondary school, Stewart noted that a defining moment in his life was when, after reading Shylock aloud in front of his class, his teacher told him, "Stewart, you're good at this. You should do it for a living."
Much of Stewart's later training was in classical theatre, with the Old Vic Company, the Manchester Library Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. More recently, he has appeared in TV movies such as Moby Dick (1998) and A Christmas Carol (1999), and in feature films such as Conspiracy Theory (1997, with Mel Gibson) and as Professor Xavier in the X-Men Franchise.
Apart from his classically-trained vocal mannerisms being one of his strongest features, Stewart is also recognisable by his baldness: he lost most of his hair by age 19, due to hereditary alopecia. Referring to his baldness, during an interview with Michael Parkinson, he expressed gratitude for Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry's riposte to a reporter who remarked, "Surely they would have cured baldness by the 24th century," to which Roddenberry replied, "In the 24th Century, they wouldn't care."
1945 - Joseph Benedict Chifley, Australia's fifth wartime Prime Minister, is sworn into office.
At the time that World War II began, Australia's Prime Minister was Robert Menzies. It was Menzies who made the announcement in September 1939 that Australia was at war with Germany. However, party dissension led Menzies to resign as Prime Minister in August 1941. He was succeeded by Arthur Fadden on 29 August 1941 but in the federal election five weeks later, the coalition government lost majority support in the House of Representatives. Thus, John Curtin became Prime Minister on 7 October 1941, announcing in December of that year that Australia was also at war with the Japanese Empire. Curtin suffered a coronary occlusion in November 1944 which led to his hospitalisation for many weeks. Although he resumed office in January 1945, he never fully recovered, and died unexpectedly in The Lodge on 5 July 1945.
Ben Chifley, born Joseph Benedict Chifley in 1885, had won the Bathurst-based seat of Macquarie in the House of Representatives in 1928, and in 1931 he became Minister for Defence, under Scullin. He lost his seat again shortly afterwards when the Scullin government fell, but regained it in 1940, becoming Treasurer in Curtin's government. After Curtin's death, Deputy Prime Minister Frank Forde temporarily acted as Prime Minister. Chifley defeated Forde when the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party elected Ben Chifley as its new leader, to become the new Prime Minister of Australia.
Chifley was sworn into office on 13 July 1945. He effectively implemented necessary post-war economic controls, remaining Prime Minister until his defeat by Robert Menzies and the Liberal Party in 1949. Two years later, Chifley died of a heart attack.
1985 - The Live Aid concert raises in excess of £150 million for famine relief in Africa.
Live Aid was a rock concert held at several venues around the world on 13 July 1985 to raise money to assist the famine-affected people in Africa. The main stadia for the event were Wembley in London, and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. Some acts performed at other venues such as Sydney and Moscow. It was estimated that 1.5 billion viewers in 100 countries watched the live broadcast, in the largest satellite link-up and TV broadcast to date. It was organised by Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof, and conceived as a follow-up to the release in the previous December of the hit single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Originally, it was envisaged that the concert would raise £1 million but when the money was ultimately added up, the concert had raised more than £150 million.
1994 - 41 refugees, including 23 children, are killed by agents of the Cuban government.
In the early hours of 13 July 1994, a group of 72 refugees sought to flee the communist regime of Cuba in a tugboat named "13 de Marzo". When the small craft was just over ten kilometres from the Cuban coast, it was intercepted by the Cuban Coast guard. The government boats first attacked the tugboat repeatedly, causing it to split in two. Equipped with water tanks and hoses, they then positioned themselves on opposite sides of the tugboat and proceeded to direct powerful streams of water from pressured hoses onto the passengers. As the tugboat sank, the boats then circled the tug at high speed, creating a whirlpool which swallowed many of those who had not been drowned in the initial spraying attack. In all, 41 people were killed, including 23 children.
When confronted with accusations of ordering the massacre, Cuban dictator President Fidel Castro denied tha coast guard had anything to do with the attack, claiming they arrived at the scene after the event. On 16 October 1996 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded that the Cuban government was responsible for the massacre and for the subsequent trauma endured by relatives of the victims. However, the Cuban government has denied closure for the relatives of the victims, by refusing to allow recovery of the bodies for proper burial. Castro himself remains unrepentant of his actions.
1995 - The spacecraft 'Galileo' releases a probe to penetrate and take measurements of Jupiter's atmosphere.
Galileo was an unmanned spacecraft designed to study Jupiter and its moons. On 13 July 1995, the Galileo Orbiter and the probe separated for the latter to penetrate Jupiter's atmosphere. Its scientific objectives included measuring Jupiter's temperature, chemical composition and its atmospheric pressure structure. The probe entered Jupiter's atmosphere on 7 December 1995. In order to collect data, it was required to drop its protective shield during its 57 minute descent, and was subsequently crushed by the density of the core. However, the probe collected valuable data in that time, which it relayed back to the Orbiter.
Cheers - John
rockylizard said
08:03 AM Jul 13, 2016
Gday...
[Out of range on 14 Jul so you have it a day early )
1770 - The first European sighting of a kangaroo is recorded.
The kangaroo is a native Australian marsupial, of which there are over 60 species. The kangaroo family includes wallabies, tree kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, rat-kangaroos and the quokka, all of which are classified as macropods. Because the larger species - the Red and Grey Kangaroos - are plentiful throughout the continent, the kangaroo has long been regarded as symbolic of Australia.
Even though James Cook was not the first European to discover Australia, he and his crew were the first known Europeans to sight the kangaroo. As Cook sailed up the east coast of the continent, mapping the coastline, his ship, the "Endeavour" struck the Great Barrier Reef and nearly sank. The Endeavour was eventually brought for repairs into the harbour formed by the Endeavour River. Landing on 10 June 1770, Cook and his crew spent almost two months repairing the ship, allowing botanist Sir Joseph Banks ample time to study the flora and fauna of the area.
On 14 July 1770, a crewman shot a strange looking, unknown animal. The creature was brought back to the camp site for examination, and the skin eventually taken back to England. The word "kangaroo" is believed to have come from the Aboriginal word gangurru, a Guugu Yimidhirr word referring to the Grey Kangaroo. The word was recorded by Sir Joseph Banks as "kangaru" or "kanguroo" (sources vary). It is not true that the word means "I don't understand"; this is a popular myth often applied to various other Aboriginal-based Australian words.
1814 - The book in which Matthew Flinders proposes the name of Terra Australis for the southern continent, is published.
Matthew Flinders was an English sea explorer known for his exploration around Australia. He added significantly to the knowledge of the coastline, and his meticulous observations and calculations enabled him to produce accurate maps. As well as being the first to circumnavigate Australia, Flinders, together with Bass, was the first to prove that Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, was an island and not connected to the mainland.
Australia was previously named New Holland by the Dutch sea explorers, and after James Cook claimed the continent for England in 1770, the entire eastern half became known as New South Wales. Some years after his exploration, Flinders wrote an account of his voyages just after his return to England. "A Voyage to Terra Australis" was published on 18 July 1814, ironically just one day before Flinders died. It was in this account that Flinders proposed the name "Terra Australis" be adopted for the southern continent. This became "Australia", the name officially adopted in 1824.
1850 - The first public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration is staged at Apalachicola, Florida, USA, by Dr John Gorrie.
Dr John Gorrie was a physician, scientist, inventor, and humanitarian who lived in the first half of the nineteenth century. He experimented with reducing the fever of patients by cooling sickrooms, using ice suspended from the ceiling in a basin. The problem was that the ice had to be shipped in from the northern lakes of North America. In 1945, Gorrie's interests turned more to the artificial production of ice.
The first public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration in the US occurred during a dinner at the Mansion House, Apalachicola, Florida, on 14 July 1850. Gorrie produced blocks of ice the size of bricks. He installed his system in the U.S. Marine Hospital in Apalachicola. He obtained the first mechanical freezer patent on 6 May 1851.
1900 - Australia's first Governor-General is appointed.
Prior to 1901, Australia was made up of six self-governing colonies; New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. These colonies were ultimately under British rule from the time the First Fleet landed, in 1788, until 1901. Numerous politicians and influential Australians through the years had pushed for federation of the colonies, and self-government. After not being accepted by the states the first time, the amended Commonwealth Constitution was given Royal Assent on 9 July 1900.
The office of Governor-General was created to be the representative of Britain's ruling monarch, who remained Australia's head of state. The functions and roles of the Governor-General include appointing ministers and judges, dissolving Parliament, giving Royal Assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and bestowing honours. These actions are implemented under the authority of the Australian Constitution and carried out in the name of the ruling monarch.
Australia's first Governor-General was appointed on 14 July 1900. He was the previous Victorian Governor, John Adrian Louis Hope, the 7th Earl of Hopetoun. On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. Australia's first Governor-General, John Hope, made the proclamation at Centennial Park in Sydney. Hope's first act was to appoint the inaugural Prime Minister, Edmund Barton.
1958 - King Faisal of Iraq, members of his family and his prime minister are assassinated in a coup by army officers which results in Iraq becoming a republic.
Faisal II, born on 2 May 1935, was the last king of Iraq, ruling from 1939 to 1958. Faisal's father was the second king of Iraq, Ghazi. Ghazi was killed in a car accident when Faisal was three, so his uncle 'Abd al-Ilah ruled as regent until Faisal came of age in 1953. As a teen, Faisal attended Harrow School in the United Kingdom, together with his cousin King Hussein of Jordan. The two boys were close, and reportedly planned even then to merge their two realms to counter what they considered the threat of militant pan-Arab nationalism.
On 1 February 1958 Syria and Egypt joined to form the United Arab Republic. This prompted the Iraqi and Jordanian kingdoms to strengthen their position by establishing a similar bloc. Two weeks later, on February 14, it was signed into existence as the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan.
In mid-1958, King Hussein of Jordan requested Iraqi military assistance in his country. The movement of troops provided the opportunity for a group of army officers, under the leadership of officer Abdul Karim Qassim, to stage a coup in Iraq. Although Faisal and other members of his family surrendered, Faisal and his uncle were killed by an army officer as they departed the palace, on 14 July 1958. This action overthrew the monarchy and ultimately resulted in Iraq becoming a republic.
1965 - The spacecraft 'Mariner 4' collects the first close-up photographs of another planet as it passes by Mars.
Between 1962 and 1973, Nasa designed and built 10 spacecraft named Mariner for the purpose of visiting Venus, Mars and Mercury for the first time. Mariner 3 was launched on 5 November 1964, but technical problems prevented it reaching Mars. Mariner 4 was launched three weeks later, on 28 November 1964, and flew past Mars on 14 July 1965, 215 million kilometres away from earth and 16,900 kilometres from Mars.
The first close-up photograph of Mars consisted of 8.3 dots per second of varying degrees of darkness. The transmission lasted for 8.5 hours and depicted the regions on Mars known as Cebrenia, Arcadia, and Amazonis. The Mariner 4 also carried instruments for studying cosmic dust, solar plasma, radiation, cosmic rays and magnetic fields.
1967 - 4 digit post codes are introduced in Australia to help postal workers sort mail more efficiently.
In the early years of settlement in Australia, there was no official postal service. Early letters and packages were carried out by boat along the Parramatta River, and sending letters was a luxury largely restricted to officers and their families. After the arrival of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Australia's first postmaster was appointed, and the first official post office was opened. Over the next ninety years, each of the colonies of Australia instituted its own postal service. After Federation, Australia's various post and communication services were all centralised under the name of the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) which became effective in March 1901. The PMG controlled all postal services in Australia, and later also controlled the telecommunications services.
Postal services in Australia underwent a range of improvements as new technology was introduced. In 1930, in a world-first innovation, mechanical mail handling was introduced at the Sydney Mail Exchange. By 1962, the first automatic postal station had been installed in Melbourne. A system needed to be implemented that would assist with the introduction of machines for sorting letters. On 14 July 1967, 4 digit numeric postcodes were introduced for every suburb and mail delivery area in Australia. At the same time, an extensive $6 million mail exchange opened in Sydney, with the new electronic equipment attracting interest from around the world. By the following year, postcodes were being used on 75% of mail in Australia.
2001 - British tourist Peter Falconio goes missing, presumed murdered, in the Australian outback.
Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were on a backpacking holiday in Australia when Falconio disappeared, on 14 July 2001. Falconio, then 28, was driving at night in a Volkswagen Campervan along an isolated stretch of the Stuart highway, north of Alice Springs. The tourists were flagged down by a man in a covered utility, who said he had seen sparks coming from the vans exhaust. When Falconio walked to the rear of the vehicle with the other motorist, Lees heard a gunshot. The man then returned without Falconio, tied Lees with electrical cabling and tape, and forced her into his own vehicle. Somehow, Lees managed to escape, fleeing into the bushland and hiding, whilst the gunman and his dog searched for her.
After some time, the gunman departed, and Lees then staggered out onto the road to wave down a passing truck, escaping to safety at Barrow Creek. No trace of Falconio was ever found, although a large amount of his blood was found where the VW had been abandoned. In 2004, 46-year-old Bradley Murdoch was charged with the murder of Falconio, and the unlawful assault and deprivation of liberty of Joanne Lees.
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
01:58 PM Jul 13, 2016
From 13th edition :)
1940......I am a great fan of the original Star Trek and since TV, the even better movies. Beam me up Scotty.
From 14th edition :)
1850....Ice, something we don't think much about except for keeping our happy hour drinks cold.
All editions :)
Keep up the great work Rocky, very edumacational indeedy.
rockylizard said
09:08 AM Jul 16, 2016
Gday...
[OOPS two days without internet ... heres yesterdays]
1099 - Christian soldiers enter Jerusalem after a siege during the First Crusade, and murder almost every inhabitant of the city.
The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to regain control of the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslims, and to help the Byzantine Empire fight the Seljuk Turks. (The term "Crusader" was not used until the twelfth century.) It was a long and difficult seige before Christians entered the city and took the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The Christians themselves suffered many casualties, due to the lack of food and water around Jerusalem. Morale improved when a priest, Peter Desiderius, claimed to have had divine vision instructing them to fast and then march in a barefoot procession around the city walls, after which the city would fall in nine days. This was reminiscent of the Biblical example of Joshua at the siege of Jericho. On 8 July 1099, the Christian army performed the procession. Meanwhile, siege engines were constructed and seven days later, on 15 July 1099, the army broke down sections of the walls and entered the city. Over the next day, the army massacred almost everyone in the city - Muslims, Jews, and even eastern Christians.
1662 - The Royal Society of London is formally created.
The Royal Society is also known as Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge. A voluntary organisation devoted to the advancement of Science, fellowship to the society is by peer election, and is considered a great honour.
The founding meeting for the Royal Society was held on 28 November 1660, at Gresham College in Bishopsgate. It followed a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren, who was Gresham's Professor of Astronomy. Those present included theologian, natural philosopher, chemist, physicistand inventor Robert Boyle, and English clergyman and author John Wilkins. All subsequent meetings, and the concept and design of the society, received endorsement from the restored monarchy of King Charles II.
The Royal Society of London was formally created after the passing of the Great Seal on 15 July 1662. Lord Brouncker was the first President, while Robert Hooke was appointed as Curator of Experiments in November 1662. A second Royal Charter was sealed on 23 April 1663, naming the King as Founder and changing the name to "The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge". Her Majesty The Queen is the current patron, and, since the foundation of the Royal Society, the reigning monarch has always been the patron.
1869 - Margarine is patented in Paris.
In the 1860s Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France offered a prize to the maker of a suitable substitute for butter, for use by the military and the lower classes. The contest was won by French chemist Hippolyte Mège Mouriés. The primary component of the product was tallow, but the formula included a fatty component that, when mixed, had a pearly lustre. Thus, the product was named after the Greek word for pearl - margaritari. The product was patented on 15 July 1869.
1922 - A platypus is displayed for the first time in the United States.
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a semi-aquatic mammal unique to the Australian continent. It is one of only two monotreme species, that is, egg-laying mammal, in the world. The other monotreme is the echidna, also found in Australia. Upon first being discovered in Australia, scientists were baffled by the unusual creature, and when a pelt was sent back to Britain for scientific examination, it was believed to be a hoax created by sewing a duck's bill onto the skin of a beaver-like animal. The creature laid eggs like a bird, had webbed feet like a frog, a bill like a duck and venom like a snake. Thus, the platypus remained an object of scientific curiosity for many years.
Harry Burrell was a naturalist and wildlife photographer who devoted much of his life to the study of the platypus. He designed an artificial habitat which came to be known as a platypussary, which enabled the transportation of five platypuses to a New York Zoo in 1922. The platypuses were placed on display for the first time in the USA on 15 July 1922.
1964 - Rupert Murdoch unveils 'The Australian' newspaper in Sydney.
In the early days of the New South Wales colony, a newspaper called "The Australian" was established. Co-published by explorer William Wentworth, who was one of three explorers to make the first crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813, it was only a colonial newspaper, and not national.
Rupert Murdoch's 'The Australian' newspaper, published by News Corp Australia, was Australia's first national daily newspaper. The front page of the paper, published on 15 July 1964, contained a promise to deliver "the impartial information and the independent thinking that are essential to the further advance of our country." Initially, the headquarters for 'The Australian' were in the nation's capital, Canberra, but today its head office is in Sydney.
Cheers - John
rockylizard said
09:19 AM Jul 16, 2016
Gday...
1825 - The western border of New South Wales is extended to offset French and Dutch interests in Australia's north coast.
James Cook is remembered for being the first explorer to recognise the potential of Australia. In August 1770, he claimed the part of the continent that had previously been known as "New Holland" for Great Britain, renaming the eastern half as "New South Wales". He also took possession of the whole eastern coast, from latitude 38 degrees S to this place, latitude 10.5 degrees S, in right of His Majesty King George the Third. This essentially included just the eastern parts of what is now New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
The authorities in Great Britain felt it was necessary to establish a definite western boundary. This was largely because the Dutch had first landed on the continent and had a strong presence to the north, while the Portuguese still held strong interests in Timor. When Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Port Jackson with First Fleet of convicts on 26 January 1788, he raised the British flag and claimed the entire eastern part of the Australian continent, including Van Diemens Land. As Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales, Phillip was required to take formal possession on behalf of the British Crown, of territory ... extending from the Northern Cape or extremity of the coast called Cape York, in the latitude of ten degrees thirty-seven minutes south, to the southern extremity of the said territory of New South Wales or South Cape, in the latitude of forty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes south and of all the country inland westward as far as the one hundred and thirty-fifth degree of east longitude reckoning from the meridian of Greenwich, including all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean within the latitudes aforesaid of ten degrees thirty-seven minutes south and forty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes south.
The western boundary had been established at 135 degrees E as this was not considered too close to Timor, and should appease Portugal, then Britains oldest ally. However, the French continued to hover off the coast, sending numerous scientific and exploratory expeditions. In 1824, the British trading post of Fort Dundas on Melville Island was established, in an attempt to offset French or Dutch plans to colonise any part of the northern coast. However, Fort Dundas lay just outside the western boundary. Thus, Governor Ralph Darling, following the Commission outlined in Letters Patent issued on 16 July 1825, extended the western boundary of New South Wales to 129 degrees E.
Formal possession of the remaining western section was undertaken when Captain Charles Fremantle took formal possession in 1829 of that part of New Holland not included in the Colony of New South Wales.
1914 - Australia's first interstate air mail departs Melbourne.
The first domestic airmail service in Australia departed from Melbourne on 16 July 1914. The airmail was flown from Melbourne to Sydney by French aviator Maurice Guillaux. The first airmail from overseas arrived in Darwin from England in a war-surplus Vickers Vimy bomber in 1919 piloted by a WW1 Ace, Ross Smith and his brother Keith.
It was another twelve years before the first official overseas air mail service from Australia commenced. The first official air mail flight from Australia to England took place in 1931 and consisted of 25 bags, weighing a total of about 300 kilograms. The first aircraft to carry the mail overseas was supposed to have been an Imperial Airways flight, but it was forced to make an emergency landing on Timor. Thus, aviator Charles Kingsford Smith was called in to fly from Darwin to Burma in 'The Southern Cross' in order to meet up with the Imperial Airways craft which then carried the mail to England.
1914 - The original Man From Snowy River, on whom Banjo Patersons ballad was based, is buried.
The Man From Snowy River is a bush ballad by Australian poet and writer A B Banjo Paterson. 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. Arguably, two of his best known poems are "The Man From Snowy River and Waltzing Matilda.
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. Like many of Patersons ballads, it paints a rich picture of the countryside, peppered with unique Australian characters. 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 would be developed in The Man From Snowy River.
Riley lived a wild and exciting life as a stockman until he was in his seventies. In July 1914, his mates in Corryong received the news that Riley was seriously ill so, taking a stretcher, they attempted to carry him from his hut back to Corryong. Reaching Surveyor's Creek Junction, the group sheltered overnight in a deserted mining hut, but during the night, Riley died. He was buried in Corryong Cemetery on 16 July 1914.
1942 - Over 13,000 French Jews are rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp outside Paris.
Vichy France, or the Vichy regime was the French government of 1940-1944 during the Nazi Germany occupation of World War II, based at and named after the town of Vichy. Vichy France was established after France surrendered to Germany in 1940, and took its name from the government's capital in Vichy, southeast of Paris near Clermont-Ferrand. While officially neutral in the war, it was essentially a Nazi puppet state that collaborated with the Nazis, including with the Nazis' racial policies.
On 3 October 1940 the first anti-Semitic laws were passed by the Vichy government which excluded Jews from public life. French Jews began to be deported in smaller numbers to Auschwitz on 7 March 1942. However, the impact of the WWII Holocaust hit in earnest amongst the French on 16 July 1942, when over 13,000 Parisian Jews were rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside Paris. The French police were acting under the orders of the Germans who at that stage were occupying southwest France. During the course of the war, approximately 74,000 French Jews, including 11,000 children, were transported from Drancy to Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor.
1969 - The Apollo 11 is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, the first mission to successfully land a man on the moon.
The Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission in the Apollo program, the third human voyage to the moon and the first attempt to land man on the moon. The launch occurred at 1432 BST (1332 GMT) on 16 July 1969, and twelve minutes later Apollo 11 went into orbit around the Earth.
The crew consisted of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. All three had previous experience flying in space during the Gemini manned space missions. The primary purpose of the mission was to fulfil President John F Kennedy's goal of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the 1960s. Man first set foot on the moon five days later, on 21 July 1969.
1999 - John F Kennedy Jr, son of assassinated president John F Kennedy, is killed in an aircraft accident.
John Kennedy Jr was born John Bouvier Kennedy on 25 November 1960, less than a month after his father was elected President. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated three days before John Jr turned three, and the poignant image of the little boy saluting his father's coffin captured the heartbreak of the president's murder with a powerful image.
John Jr married Carolyn Bessette in 1996. The couple, together with Carolyn's sister Lauren, was killed on 16 July 1999 when the aircraft John Jr was piloting crashed in the sea whilst flying from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, to Martha's Vineyard. The subsequent investigation into the crash determined that no mechanical malfunction was involved. The report concluded that the probable cause of the accident was "the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze, and the dark night."
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
09:36 AM Jul 16, 2016
15th......1869.....I didn't realise Margarine had been around so long Rocky.
16th......1969.....Remember that day well Rocky. The same for what happened not long after.
1999....That family sure did have their share of tragedy.
rockylizard said
08:18 AM Jul 17, 2016
Gday...
1674 - Preacher and hymn writer, Isaac Watts, is born.
"When I survey the wondrous cross on which the Prince of glory died, my richest gain I count but loss, and pour contempt on all my pride."
Thus begins one of Christianity's greatest hymns, which, though written in the eighteenth century, is as pertinent now as it was 300 years ago. The writer of this hymn, Isaac Watts, was born in Southampton, England, on 17 July 1674. Watts did not just believe his faith: he lived it. He refused to accept funds for his education if it meant conforming to the man-made rules and regulations of the Church of England. His own father had twice been imprisoned for refusing to conform to that church's beliefs. Watts worked towards his education with no external help, and became a preacher. He gave his first sermon on his birthday, 17 July 1698, at Mark Lane in London. In 1707, Watts published his "Hymns and Spiritual Songs" which included "Joy to the World." These hymns are Watts' main legacy to Christendom.
1799 - Matthew Flinders first sights and names Red Cliff Point, now Redcliffe, in Queensland.
The city of Redcliffe is so named for its red cliff faces. The first known European to visit the area was Matthew Flinders who, on 17 July 1799, landed and named Red Cliff Point. The area was first recommended by Captain John Oxley as the site for a new convict settlement. In 1823, he set out to explore the Moreton Bay area, and it was there that he came across the stranded ticket-of-leave timber-cutter, Thomas Pamphlett, who together with his companion Finnegan had been living with the aborigines for seven months, after being shipwrecked off Moreton Island.
Oxley and Settlement Commandant Lieutenant Miller, together with a crew and 29 convicts, sailed on the 'Amity' from Sydney and arrived at Redcliffe in September 1824 to found the new colony. The settlement was established at Humpybong, but abandoned less than a year later when the main settlement was moved 30km away, to the Brisbane River. The name "Humpybong" was given by the local aborigines to describe the "dead huts" left behind, "humpy" being huts, and "bong" meaning "dead", or "lifeless". The name is still used for one of the regions on the Redcliffe Peninsula today.
1900 - Sydney completes its Bubonic Plague Cleansing Operations.
Through the centuries, Bubonic Plague has been one of the most-feared scourges of countries around the world. Australia, too, suffered a severe outbreak in the early part of the 20th century. It began in January 1900 when 33-year-old Arthur Payne showed symptoms of Bubonic plague as a result of coming into contact with the disease at Central Wharf where he worked as a carter. Within eight months, 303 people had contracted the plague, and 103 of them had died.
Cleansing operations began in Sydney on 24 March. Extensive washing, liming, disinfecting and burning of property was undertaken, while buildings classified as slums were demolished in an attempt to rid the city of the rats spreading the disease. More than 44 000 rats were burned by rat-catchers. Wharves and docks were also cleared of silt, debris and sewerage.
The Cleansing Operations finished on 17 July 1900. However, ships continued to bring the disease to Australia, and between 1900 and 1925, there were twelve major outbreaks of Bubonic plague, with Sydney bearing the brunt of the disease. In all, 1371 cases were reported, along with 535 deaths certainly far fewer than the deaths reported in some countries.
1918 - Czar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife, children and several servants are executed during the Russian Revolution.
Czar Nicholas II, full name Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, was the last crowned Emperor of Russia. He ruled from 1894 until he was forced to abdicate in 1917 amidst civil war. A year later, on 17 July 1918, he and his wife, together with their five children, the family doctor and three attendants, were taken to the cellar of a house in Yekatarinburg. They were told to line up for a family portrait, but instead a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky burst in and began firing, killing the family and servants.
Attempts were made to hide the evidence of the bodies, disposing of them down a mine-shaft. As rumours of what had happened began to surface, Yurovsky removed the bodies and buried most of them in a sealed and concealed pit. It was not until the 1970s that geologists found some of the remains, and the 1990s that bodies of the Romanovs were located, exhumed, and formally identified.
1976 - 25 African countries boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Montreal.
On 17 July 1976, at the opening ceremony of the Montreal Olympics, 25 African countries withdrew their teams. The boycott was due to long-standing tensions over South Africa's refusal to condemn the policy of apartheid. South Africa had been banned from the Olympics since 1964, but the boycotting countries protested at New Zealand's continued sporting links with South Africa. The International Olympic Committee refused to ban New Zealand, whose rugby team was touring South Africa at the time, so the boycotting nations took it upon themselves to make a stand.
1998 - The International Criminal Court is established.
The International Criminal Court is an international court that meets in The Hague, Netherlands. It was established as a permanent court to preside over matters of crimes of serious concern to the international community such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
The concept of an international tribunal was proposed by the Commission of Responsibilities during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, following World War 1, although the notion was first mooted at the Hague Peace Conference of 1907. The idea of a permanent international court to deal with atrocities was raised again on various occasions, and gained further impetus after the United Nations was established. The Cold War hindered further development, despite two statutes being drafted by the International Law Commission (ILC) at the request of the UN General Assembly. However, the need for an international court became more pressing as stories of atrocities committed in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda emerged in the 1990s.
The founding treaty of the ICC is the Rome Statute. On 17 July 1998, 120 States representing all regions of the globe adopted the Rome Statute. The Rome Statute took effect in 2002, after the required number of 60 States ratified it. Although the ICC is independent of the UN, the two bodies signed an agreement governing their institutional relationship on 4 October 2004.
Cheers - John
rockylizard said
08:48 AM Jul 18, 2016
Gday...
64 - The Great Fire of Rome is started, ultimately destroying two-thirds of the city.
The Great Fire of Rome broke out on 18 July AD 64 in the merchant district of the city, near the Circus Maximus, Rome's huge chariot stadium. Because of the strong summer winds, the fire quickly spread. It burned for six days and seven nights, then reignited and burned for another three days. In that time, the fire destroyed two-thirds of the city, including the 800-year-old Temple of Jupiter Stator and the Atrium Vestae, the hearth of the Vestal Virgins.
The Emperor Nero was blamed for his inaction, and there were even suggestions that he may have started it himself in order to bypass the senate and rebuild Rome to his liking. Evidence to support this theory includes the fact that the Domus Aurea, Nero's majestic series of villas and pavilions set upon a landscaped park and a man-made lake, was built in the wake of the fire. To deflect attention away from himself, Nero used the Christians as scapegoats. Thus began the earliest persecutions of Christians in Rome, action which included feeding them to the lions. The city was rebuilt after the fire, greater and more spectacular than before.
1873 - Explorer William Gosse sights and names Ayers Rock in an accidental discovery after being forced to take a more southerly route due to lack of water.
Uluru/Ayers Rock, in central Australia, is the second largest monolith in the world, second only to Mt Augustus which is also in Australia. Located in Kata Tjuta National Park 450 km southwest of Alice Springs, Ayers Rock was given its European name to commemorate the former Premier of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. With a circumference of just over 9km, and rising 349 metres above the surrounding plain, Uluru/Ayers Rock is a striking landform.
Explorer William Gosse, of the South Australian Survey Department, became the first European explorer to see Ayers Rock. His expedition into the central interior departed Alice Springs on 23 April 1873, heading in a northwesterly direction. Gosse discovered the rock (now known by its native name of Uluru) by accident during an expedition through Australia's interior. The need to find water for his camels forced him to take a more southerly course than he had originally planned. It was on 18 July 1873 that he sighted Ayers Rock, recording that, "This rock is certainly the most wonderful natural feature I have ever seen".
1878 - The foundation stone for South Australia's grand Vice-Regal Summer Residence, Marble Hill, is laid.
Marble Hill was the grand summer residence of the Governor of South Australia. Situated in the bushland of the Adelaide Hills, it was an ideal location to catch any summer breezes, whilst it also held commanding views of the surrounding countryside.
The 1870s was a time of economic boom for South Australia. When William Jervois became Governor in 1877, he commissioned the construction of a grander residence than the country retreat of Government Farm at Belair. Jervois supervised the architecture and selected the site. The first stone for the Marble Hill residence was laid on 18 July 1878, and the building was completed by late 1879. The Vice-Regal Summer Residence, as it was known, was designed in Victorian Gothic Revival style and adapted for Australian conditions with the addition of spacious verandahs on three sides which shielded the interior from the intense northern sun. Constructed from locally quarried sandstone, its 26 rooms included a drawing room, a morning room, a dining room and a grand staircase of kauri pine and blackwood. Because the building was a summer residence only, it did not feature the ballroom and grand dining room typical of the Governor's official residence.
Between 1880 and 1955, Marble Hill was used by each of the Governors, as well as other dignitaries such as King George V and Queen Mary (as Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York) who were guests in 1901. The grand building was destroyed by what came to be known as the Black Sunday bushfire of 2 January 1955.
1897 - The final victims of Australia's exploration era, Charles Wells and George Jones, are laid to rest in Adelaide.
Very little of Australia was left unexplored by the late 1800s, but the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia remained an unconquered frontier. In 1896, Albert Calvert, a London-based gold-mining engineer with interests in Western Australia, sponsored an expedition to fill in the unexplored blanks on the map and hopefully find some likely gold-bearing country into the bargain. The Royal Geographical Society of South Australia was asked to organise the Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition, financed by Calvert. The expedition's leader was surveyor Lawrence Wells, and accompanying him was surveyor Charles Wells, his cousin, an Adelaide mineralogist by the name of George Jones, a cook and a camel driver.
In October 1896, the party camped at a small permanent waterhole south-east of Lake George, Western Australia, which they named Separation Well. Here, on 11 October 1896, Lawrence Wells made the fateful decision to split the party into two groups. Charles Wells and Jones set off on a bearing of 290 degrees to survey lands for 144 kilometres north-west, before turning north-north-east to rejoin the main party at Joanna Spring, located and mapped by explorer Warburton in 1873. When Lawrence Wells's party reached Joanna Spring on 29 October, there was no sign of the other party. Unable to even locate the spring, the leader made for the Fitzroy River, where he raised the alarm regarding the missing explorers via the Fitzroy Crossing Telegraph Station.
Four search parties were dispatched, covering over five thousand kilometres, with no success. Aborigines had found the missing explorers and plundered the bodies of all clothing and other items: when some of these items were located in the Aborigines' possession, the Aborigines led the searchers to where the bodies lay. On 27 May 1897 the bodies of Wells and Jones were recovered by the white search party, perfectly preserved by the intense heat, just 22km from Joanna Spring. The mummified bodies were sewn in sheets and taken to Derby, where they were shipped to Adelaide and given a State funeral on 18 July 1897.
1918 - Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid campaigner and the first democratically-elected President of South Africa, is born.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918. Rolihlahla Mandela was seven years old when he became the first member of his family to attend school: it was there that he was given the English name "Nelson" by a Methodist teacher.
In his university days, Mandela became a political activist against the white minority government's denial of political, social, and economic rights to South Africa's black majority. He became a prominent anti-apartheid activist of the country, and was involved in underground resistance activities. Although interred in jail from 1962 to 1990 for his resistance activities, including sabotage, Mandela continued to fight for the rights of the South African blacks. He was eventually freed, thanks to sustained campaigning by the African National Congress, and subsequent international pressure. He and State President F.W. de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Mandela was elected to the Presidency of South Africa in 1994. He retired in 1999, and died in 2013.
1936 - The first Wienermobile, a giant hotdog on wheels, rolls out of the General Body Company in Chicago.
The Wienermobile is essentially an all-metal 4m long hotdog on wheels. The first Wienermobile was built for $5000. Carl G. Mayer, nephew of the lunchmeat tycoon Oscar Mayer, created the Wienermobile to transport the company's first spokesperson, "Little Oscar", through the streets of Chicago, Illinois, promoting Oscar Meyer's "German Style Wieners" and handing out "Wienerwhistle" toys to children.
By 1988, ten new Wienermobiles joined the fleet. These new vehicles were fibreglass and 7m in length. Manufactured by the Stevens Automotive Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they were built on converted 1988 Chevrolet van chassis powered by V-6 engines. The Wienermobile continues to be upgraded and developed each year.
1969 - Senator Edward Kennedy, brother to assassinated President John F Kennedy, crashes his car off the bridge at Chappaquiddick Island, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
Edward Kennedy was born on 22 February 1922, the youngest of the nine Kennedy children. He was being considered as a likely candidate for presidency in the 1972 elections, until the accident that took the life of Mary Jo Kopechne.
Kopechne was a former campaign worker for Kennedy's brother, Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 whilst campaigning for the Presidency. On 18 July 1969, Robert Kennedy and Kopechne had been attending a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, which was intended to be a reunion of those who had worked on his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. After the two left the party together, the Senator drove his car off the Dike Bridge into tide-swept Poucha Pond. The car overturned and Kopechne drowned. Because Kennedy did not report the accident until the following day, there were allegations of attempted coverup. Kennedy later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. The accident caused a scandal that damaged his reputation, but had a limited effect on his political career.
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
09:30 AM Jul 18, 2016
64..........Looking as young as you do Rocky, I'm surprised you still remember that mate.
1936......I saw a similar float on the telly while surfing a few moons back, Rocky, I think the show was called the G&L Mardi Gras from Sydney.
1969......I read one of Deryn Hinch's books a few moons back and he went into detail about all that, very interesting indeed. It was one of those "Tragedies" I mentioned a couple of days ago Rocky.
rockylizard said
08:37 AM Jul 19, 2016
Gday...
1799 - The Rosetta Stone is discovered, holding the key to unlock the secrets of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The Rosetta Stone is a dark grey-pinkish stone of granite, although it was originally thought to have been basalt. It was discovered on 19 July 1799 by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt. The irregularly shaped stone inscribed with ancient writing was found near the town of Rosetta, approximately 60km north of Alexandria.
The stone contained fragments of passages written in three different scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Demotic Egyptian. The Greek passage stated that all three scripts were identical in meaning. Because Greek was well known, the stone was the key to deciphering the hieroglyphs, a language that had been considered dead for two thousand years. Twenty five years later, French Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollion successfully deciphered the hieroglyphics, using the Greek as a guide. This enabled further study of Egyptian hieroglyphics which had previously been indecipherable. It was the first time that the world became aware of the depth of the history and culture of ancient Egypt.
1814 - Matthew Flinders, the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia, dies.
Matthew Flinders was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1774. Flinders and George Bass did much sea exploration around Australia, adding to the knowledge of the coastline, and producing accurate maps. As well as being the first to circumnavigate Australia, Flinders, together with Bass, was the first to prove that Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, was an island and not connected to the mainland. Australia was previously known as New Holland, and after Captain Cook claimed the continent for England in 1770, the entire eastern half became known as New South Wales. Flinders was the one who first proposed the name "Terra Australis", which became "Australia", the name adopted in 1824.
Flinders was captured by the French, on the island of Mauritius, in 1803. He was kept prisoner until 1810 on the grounds that he was a spy. He was finally released to return to England, but his health began to fail and he died young, on 19 July 1814. (Some accounts say Flinders died on 15 July 1814.) Before his death he completed a book on his travels called 'A Voyage to Terra Australis', and died on the day that his book was published.
1916 - Australia begins its worst 24 hours in history, with the loss of almost 2000 men in a single night.
The night of 19 - 20 July 1916 is sometimes referred to as Australias worst day in history. This is the day the nation lost almost 2000 men in a single night, during World War I.
The Battle of Fromelles was the first significant battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front. Begun 19 days after the Battle of the Somme began, the main purpose of the Fromelles was to draw German troops away from being redeployed to the Somme from areas of the Western Front where less fighting was taking place. The main battle commenced with an attack at 6:00pm by troops of the 5th Australian and 61st British Divisions. The Australian troops were to attack from the north, from a point known as the Sugarloaf while the British were to come in from the west. The problem was that the Australian Division was inexperienced, while the British Division were under strength. Although small sections of the German trenches were captured by the 8th and 14th Australian Brigades, the attack lacked the necessary element of surprise to be effective, as it was preceded by seven hours of artillery bombardment. German machine-gunners inflicted heavy damage on the Allied troops and, by 8:00am the following morning, the Battle of Fromelles was all but over, and the troops forced to withdraw.
The Battle of Fromelles was a categorical failure. Insufficient communications, together with misreading of the situation by distant headquarters and lack of local knowledge, resulted in inadequate retrieval and evacuation of the casualties. Many Australian troops who were wounded died because of the delay of several days in arranging a truce so they could be collected. The 5th Australian Division suffered a total of 5,533 casualties, including over 1900 deaths, while the 61st British Division suffered 1,547 casualties, to the Germans 1,000.
1935 - The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, USA.
The parking meter was originally invented by Carlton Cole Magee, the head of Oklahoma City's Chamber of Commerce, in response to growing parking congestion. Magee filed for a patent for a "coin controlled parking meter" on 13 May 1935. He then formed the Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company to manufacture his invention.
The first parking meter in the world was installed in Oklahoma City, USA, on 19 July 1935. It is estimated that there are now over five million parking meters in the USA. England received its first parking meter some 22 years later, on 10 July 1958. In all, 625 parking meters were installed in England that day.
1941 - The 'V for Victory' campaign is inaugurated by Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill had been Prime Minister of England for less than a year, during the early stages of World War II, when he inaugurated the 'V for Victory' campaign, on 19 July 1941. The BBC used the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which matched the dot-dot-dot-dash Morse code for the letter V, playing it before news bulletins and in its overseas transmissions. On the radio program that launched the campaign, Churchill announced, "The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories and a portent of the fate awaiting Nazi tyranny. So long as the people continue to refuse all collaboration with the invader it is sure that his cause will perish and that Europe will be liberated."
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
09:09 AM Jul 19, 2016
1799.....Phew! Thank goodness I read all that Rocky, I thought the key was going to unlock some sort of belt.
1916.....There should be a minutes silence to remember those that lost their life. Wonder why we don't remember this day like other days in battle.
Edit......Well after a few hours I discovered there was a few services around Aus plus OS today to remember the fallen.
-- Edited by Dougwe on Tuesday 19th of July 2016 08:07:08 PM
rockylizard said
08:50 AM Jul 20, 2016
Gday...
1797 - Polish explorer Strzelecki, who first climbed and named Mt Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mountain, is born.
Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, born 20 July 1797, was a Polish explorer and skilled geologist who emigrated to London following the national uprising against tsarist Russia in 1830. In 1839 he arrived in Australia, where he made influential friends, among them wealthy grazier James MacArthur. MacArthur was keen to explore promising-looking land in Australia's southeastern corner with the view to acquiring more grazing land and establishing a harbour from which to export pastoral products. Interested in the geology of the Great Dividing Range, Strzelecki agreed to accompany MacArthur, and the two departed from Ellerslie Station near Adelong, New South Wales, in February 1840.
A month later, the two men climbed Mt Townsend, believing it to be the highest peak in the Australian Alps. Using his numerous geological instruments, Strzelecki determined that another peak was higher. Whilst not interesting in acquiring land, Strzelecki was interested in the fame that accompanied important discoveries, and he was determined to climb the peak. He did so, on 15 March 1840, and named the mountain after a Polish patriot, Tadeusz Kosciuszko. At the time, Strzelecki determined the height of the mountain to be 6,510 feet (1984m) above sea level, but it is probable that, whilst making the steep and perilous descent during which he fell many times, Strzelecki damaged his instruments. The actual height of Kosciuszko is 7,316 feet, or 2228m.
1851 - Gold discoveries at Mt Alexander spark the goldrush in Victoria.
Gold was discovered in Australia as early as the 1830s, but discoveries were suppressed for fear of sparking off unrest among the convicts. When gold was first officially discovered in Australia in 1851, it was at a time when the government in New South Wales sought to encourage gold finds, to limit the numbers leaving Australia for the Californian goldfields.
The first payable gold in Victoria was at Clunes and Warrandyte by James Esmond at Clunes on 11 June 1851. At almost the same time, gold was also discovered at Anderson's Creek, near Warrandyte, by Melbourne publican Louis Michel. Both Clunes and Warrandyte claim to be the first town in Victoria where gold was found.
While these strikes were significant, the real goldrush began when gold was discovered on 20 July 1851 at Mt Alexander, 60km northeast of Ballarat, and close to the town of Bendigo. The discovery was made by John Worley and Christopher Thomas Peters at Specimen Gully. This was a considerable boost for the colony which had achieved independent government separate from New South Wales just that month. Within a year, tens of thousands of prospectors had arrived at the Mt Alexander goldfields. This was also the first Victorian goldfield to which Chinese miners came in large numbers.
1919 - The first man to summit Mt Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, is born.
Edmund Hillary was born on 20 July 1919 in Tuakau, south of Auckland, New Zealand. Hillary's interest in climbing was sparked at age 16 during a school trip to Mt Ruapehu. Despite not being an athletic teenager, he found that he was physically strong and had greater endurance than many of his fellow climbers.
During World War II, Hillary was a RNZAF navigator. He was part of an unsuccessful New Zealand expedition to climb Everest in 1951 before attempting again in 1953. Hillary became the first explorer to reach the summit of Mt Everest at 11:30am local time on 29 May 1953. He was accompanied by Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, as part of a British expedition led by John Hunt. Hunt and Hillary received knighthoods on their return.
Hillary climbed 10 other peaks in the Himalaya on further visits in 1956, 1960-61 and 1963-65. He also reached the South Pole, as part of the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, on 4 January 1958. He has devoted much of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust which he founded and to which he has given much of his time and energy. Through his efforts he has succeeded in building many schools and hospitals in this remote region of the Himalaya. As of 2006 Hillary lives in a quiet retirement at his home in Auckland, New Zealand, although he does appear for occasional official engagements. For many years, Hillary was the only living New Zealander to appear on a banknote.
Sir Edmund Hillary died of heart failure at Auckland City Hospital on 11 January 2008. A state funeral was held, attended by thousands.
1944 - Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg attempts to assassinate Hitler.
During World War II, despite numerous military setbacks by 1944, Hitler refused to surrender and negotiate peace with the Allied forces. A group of high-ranking German officers became frustrated by his stubbornness and sought to assassinate the German dictator.
On 20 July 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a German aristocrat and a Reichswehr and Wehrmacht officer, placed a briefcase containing explosives and a timer near Hitler during a briefing at the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg, East Prussia (today Ktrzyn, Poland). Though some at the conference were killed, Hitler was barely injured, being shielded from the blast by a solid oak conference table.
Shortly thereafter, a number of co-conspirators were implicated in the plot. Stauffenberg, who had staged a bogus telephone call to create an excuse to leave the briefing hut, was arrested, tried and condemned later the same day, and executed half an hour after midnight. The rest of the conspirators were tried and hanged or offered the choice to commit suicide.
1969 - Australia's radio telescope at Parkes transmits the first pictures of the Apollo 11 moon walk.
Parkes, in central western New South Wales, was the site of the first radio telescope to be built in Australia. Its completion in 1961 was the result of ten years of of negotiation between CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory staff, the Australian Government and significant American Scientific institutions, Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Affectionately dubbed "The Dish", the telescope comprised a disc some 210 feet (64 m) in diameter, constructed of mesh woven from high-tensile strength steel designed to withstand a range of pressures. The total cost of construction was 800,000 Australian pounds.
NASA first proposed that the Parkes radio telescope be incorporated into its worldwide tracking network in 1966, and in 1968 requested Parkes's involvement in the Apollo 11 mission. On 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The Parkes telescope was crucial in transmitting the first pictures of the Moon landing, although it almost didn't happen. At the time the astronauts were to leave the landing module, the moon was only in the view of the southern hemisphere. However, mission commander Neil Armstrong elected to forgo the astronauts' scheduled six-hour rest period, and make the moon walk earlier, meaning the moon would not yet have risen over Parkes to get clear enough pictures. Fortunately, the astronauts took so long to prepare for the Moon walk that the Moon was just rising over Parkes.
The controllers at Parkes then faced another crisis. One of the reasons Parkes was chosen was that it had the weather conditions most conducive to gaining the best signal: ironically, as the Moon rose over Parkes, wind gusts of 110 km per hour gusts hit the radio telescope, threatening the integrity of the telescope structure as the dish was hammered back against its zenith axis gears. Nonetheless, tracking was able to begin just as the Moon rose into the Parkes radio telescope's field of view. Being a larger telescope, it captured more signal and so produced better pictures. The command centre at Houston switched to the Parkes feed, staying with that transmission for the remainder of the 21.5-hour broadcast.
In this way, the Parkes radio telescope, which still sits in the middle of a sheep paddock, became an integral part of the history of space exploration.
1969 - Astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon.
Apollo 11 was the first attempt to land man on the moon and the fifth manned mission in the Apollo program. It was launched on 16 July 1969, and passed behind the Moon on July 19, firing the SPS rocket to enter lunar orbit. In the several orbits that followed, the crew had passing views of their landing site. While on the far side of the Moon, the lunar module, named Eagle, separated from the Command Module, named Columbia. After the lunar module separated from the command module, the Eagle landed on the moon's surface at 09:18 GMT on the Sea of Tranquillity, while astronaut Michael Collins remained in orbit above.
American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969, uttering the immortal words, "That's one small step for man but one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong described the surface as being like powdered charcoal. Transmissions of the first photographs, enabled by cameras installed on the Eagle landing craft, were watched by millions of people around the world. Fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface twenty minutes later. They planted the American flag at 0341 GMT, and later unveiled a plaque bearing President Nixon's signature and an inscription which read: "Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind."
1976 - The 'Viking I Lander' separates from the Viking I Orbiter spacecraft and successfully lands on Mars.
The Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. America's "Viking I Orbiter" spacecraft was launched on 20 Aug 1975, taking almost a year to reach its destination, achieving orbit of Mars on 19 June 1976. The Viking I Lander separated from the Orbiter a month later on 20 July 1976 and landed on Mars, touching down at Chryse Planitia. The craft transmitted photographs, deployed seismometers, and collected samples of material which were then deposited into on-board experiments to be analysed for composition and signs of life. Studies were also done on atmospheric composition and meteorology.
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
09:34 AM Jul 20, 2016
1969.....Parkes Telescope....The real reason it was thought the telescope would be delayed of course was the staff were playing cricket in the dish itself. The reasons given by
NASA were a cover up.
1969....Neil Armstrong........I remember the day Rocky and if I remember correctly, I was at work and the boss bought in a TV and we all stood around watching it.
We all found out that day that there was really a man in the moon, well on the moon anyway.
Another day I remember at work was 2 mates and myself along with the other staff and boss standing around a radio listening to the marbles drop...
.....BUGGA! :( 2xBugga's actually.
rockylizard said
08:26 AM Jul 21, 2016
Gday...
1858 - Adelaide and Melbourne are linked by the first intercolonial electric telegraph line.
Canadian-born Samuel Walker McGowan is credited with bringing the telegraph technology to Australia. Lured by the opportunities opened up by the discovery of gold in Victoria, McGowan came to Melbourne, Australia, in 1853. Although isolated from telegraph technology in America, and limited by lack of equipment and suitable component manufacturing firms in Australia, McGowan succeeded in opening up the first telegraph line in Australia on 3 March 1854. It ran from Melbourne to Williamstown.
The network of telegraph lines quickly spread throughout Victoria, and then to Adelaide, South Australia. Construction began on the Adelaide-Melbourne electric telegraph line in April 1857 and the line opened on 21 July 1858.
1904 - Construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, connecting European Russia with the Pacific coast, is completed.
The Trans-Siberian railway is over 7000km long and connects European Russia with the Pacific Coast. It is the longest railroad in the world, crosses eight time zones, and covers a huge area made up mostly of the Asian part of the former Soviet Union. The railroad was begun in 1891, thanks to the efforts of Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte (18491915) and completed on 21 July 1904. The railroad had a significant effect on the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and modern Russia by opening up Siberia to development.
1952 - TV actor and comedian Robin Williams is born.
Academy Award-winning American actor and comedian Robin McLaurin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on 21 July 1952. Williams landed his first big break as "Mork", an alien who guest-starred on "Happy Days" with Ron Howard and Henry Winkler. Shortly after that, he starred in his own spin-off sitcom, "Mork and Mindy". When auditioning for the part of the alien Mork from Ork, Williams met Gary Marshall who told him to sit down. Williams sat on his head on the chair. Gary Marshall immediately chose him saying that he was the only alien who auditioned.
Williams has appeared in a number of films, with the better-known ones being "Mrs Doubtfire", "Good Morning Vietnam" and the dramas "Dead Poets' Society" and "Awakenings". In 1997 he won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting. Williams is known for his quick wit, creativity, improvisation skills and impersonations, and his ability to deliver his humour in rapid-fire succession.
1969 - The CSIRO Observatory in Parkes, Australia, transmits the first pictures of the Apollo 11 Moon walk to the world.
Parkes is a rural town in the central west of New South Wales, located about 265km west of Sydney. The region was originally settled by pastoralists in 1865. Known as Bushmans when it was founded in 1871 following gold discoveries, the town was renamed Parkes in 1873, in honour of a visit by Governor Henry Parkes. However, the town's greatest claim to fame is the role played by the Parkes Radio Telescope in the first Moon landing.
Parkes was the site of the first radio telescope to be built in Australia. Its completion in 1961 was the result of ten years of of negotiation between CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory staff, the Australian Government and significant American Scientific institutions, Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Affectionately dubbed "The Dish", the telescope comprised a disc some 210 feet (64 m) in diameter, constructed of mesh woven from high-tensile strength steel designed to withstand a range of pressures. The total cost of construction was 800,000 Australian pounds.
NASA first proposed that the Parkes radio telescope be incorporated into its worldwide tracking network in 1966, and in 1968 requested Parkes's involvement in the Apollo 11 mission. On 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The Parkes telescope was crucial in transmitting the first pictures of the Moon landing, although it almost didn't happen. At the time the astronauts were to leave the landing module, the moon was only in the view of the southern hemisphere. However, mission commander Neil Armstrong elected to forgo the astronauts' scheduled six-hour rest period, and make the moon walk earlier, meaning the moon would not yet have risen over Parkes to get clear enough pictures. Fortunately, the astronauts took so long to prepare for the Moon walk that the Moon was just rising over Parkes.
The controllers at Parkes then faced another crisis. One of the reasons Parkes was chosen was that it had the weather conditions most conducive to gaining the best signal: ironically, as the Moon rose over Parkes, wind gusts of 110 km per hour gusts hit the radio telescope, threatening the integrity of the telescope structure as the dish was hammered back against its zenith axis gears. Nonetheless, tracking was able to begin just as the Moon rose into the Parkes radio telescope's field of view. Being a larger telescope, it captured more signal and so produced better pictures. The command centre at Houston switched to the Parkes feed, staying with that transmission for the remainder of the 21.5-hour broadcast.
In this way, the Parkes radio telescope, which still sits in the middle of a sheep paddock in rural New South Wales, became an integral part of the history of space exploration.
Cheers - John
jules47 said
09:00 AM Jul 21, 2016
The Dish, great fun Aussie movie, they played cricket on the dish!
rockylizard said
08:35 AM Jul 22, 2016
Gday...
1822 - The first anti-cruelty bill is passed in British Parliament.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. Since its founding in 1824, it has inspired the creation of similar, but independent, organisations in other countries, including the Scottish SPCA, RSPCA Australia and the ASPCA in the USA.
The first anti-cruelty bill was introduced by Richard Martin MP, who would later earn the nickname of 'Humanity Dick', leader of a group of twenty-two reformers. Also leading the group were William Wilberforce MP, who was already famous for his efforts to abolish slavery in the British Empire, and the Reverend Arthur Broome. The Act was passed in Parliament on 22 July 1822 and was against cruelty to farm animals, particularly cattle. The group assembled at the "Old Slaughters" Coffee House in London to create a society with the will and authority to enforce the new law. The SPCA, the first animal welfare society in any country was thus founded on 16 June 1824, and was subsequently granted its royal status by Queen Victoria in 1840.
1844 - William Archibald Spooner, from whom the word 'spoonerism' was derived, is born.
William Archibald Spooner was born in London on 22 July 1844. He became an Anglican priest, and later lectured at Oxford in history, philosophy and divinity. Although a brilliant scholar, Spooner was known for his unwitting ability to transpose letters in words, giving a phrase a whole new meaning. Some of his more memorable utterances include:
During a toast to Her Highness Victoria: "Three cheers for our queer old dean!" During World War 1: "When our boys come home from France, we will have the hags flung out." At chapel: "Our Lord is a shoving leopard." To a stranger sitting in the wrong place: "I believe you're occupewing my pie. May I sew you to another sheet?" To a Dean's secretary: "Is the bean dizzy?" When announcing the hymn 'Conquering Kings': "Kinkering Congs Their Titles Tale." Commenting on a naval display: "This vast display of cattle ships and bruisers." Officiating at a wedding: "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride."
The word "spoonerism" began appearing in popular use as early as 1885. Once when a group of students gathered outside his window, calling for him to make a speech, he replied: "You don't want to hear a speech: you just want me to say one of those... things."
A lasting legacy, indeed.
1900 - Frederick Lane becomes the first Australian swimmer to win Gold at the modern Olympics.
Frederick Freddie Claude Vivian Lane was born on 2 February 1879 in Sydney. Lanes earliest swimming instruction came when, at the age of 4, his brother saved him from drowning in Sydney Harbour. His first major championship was achieved at the age of 13, when he won the All Schools' handicap race. He continued to progress, setting new records and winning further championships. In his late teens, he won national titles in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He set an Australasian record of 64.8 seconds for the 100 yards freestyle, won the Australasian 100 yards title at Christchurch in New Zealand, and went on to win State freestyle titles. He set another record at the 1899 English championships when he swam the 220 yards freestyle title in 2 minutes, 38.2 seconds. He also won the 440 yards salt-water title.
It was while attending the prestigious British championships that Lane was recruited as part of the British swimming team for the second modern Olympics held in Paris in 1900. On 22 July 1900, he became the first Australian swimmer to win Gold. He beat Hungarian Zoltan Halmay by 5.8 seconds in the 200-metre freestyle with a time of 2 minutes, 25.2 seconds. Just 45 minutes after this race, he won his second Gold, beating Austrian Otto Wahle in the 200-metre obstacle race.
In 1902, Lane became the first to swim the 100-yard freestyle in under a minute, in the record time of 59.6 seconds. He continued a successful European tour, and by the time he returned to Australia, he had accumulated a total of about 350 trophies, including over 100 medals. He did not continue his sporting career, but returned to Australia to become a master printer and partner in the printing and stationery firm Smith & Lane of Bridge Street, Sydney. His name is engraved on the World Trophy, originally known as the Helms Award, for 1900. In 1969, the year of his death, he was honoured by the International Swimming Hall of Fame at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
1933 - Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world.
Wiley Post was born on 22 November 1898. An oilfield accident resulted in his wearing a patch over one eye, but did not stop him from gaining his flying licence under Orville Wright in 1926. Post completed the first round-the-world solo flight of over 25,000km in his single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft "Winnie Mae". The journey took 7 days 18 hours and 49 minutes. Post landed at the Floyd Bennett Field near New York at 11:50 PM, 22 July 1933. He had previously flown around the world in the Winnie Mae with his navigator, Australian Naval cadet Harold Gatty, who went on to found Fiji Airways, which became Air Pacific.
1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin depart the moon after 21 1/2 hours on the surface.
American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon on 21 July 1969, and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the surface twenty minutes later. They spent twenty one and a half hours on the surface before returning to the command module piloted by Michael Collins.
Whilst on the surface, they took numerous photographs, and studied both the nature of the lunar dust and the effects of pressure on the surface. Footprints left behind are expected to remain almost permanently, unless disturbed by the impact of a meteorite. Before leaving the surface, Armstrong and Aldrin planted the American flag and unveiled a plaque bearing the signature of President Nixon and an inscription reading: "Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind."
1994 - The last piece of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet hits Jupiter.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a comet which collided with Jupiter in 1994, providing the first direct observation of the collision of two solar system objects. The Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet was discovered by astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy. It was located on the night of 24 March 1993 in a photograph taken with the 0.4-metre Schmidt telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory in California. Unlike all other comets discovered before then, it was orbiting Jupiter rather than the Sun.
Between 16 July and 22 July 1994, twenty-three fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with the planet Jupiter. July 22 saw the 23rd piece hit Jupiter. Observatories around the world captured the images, some of which can be seen at http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/sl9/sl9impacts.html
2003 - Two sons of Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein are killed by US troops in Iraq.
On 2 August 1990, one hundred thousand Iraqi troops backed by 300 tanks invaded Kuwait, in the Persian Gulf. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had amassed weaponry which was then deployed for the invasion. The action ultimately led to the Gulf War the following year, a six-week war in which the Allies, led by the USA, won a decisive victory, forcing the withdrawal of all Iraqi troops.
Following the war, Iraq suffered under Hussein's leadership. His government repressed movements that it deemed threatening, particularly those of ethnic or religious groups that sought independence or autonomy. While he remained a popular hero among many Arabs for standing up to Israel and the United States, some in the international community continued to view Saddam with deep suspicion following the 1991 Gulf War.
In the ensuing years, the USA maintained that Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction. Saddam was deposed by the United States and its allies during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but managed to evade capture. On 22 July 2003, following a tip-off from an Iraqi informant, 200 US troops stormed a house in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The American soldiers came under attack as they entered the house, but rocket fire from helicopter gunships soon quelled the attack. When the dust had cleared, they found the bodies of Hussein's sons, Uday, 39, and Qusay, 36, together with the latter's 14 year old son, Mustafa. The two sons were highly influential figures in Saddam Hussein's regime, and news of their deaths was greeted with celebrations in the city of Baghdad. Saddam Hussein himself was captured in December of 2003, and following the trial which lasted many months, was executed by hanging on 30 December 2006.
Cheers - John
Dougwe said
09:14 AM Jul 22, 2016
1969....Some nights now, the moon appears so close and bright you can nearly see that flag and plaque Rocky.
Very historic event most of us here will remember always I'm sure.
Well done Apollo 11.
rockylizard said
08:29 AM Jul 23, 2016
Gday...
1773 - Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, the man after whom the Australian city of Brisbane is named, is born.
Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane was born in Scotland on 23 July 1773. He was educated in astronomy and mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. From 1793 to 1814 he served in the army throughout the world, including Flanders, the West Indies, Spain and Canada, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
In 1821 he was appointed Governor of New South Wales. During his tenure as Governor of New South Wales (1821-25), he built an astronomical observatory at Parramatta and worked to develop the Brisbane Catalogue of 7,385 stars. Also while Governor, Brisbane encouraged the development of the agricultural industry in the colony, supported by land reclamation, exploration, and immigration, and he called for greater accountability of settlers with land grants to best utilise their land, and to take on convicts as assistants. His administration had a positive effect on the morality of the colony, as the number of persons convicted at the criminal court fell from 208 in 1822 to 100 in 1824. This enabled NSW to be transformed from a dependent convict outpost into a free, self-supporting colony.
The name of the city of Brisbane, now the capital of the state of Queensland, was derived from the Brisbane River. The Brisbane River was named in December 1823 by John Oxley, Surveyor-General and explorer, in honour of Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane.
1903 - The Ford motor company sells its first ever car.
Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, was born on 30 July 1863 in Michigan, USA. In 1896 Ford invented the Quadricycle, the first "horseless carriage" that he produced. Its popularity helped fund and launch Ford's business, and the new Ford Motor Company was established seven years later in Detroit, Michigan, and incorporated on 16 June 1903. A month later, on 23 July 1903, Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago, Illinois became the first owner of a Ford Model A. The Ford Model A was also known as the 'Fordmobile', and featured a twin-cylinder internal combustion engine. It was Ford's first attempt to develop a reliable, inexpensive car for the average American market.
1904 - Charles E Menches of St Louis, Missouri invents the ice cream cone.
There is some contention about who really invented the first ice cream cone. One of the stories credits the invention to Charles E Menches, an ice cream seller in St. Louis, Missouri. At the time, ice cream was always served in dishes. The story goes that, whilst selling ice cream at the St Louis World's Fair (the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition), he ran out of dishes. Nearby, Ernest Hamwi was selling a Middle eastern treat called Zalabia, a crispy, wafer that was sold with syrup. Always the entrepreneur, Menches conceived the idea of rolling up the wafers, and filling the cone with two scoops of ice cream. Thus, Menches is credited with introducing the concept of the ice cream cone.
1939 - Indian spiritual and political leader, Mahatma Gandhi, writes a letter to Hitler, imploring him to prevent another world war.
Mahatma Gandhi was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, India. Gandhi was a peace-loving man who initially trained as a barrister in England, but was unsuccessful in pursuing a career in law once he returned to India. After accepting a post to Natal, South Africa, Gandhi experienced frequent humiliation and oppression commonly directed at Indians in South Africa. This caused him to then spend two decades fighting for the rights of immigrants in South Africa.
After WWI broke out, Gandhi returned to India. Following the end of the Great War, Gandhi actively - but peacefully - fought for India's independence from Great Britain, and suffered greatly for his stand. However, one of his least-known actions was the letter he wrote to German leader Adolf Hitler on 23 July 1939. At this time, Germany was advancing through Europe, and had already invaded Czechoslovakia. Gandhi sought to stop the horrors he foresaw with the advent of another world war. The letter read, in part: "It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success?"
For whatever reasons, the letter never reached Hitler. Historians doubt that, if it had, it would have made any difference to Hitler.
1962 - Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser becomes the first woman to swim 100m freestyle in under one minute.
Dawn Fraser was born on 4 September 1937 in Balmain, New South Wales. She was fifteen years old when coach Harry Gallagher noted her exceptional swimming talent and took wher under his wing, preparing her for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Fraser was the first female swimmer to win Gold in three consecutive Olympic Games, doing so in 1956, 1960 and 1964. Her career spanned some fifteen years, during which she broke and held 41 World records, and remained undefeated in the 100 metres freestyle. Between 1956 and 1964, Fraser broke the womens world record for the 100 metre freestyle nine successive times. On 23 July 1962, Fraser became the first woman to swim the 100m freestyle in less than one minute.
In 1999, Fraser was awarded World Athlete of the Century at the World Sport Awards in Vienna. In the same year, she was also inducted into the Australian Sports Hall of Fame when she was awarded Athlete of the Century.
1986 - Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.
Prince Andrew, third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II, was born Andrew Albert Christian Edward Mountbatten-Windsor on 19 February 1960 at Buckingham Palace, London. He was the first child to be born to a reigning monarch for 103 years. As a child of the reigning monarch, he was styled His Royal Highness The Prince Andrew from birth. He is currently fourth in the line of succession to the throne.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson married on 23 July 1986, to become the Duke and Duchess of York. Prior to the marriage ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II conferred upon 26-year-old Andrew the title of Duke of York. The title Duke of York is traditionally reserved for the sovereign's second son and was last held by King George VI. The service was conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie. It is estimated that the wedding was watched by a TV audience worldwide of 500 million.
Together the Duke and Duchess of York have two children, Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of York, born 8 August 1988 and Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie of York, born 23 March 1990. The Duke and Duchess of York divorced in May 1996.
Gday...
$1.97 for a Big Mac might seem cheap today, but, according to results from the household survey of income released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics in 1996-97, shows the average weekly income received by couple families was $890, by one-parent families $432 and by single persons $391,.
The level of income received by couple families was at its peak when they are between 45 and 54 years, at $1,090 a week.
The considerably lower incomes that accompany retirement are evident in the average incomes of those aged 65 years and over. In 1996-97 the average weekly income was $481 for couples and $242 for single persons in this age group.
Not sure who was better off ... us back then or us now.
http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mediareleasesbytitle/C68FDE8DCA48ABCECA2568A9001362A0?OpenDocument
Cheers - John
Gday...
1862 - John McDouall Stuart discovers the Katherine River.
John McDouall Stuart was a Scottish-born explorer who was determined to cross Australia from south to north. Stuart led a total of six expeditions into Australia's interior, with five of them being attempts to be the first to cross the continent from south to north, commencing from Adelaide. He succeeded on his fifth attempt, reaching the northern waters at Chambers Bay in July 1862.
There were unofficial reports that John McKinlay of South Australia and William Landsborough of Queensland had each crossed Australia from south to north whilst independently searching for the missing Burke and Wills party; however, Stuart was officially the first person to successfully cross the Australian continent from south to north, and return alive.
On his fifth and final attempt, he discovered rich pasture land in the Northern Territory, together with the rivers leading into the northern waters. On 8 July 1862, he named the Katherine River after the daughter of wealthy landowner James Chambers, who helped to finance Stuart's expeditions.
1881 - The ice cream sundae is invented in Wisconsin, US, to satisfy a customer who is denied flavoured soda water because it is a Sunday.
Edward Berner owned a drug store and ice-cream parlour in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. On Sunday, 8 July 1881, a customer by the name of George Hallauer came in and asked for an ice-cream soda. Being a Sunday, Berner was not permitted to sell flavoured soda water, which was considered "scandalous". Berner satisfied the customer by placing ice cream in a dish and pouring over the chocolate syrup usually reserved for ice cream sodas. It was named "sundae" after the day on which it was invented.
Although several US cities stake their claim as the place where the sundae was invented, the Wisconsin State Historical Society recognises Two Rivers as the birthplace of the sundae. In 1973, the society erected an historical marker in Two Rivers Central Memorial Park. The marker reads:
"ICE CREAM SUNDAE - In 1881, George Hallauer asked Edward C. Berner, the owner of a soda fountain at 1404 - 15th Street, to top a dish of ice cream with chocolate sauce, hitherto used only for ice cream sodas. The concoction cost a nickel and soon became very popular, but was sold only on Sundays. One day a ten year old girl insisted she have a dish of ice cream "with that stuff on top," saying they could "pretend it was Sunday." After that, the confection was sold every day in many flavors. It lost its Sunday only association, to be called ICE CREAM SUNDAE when a glassware salesman placed an order with his company for the long canoe-shaped dishes in which it was served, as "Sundae dishes."
1886 - It rains snails near Redruth in Cornwall, England.
It is not unusual to hear stories of creatures falling from the sky: it has been known for frogs, fish, snakes and even turtles trapped in ice to fall from the sky during showers which may occur inland, many kilometres from the coast. Because huge updrafts within a storm or tornado can measure up to and over 150kph, small creatures (and sometimes larger ones) can by caught in the updraft, especially as it passes over well-populated habitats such as creeks and ponds.
During a heavy thunderstorm on 8 July 1886 near Redruth, Cornwall, snails rained down so thickly that they could be collected by the hatful. Thousands of snails fell during the storm, and it was noted that the snails were of a type not previously seen in the district. Sceptics later stated that it was probable the snails did not fall in the storm but, being of a usually-hidden land species, came out in their droves during the flooding rain.
1904 - Sydney's electricity supply is officially switched on.
The development of electric lighting is regarded as a major milestone in history. Inventors began experimenting with electric lighting from the early 1800s, but it was not until the 1870s that English physicist Sir Joseph Swan produced the first electric light bulb. Thomas Alva Edison then perfected the design and demonstrated the first durable and commercially practical incandescent lamp in 1879.
Electric lightbulbs were far more practical, efficient and useful than previous forms of lighting, including outdoor arc lamps which produced intense heat as well as fumes, and for that reason could not be used indoors.
Thanks to the efforts of Governor Richard Bourke, Sydney first received street lighting in the 1830s. It was also the site of the first public demonstration of electric lighting in New South Wales. On 11 June 1863, the city of Sydney was lit up to honour the occasion of the wedding of the Prince of Wales. However, it was only in 1878 that electric lighting was used regularly in Sydney; this involved the use of arc lamps to allow work on the Exhibition Garden Palace in the Botanical Gardens to be completed in time for the International Exhibition the government wished to host.
The first electric light plants were imported into Sydney in 1882. Although inefficient at first, improvements were gradually made, and the government gradually deployed electric lighting in its buildings, and to the homes of individuals. By 1896, the government sought advice from Edison, Swan and various other experts, and subsequently planned ahead to legislate for the eventual establishment of The Municipal Council of Sydney's Electricity Undertaking. On 8 July 1904, the Electricity Undertaking's supply system was officially switched on. At 5:00pm on this day, Sydney's Lord Mayor Samuel E Lees started the steam to fire up the engine and generators, while his wife, the Lady Mayoress, switched on the actual electric current with a special gold presentation key.
1947 - The Roswell Army Air Field announces it has recovered a "flying disk".
Roswell is a city in southeast New Mexico, USA. It is a centre for irrigation farming, dairying, ranching, manufacturing, distribution, and petroleum production. It has also become known for what is now called the 1947 Roswell UFO incident.
In early July 1947, an unusual object was reported to have crashed about 120 kilometres northwest of Roswell on a ranch, leaving a large field of debris. The local air base at Roswell investigated after the rancher first reported it to Roswell authorities on July 6. On 8 July 1947, the Roswell Army Air Field (RAAF) announced it had recovered a "flying disk". A few hours after the initial "flying disk" press release, US Army Air Force officials recanted, stated that it was not a UFO, but a weather balloon. When the question of what crashed was revived in the early 1980s, the "Roswell Incident" became a focus of conspiracy theorists and UFO investigators.
Cheers - John
1881.....The only problem with a Sunday is you can only have one on a Sunday, Rocky. I reckon it's about time someone came up with one we could enjoy any day of the week.

Snakes falling from the sky is enough to do that to bloke ya know Rocky. I won't go in a plane now since I saw "Snakes on plane". That documentary turned me away 

1886.....That's it, you won't catch me near the snow or ice now
Gday...
1827 - Australian explorer Allan Cunningham discovers the Gwydir River in northern NSW, opening up the area for grazing and pastureland.
Australian explorer Allan Cunningham was born on 13 July 1791 in Wimbledon, England. He came to Australia in December 1816, suffering from tuberculosis. An avid botanist who worked to classify many of Australia's unique plant species, he had been selected by Sir Joseph Banks to be an overseas collector of specimens in his position as 'Botanist to the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew'. Australia's climate helped Cunningham regain some of his health, and he was anxious to discover more of the country he came to love. He explored much of northern NSW and southern Queensland (which, at that stage, was still part of the NSW colony) and discovered pastureland and rivers which helped open up the area for farming.
On 9 July 1827, Cunningham discovered the Gwydir River, around which the town of Moree is now built. He named it after Lord Gwydir after his patron Lord Gwydir, who took his title from Gwydir Castle in Wales. It is interesting to note that Gwydir is also an Aboriginal name meaning 'river with red banks'.
Cunningham returned to England in 1831, but came back to New South Wales in 1837 as Government Botanist, a position he resigned after a year.
1857 - The Municipality of the Town of Gawler, South Australia, is proclaimed.
South Australia is the only Australian state to have been founded by free settlers, remaining entirely free of convicts during its early history. The site of its capital, Adelaide, was originally determined by Captain Collet Barker in 1831 and subsequently surveyed by Colonel William Light five years later.
Gawler is a Local Government Area (LGA) located 44km north of Adelaide. The year after Colonel Light surveyed the capital, he and his assistant, Boyle Travers Finniss, travelled through the area north of Adelaide. Light saw the benefits of establishing a town which would be the gateway to the north, and to the Murray River, the water and transport lifeline for South Australia. Light's recommendation for a survey of the area was initially not taken up, but Henry Dundas Murray, John Reid and a syndicate of ten other colonists noted Light's recommendation and applied for a Special Survey of 4000 acres (1618 hectares). Following this, Light was commissioned to survey the town. William Jacob then laid out the town from Light's plan and the town was officially established on 31 January 1839. It was named Gawler after Lieutenant-Colonel George Gawler, second Governor of South Australia.
The first settler in Gawler was John Reid, who arrived in February 1839 to take up his selection near the North Para River. Reid's property became a stopover for new pioneers to the area and overlanders from New South Wales. Gawler developed slowly until the discovery of copper at nearby Kapunda in 1842 sent its growth soaring. When the copper mines were established at Burra in the north, Gawler's importance as a trade and stopping centre increased. The establishment of agricultural areas to the north cemented Gawler's position as a permanent settlement.
With the introduction of Local Government to the region in 1853 and 1854, the districts of Munno Para East, Mudla Wirra, Barossa West (which included Gawler) and Munno Para West were formed. Residents of Gawler, however, were unhappy with the services provided by Barossa West, and lobbied for separation. The Municipality of the Town of Gawler was proclaimed on 9 July 1857.
1894 - Percy LeBaron Spencer, the inventor of the microwave oven, is born.
Percy LeBaron Spencer, inventor of the microwave oven, was born on 9 July 1894 in Howland, Maine, USA. Orphaned when he was young, he was raised by his aunt and uncle. Spencer left school at age 12 to work in a mill, then joined the US Navy in 1912 to learn wireless telegraphy. He joined the Raytheon Company in the 1920s.
He was working as an engineer with the Raytheon company when he was experimenting with and testing a magnetron. The magnetron was invented during WWII and allowed the Allies to pinpoint the exact locations of Nazi war machines and arsenals, as the magnetron produced microwaves which radar then bounced off the arsenals, and back to the Allies. Whilst testing the magnetron after the war, Dr Spencer reached into his pocket for his chocolate bar, and discovered it had completely melted. He made the connection between the melted chocolate and the heat-producing magnetron, and tested his theory on a bag of unpopped corn kernels, which then popped. Next, he placed an egg in front of the magnetron. The egg exploded.
Dr Spencer is therefore credited with discovering one of the critical components of the microwave oven. Development of the microwave oven grew out of his observations, and by 1947 a commercial oven was being sold by Raytheon.
1900 - Queen Victoria approves the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Bill.
Prior to 1901, Australia was made up of six colonies which had partial self-government, but which were also under British authority. Although the continent had officially been known as Australia since 1824, there was no nation or government of Australia. The Federation movement gained momentum during the 1880s, but before Federation could occur, it was necessary to draft an Australian Constitution - a process which took almost a decade.
Seven delegates were selected from each of the colonies to formulate a draft constitution, along with three delegates from New Zealand. The first constitutional convention, known as the National Australasian Convention, was held from March to April 1891, and at this convention it was agreed to adopt the name 'Commonwealth of Australia'. Further conferences were held in 1893, 1895 and 1896. The final National Convention was held in three sessions over 1897-98, and by early 1898, a draft constitution had been agreed upon. It was brought before each of the colonial parliaments for approval. The constitutional system protected the rights of the states, while establishing a national government to represent their common interests.
Initially rejected by the states, amendments were made at a 'Secret Premiers' Conference early in 1899. The final draft was then approved by the Australian people via referenda held in each colony. It was necessary for the British Parliament to also agree to the constitution, so further alterations were negotiated before the British Parliament passed the bill in July 1900. On 9 July 1900 Queen Victoria signed the Royal Commission of Assent and the bill became the Commonwealth of Australia Constitution Act 1900.
Interestingly, Western Australia only agreed to the bill several weeks after it was given Royal Assent. Section 9 of the Australian Constitution Act stated that on and after 1 January 1901, the colonies of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and Tasmania would be united and known as the Commonwealth of Australia, but the Act made provision for Western Australia to still join the Commonwealth. On 1 January 1901, federation of the six colonies was achieved and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed.
1982 - A man breaks into Buckingham Palace and spends about ten minutes in informal conversation with the Queen.
On 9 July 1982, Michael Fagan, a 31 year old unemployed father of four, scaled the walls and drainpipes of Buckingham Palace, then broke into the Queen's apartments at about 7:15 BST. He managed to evade guards and electronic alarms before surprising the Queen in her bedroom. He sat on the end of the Queen's bed and engaged in informal conversation with her for about ten minutes before police arrived. During this time, the Queen calmly informed a footman of the intruder when Fagan asked for a cigarette.
Since it was then a civil rather than criminal offence, Fagan was not charged for trespassing in the Queen's bedroom. He was charged with theft after stealing half a bottle of wine when he had previously broken into Buckingham Palace on 7 June. The charges were dropped when he was committed for psychiatric evaluation. The attack highlighted concerns about the Queen's personal security.
2009 - The successful removal and relocation of the Cape Hatteras lighthouse, USA, is completed.
The Cape Hatteras lighthouse is a famous lighthouse on Hatteras Island, North Carolina, USA. It is the tallest lighthouse in use in the US. Completed in 1803, the original structure was eventually demolished following the construction of a new and improved lighthouse between 1868 and 1870. The new lighthouse became the tallest lighthouse tower in the US, with the light projecting from 191 feet, or 58 m, above the water. The tower stands 63 metres tall from the base of the foundation to the tip of the roof, and the structure contains 268 steps.
By 1935, erosion had so threatened the tower that the water was actually reaching its base. After attempts to hold back the erosion process through dikes and breakwaters proved futile, the tower was abandoned and a functional light placed on a steel tower further inland from the shore. After a few years, wooden revetments, a more effective method for erosion control, helped reclaim some of the shoreline, and the lighthouse was declared safe for use and recommissioned on 23 January 1950.
Further erosion of the shoreline necessitated the relocation of the entire tower in 1999. The granite underlying the foundation of the lighthouse was mined out and replaced with steel supports. Using hydraulic jacks, these steel supports then moved the entire tower along a system of track beams. The actual removal operation began on 17 June 1999 and was completed on 9 July 1999. On this date, the tower was then lowered onto a new concrete pad 2900 feet (883m) away, and its temporary steel foundation replaced with brick. The lighthouse survived the move and a ceremonial relighting was held on 13 November that year.
Cheers - John
Gday...
1852 - Sydney, Australia, is incorporated as a city.
The city of Sydney is Australia's largest city, though it is not the country's Capital city. Originally known as Sydney Town, it was established in 1788 at Sydney Cove by Captain Arthur Phillip, who led the First Fleet from Britain. He named it after the British Home Secretary, Thomas Townshend, Lord Sydney, in recognition of Sydney's role in issuing the charter authorising Phillip to establish a colony. The state capital of New South Wales, Sydney boasts a current population of around 4.3 million. It is built along the shores of Port Jackson, one of the world's most spectacular natural harbours.
Sydney began to develop a sense of order and prominence under Major-General Lachlan Macquarie, who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. Macquarie was instrumental in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony, commissioning the construction of roads, bridges, wharves, churches and public buildings. He founded new towns such as Richmond, Windsor, Pitt Town, Castlereagh and Wilberforce (known as the "Macquarie Towns"), as well as Liverpool. He was also the greatest sponsor of exploration the colony had yet seen.
Following Macquarie's tenure, Sydney continued to grow and prosper. It was first incorporated as a city on 10 July 1852, earning it the title of Australia's "first city".
1910 - Australia's Commonwealth Naval Forces are granted the title of Royal Australian Navy by King George V.
From the time that Australia was first colonised in 1788, up until 1859, Australia's naval defence depended on detachments from the Royal Navy in Sydney. A separate British naval station was established in Australia in 1859, while a Royal Navy squadron, paid for and maintained by Australia, was retained in Australian waters through to 1913.
In 1909, the decision was made to establish an Australian Fleet Unit. The first ships comprising this fleet arrived in Australian waters during November of 1910. These Commonwealth Naval Forces became the Royal Australian Navy on 10 July 1911, following the granting of this title by King George V.
Late in 1911, the Federal Parliament of Australia selected Captain's Point, Jervis Bay, as the site of the future Royal Australian Naval College. As the Australian Capital Territory was inland, it was determined that the national seat of government needed access to the ocean, so the Jervis Bay Territory was surrendered by New South Wales to the Commonwealth in 1915 under the "Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915".
1921 - Harvey Ball, inventor of the Smiley face, is born.
Harvey Ross Ball was born on 10 July 1921 in Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. Whilst still at school he was apprenticed to a local sign painter, and later attended Worcester Art Museum School where he studied fine arts. He then served over two decades in the National Guard, and was posted in Asia and the Pacific during World War II. After the war, he worked for a local advertising firm until he started his own business, Harvey Ball Advertising, in 1959.
The invention of the Smiley face came about in an attempt to boost employee morale after it dropped when State Mutual Life Assurance Company of Worcester, MA (now known as Allmerica Financial) purchased Guarantee Mutual Company of Ohio. Ball was employed as a freelance artist to create a smiley face to be used on buttons, desk cards, and posters. The Smiley was invented within ten minutes, and earned Ball just $45. The use of the Smiley was part of the company's friendship campaign whereby State Mutual handed out 100 smiley pins to employees. The aim was to get employees to smile while using the phone and doing other tasks. The buttons were very popular, and by 1971, over 50 million Smiley Face buttons had been sold.
Ball never applied for a trademark or copyright for his design, a move which he never regretted. However, he founded the World Smile Corporation, which licenses Smileys and organises World Smile Day, which in turn raises money for the Harvey Ball World Smile Foundation, a non-profit charitable trust which supports children's causes. World Smile Day is held on the first Friday of October each year and is a day dedicated to "good cheer and good works". The catch phrase for the day is "Do an act of kindness - help one person smile".
1936 - The Thylacine, commonly referred to as the Tasmanian Tiger, is named a protected animal.
The Thylacine was a dasyurid, or carnivorous marsupial, living in Australia up until the twentieth century. It is believed that the Thylacine existed on the Australian mainland until the introduction of the dingo thousands of years ago. Although the Thylacine was often called the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf, it was neither of these. Its body was similar in shape to that of the placental wolf, but it was a marsupial, putting it in an entirely different class. It stood 58-60cm tall, with a body and tail length of up to 180cm.
When Europeans settled in Tasmania, the Thylacine's fate was sealed. Farmers shot the creatures, fearing them as a threat to livestock, while hunters prized them as trophies; these acts were supported by the government of the time which offered a bounty of one pound for every dead adult Thylacine and ten shillings for each dead Thylacine joey. This bounty system, introduced in 1830, was not terminated until 1909. By this time, the Thylacine was very rare, and being sought for zoos worldwide. Australian authorities were slow to protect native wildlife, with the result that many species became extinct or on the verge of extinction. In a last attempt to protect the remaining specimens, Tasmania named the Thylacine a protected animal. On 10 July 1936, the governor of Tasmania, Sir Ernest Clark, announced that "... in exercise of the powers and authority conferred upon me by the Animals and Birds Protection Act, 1928, do, by this proclamation, transfer Native Tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus) from Schedule 3, Part 1, to Schedule 2, Part 1, of that Act .
The last known specimen of the Thylacine died in the Hobart Zoo in September that same year. The last captive animals were exhibited in zoos, where their needs were not understood, and the Thylacines in Hobart died from exposure. Despite numerous apparent "sightings" over the years, not one of these has ever been confirmed, and in 1986, the Thylacine was officially classified as Extinct.
1940 - In WWII, the Battle of Britain begins, in which Germany attempts to destroy the Royal Air Force and gain control of British air space.
The Battle of Britain was a major campaign in the second World War. Germany aimed to destroy the Royal Air Force and aircraft production, thereby gaining a position of dominance in the war. Secondary objectives were to destroy ground infrastructure, as well as intimidating and demoralising the British people.
British and German sources differ on the actual dates of the campaign, with the former claiming it ran from 10 July 1940 to 31 October 1940, and the latter stating it began in August 1940 and ended in May 1941. Regardless, the British were victorious in the Battle of Britain, marking the first failure of Hitler's war machine. The victory also altered American opinion that Britain could not survive the attack. While there were surprisingly few military casualties, British civilian losses from July to December 1940 totalled 23,002 dead and 32,138 wounded.
1985 - The Greenpeace flagship, the 'Rainbow Warrior', is sunk in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand, after an explosion resulting from deliberate sabotage.
The Greenpeace flagship, the 'Rainbow Warrior', was named after a North American Indian legend, and launched in 1978. The ship arrived in New Zealand in July 1985 in preparation for leading a flotilla of boats to Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean to protest against French nuclear tests on the atoll.
Just before midnight on 10 July 1985, while the Rainbow Warrior waited in Auckland Harbour, underwater charges which had been placed by frogmen on the hull of the ship exploded, sinking the vessel. One person was killed in the explosion, Portuguese photographer Fernando Periero. An investigation later revealed that the saboteurs were two French secret agents. In a major cover-up operation, the French Government denied its involvement. Within a couple of months, however, the French defence minister Charles Hernu had resigned and New Zealand was paid $7m in compensation by the French Government. A new 'Rainbow Warrior' was launched in 1987.
Cheers - John
Gday...
1974 - Australian Prime Minister Whitlam appoints the man who would later dismiss him, Sir John Kerr, as Governor-General.
Edward Gough Whitlam became the 21st Prime Minister of Australia on 2 December 1972 in the first ALP electoral victory since 1946. The Whitlam government embarked on a massive legislative social reform program which was forward-thinking and progressive in many ways. On 11 July 1974, Whitlam appointed Sir John Kerr, Chief Justice of New South Wales, as the Governor-General of Australia, succeeding Sir Paul Hasluck. Kerr had joined the Australian Labor Party in 1948 but became somewhat disillusioned with party politics following the Labor split in 1955. When Whitlam appointed Kerr he did not know that Kerr's political views had changed and that he had come to see the role of Governor-General differently from Whitlam.
By 1975 the office of Governor-General had come to be regarded by many as ceremonial and politically unimportant. Although the Australian Constitution gave the Governor-General wide-ranging powers, including the power to appoint and dismiss Ministers and to dissolve Parliament, Whitlam and others held the view that the Governor-General's exercise of these powers must always be done on the advice of the Prime Minister. Kerr disagreed with this view, arguing the Constitution very clearly set out the Governor-General's powers.
The Governor-General's powers were very clearly put to the test in 1975. Whilst initially popular, the fast pace of Whitlam's reforms engendered caution amongst the electorate, and the economy was beset by high inflation combined with economic stagnation. The opposition Liberal-National Country Party coalition held a majority in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament. In an unprecedented move, the Senate deferred voting on bills that appropriated funds for government expenditure, attempting to force the Prime Minister to dissolve the House of Representatives and call an election. The Whitlam government ignored the warnings and sought alternative means of appropriating the funds it needed to repay huge debts. With Whitlam unable to secure the necessary funds, Governor-General Sir John Kerr dismissed Whitlam as Prime Minister on 11 November 1975, and appointed Liberal opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister. This was done on the condition that Fraser would seek a dissolution of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, thus precipitating a general election.
This date is another milestone for former Prime Minister Edward 'Gough' Whitlam: he was born on 11 July 1916.
1979 - US Space laboratory, Skylab I, plunges back to earth, scattering debris across parts of Western Australia.
Skylab was the first space station the United States launched into orbit. Launched on 14 May 1973, it was designed to test various aspects of human endurance in space by having teams of astronauts living in Skylab for up to 84 days at a time. Each Skylab mission set a record for the duration of time astronauts spent in space.
In all, the space station orbited Earth 2,476 times during the 171 days and 13 hours of its occupation during the three manned Skylab missions. Astronauts performed ten spacewalks totalling 42 hours 16 minutes. Skylab logged about 2,000 hours of scientific and medical experiments, including eight solar experiments. Skylab had been in orbit for six years when it made its descent on 11 July 1979, with many chunks of hot debris falling across southern Western Australia. Most of the pieces were found on a 160km wide strip of land between the Perth-Adelaide highway and the Indian Pacific railway line.
1991 - A solar eclipse is observed stretching from Hawaii to South America, and lasting up to 7 minutes in some areas.
A solar eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the Earth and the Sun, casting its shadow over the Earth. The 11 July 1991 eclipse was observed best by scientists in observatories atop Mauna Kea in Hawaii. First contact (when the moon first began its progression across the face of the sun) occurred at 6:30am, and totality (total coverage of the sun) began at 7:28. The longest eclipse for the next 141 years, totality lasted 6 minutes and 52 seconds on the centreline on the Baja peninsula of Mexico.
1992 - Seven people are drowned after being washed into the sea at the Kiama blowhole, on the New South Wales coast.
Kiama is an attractive town and Local Government Area 120 km south of Sydney on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. The name "Kiama" is derived from the Aboriginal word Kiarama, which means "place where the sea makes a noise". This is in reference to the famous Kiama Blowhole, a natural cavern at Blowhole Point. The ideal conditions in which to view the blowhole are when the seas are running southeast: at these times, the blowhole can erupt in a spray of water up to 60m in height.
Kiama was discovered by explorer George Bass on 6 December 1797. Bass noted the evidence of volcanic activity in the distant past, and of the blowhole itself, he wrote:
"The earth for a considerable distance round in the form approaching a circle seemed to have given way; it was now a green slope ... Towards the centre was a deep ragged hole of about 25 to 30 feet in diameter and on one side of it the sea washed in through a subterraneous passage ... with a most tremendous noise ..."
This beautiful attraction was the scene of a tragedy on 11 July 1992. Seven people drowned at the Kiama blowhole after they were washed into the ocean by a powerful wave whilst watching the phenomenon. Afghani refugee Fared Cina, his wife Angella, and their young daughter Baran drowned, along with Mrs Cina's nephew Arash. Also killed were Nasarin Zobair, her daughter Kahlida and her son Mustafa.
1995 - The Bosnian Serb army takes control of the United Nations "safe haven" of Srebrenica, ultimately resulting in the killing of thousands of Muslim men of military age.
The war in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an armed conflict which took place between March 1992 and November 1995. The war involved several ethnically defined factions within Bosnia and Herzegovina, as a consequence of the former state of Yugoslavia being broken up. The war was finally brought to an end after the signing of the General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina in Paris on 14 December 1995.
The massacre in Srebrenica took place towards the end of the Bosnian conflict. Between 11 July 1995 and 19 July 1995, Bosniak (Muslim) men of military age were taken prisoner, detained in inhumane conditions, and then executed in their thousands. They were shot dead with machine guns and piled into mass graves. The massacre was one of the largest in Europe since WWII. Bosnian Serb army General Ratko Mladi and other Bosnian Serb army officers were indicted for various war crimes, including genocide, at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The most recent research places the number of civilian and military victims at around 100,000-110,000 killed and 1.8 million displaced.
Cheers - John
Gday...
1690 - Today is Orange Day in Northern Ireland, commemorating the Battle of Boyne when Englands Protestant King William of Orange defeated the forces of Irelands Catholic King James.
Protestants in Northern Ireland celebrate Orange day annually on July 12. Orange Day marks when England's Protestant King William of Orange defeated the forces of Ireland's Catholic King James on 1 July 1690 in the Battle of the Boyne. James II of England and VII of Scotland had been deposed and had subsequently raised an army in Ireland where a Parliament had acknowledged him as king. Conflict ensued when James II lost the throne to William of Orange, with forces from both sides fighting on the banks of the Boyne River, just outside of the town of Drogheda on Ireland's east coast.
Though not militarily decisive, the symbolic importance of the Battle of the Boyne has made it one of the most infamous battles in British and Irish history and a key part in Irish Protestant folklore. It is still commemorated today, principally by the Orange Order. Once the Gregorian calendar was adopted, the day came to be commemorated on 12 July every year.
1818 - George Evans discovers the Castlereagh River in NSW.
George Evans was born on 5 January 1780. As the Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Evans undertook many expeditions with explorer John Oxley. In 1818, Oxley, with Evans as second-in-command, set out to follow the westward course of the Macquarie River, which Evans had discovered in 1813. Oxley's progress was obstructed by impassable marshes and, while trying to find a way around them, he sent Evans to the north-east.
Ten days later, Evans returned to report that on 12 July 1818, he had found another river and better pasture country. Evans named the river the Castlereagh after Lord Castlereagh, Secretary for the Colonies. Evans's discovery further fuelled Oxley's belief that there must be an inland sea, as so many rivers seemed to flow in a westward direction. Over the ensuing decades, Australian exploration was dominated by the belief that the continent harboured a large inland sea.
1920 - The Panama Canal, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Caribbean sea, is formally dedicated, six years after it was unofficially opened.
The Panama Canal is a ship canal about 82km in length, linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via the Caribbean Sea through central America. A canal through Nicaragua was initially preferred by the US, but the Panama site was chosen after a French company acquired the rights to the canal from another bankrupted French company. An American representative of the French company, William Nelson Cromwell, persuaded the United States to take up the Panama route. The canal was ultimately built by the United States between 1904 and 1914 on territory leased from Panama.
The canal saves a total of about 12,500 km on a trip from New York to San Francisco by sea. US President Woodrow Wilson officially opened the Panama Canal on 12 July 1920. However, traffic had been using the canal since its unofficial opening on 15 August 1914, when Canal cement boat Ancon, piloted by Captain John A Constantine, the Canal's first pilot, made the first official transit.
Panama took over control of the Panama Canal on 31 December 1999.
1937 - American actor and comedian Bill Cosby is born.
African-American actor and comedian, Bill Cosby, was born William Henry Cosby Jr on 12 July 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite his mother being a hard-working housekeeper and his father serving as a mess steward with the US Navy, financial difficulties forced the family to sell their house and move to a housing project in the Germantown district of North Philadelphia. Although the neighborhood was rough, Cosby's mother provided a firm moral ground for her sons by reading to them from the Bible and from authors such as Mark Twain. Cosby also enjoyed the serial radio programs of the time, such as The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Lights Out, and the humour of Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Fred Allen, and George Burns with Gracie Allen.
A veteran stand-up performer, Cosby gained his start working clubs and making comedy albums. He then moved into television with a ground-breaking role in the 1960s action show I Spy, with actor Robert Culp. I Spy was an adventure show that catered to cold-war America's appetite for James Bond-style espionage fantasies. Despite it starring an African-American in times when the concept of racial equality was considered by few, the show succeeded, largely in part to Cosby's skill and convincing performance. Following the show's debut in 1965, Cosby was honoured with an Emmy award for outstanding actor in a dramatic series, and again in the next two consecutive years.
In 1969 Cosby starred in his own situation comedy series, The Bill Cosby Show. He also created the humorous educational cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. The following decade, Cosby produced and starred in his own TV sitcom, 'The Cosby Show', which ran from 1984 to 1992. The Cosby Show was unique for being the first sitcom based around a successful, middle-class African-American family.
Cosby and his wife have four daughters: their only son, Ennis, was killed whilst changing a tyre in 1997, the victim of a murder-robbery.
1971 - The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time.
The Australian Aboriginal flag is dominated by a yellow sun in the centre, red in the lower half and black in the upper half. It was first flown at Victoria Square, Adelaide on National Aborigines' Day, 12 July 1971.
The flag was created by Aboriginal activist and artist Harold Thomas. Thomas chose the red ochre to represent the red soil of Australia, and the black to represent the Aboriginal people of Australia and the pride of being black in Australia. The yellow sun was chosen for its commonality as a colour used in aboriginal art, but also because Thomas regarded it as a symbol for all people.
On 14 July 1995, together with the Torres Strait Islander Flag, the Aboriginal flag was proclaimed by the Australian government as one of the "Flags of Australia" under Section 5 of the Flags Act 1953.
Cheers - John
Gday...
1940 - 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and Shakespearean actor Patrick Stewart is born.
Patrick Stewart is best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and the ensuing Star Trek films "Generations", "First Contact" and "Insurrection". He was born in Mirfield, Yorkshire, England on 13 July 1940. His first appearance on stage was at age 9 in a local outdoor history pageant as Tom of Towngate. Whilst studying drama at secondary school, Stewart noted that a defining moment in his life was when, after reading Shylock aloud in front of his class, his teacher told him, "Stewart, you're good at this. You should do it for a living."
Much of Stewart's later training was in classical theatre, with the Old Vic Company, the Manchester Library Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. More recently, he has appeared in TV movies such as Moby Dick (1998) and A Christmas Carol (1999), and in feature films such as Conspiracy Theory (1997, with Mel Gibson) and as Professor Xavier in the X-Men Franchise.
Apart from his classically-trained vocal mannerisms being one of his strongest features, Stewart is also recognisable by his baldness: he lost most of his hair by age 19, due to hereditary alopecia. Referring to his baldness, during an interview with Michael Parkinson, he expressed gratitude for Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry's riposte to a reporter who remarked, "Surely they would have cured baldness by the 24th century," to which Roddenberry replied, "In the 24th Century, they wouldn't care."
1945 - Joseph Benedict Chifley, Australia's fifth wartime Prime Minister, is sworn into office.
At the time that World War II began, Australia's Prime Minister was Robert Menzies. It was Menzies who made the announcement in September 1939 that Australia was at war with Germany. However, party dissension led Menzies to resign as Prime Minister in August 1941. He was succeeded by Arthur Fadden on 29 August 1941 but in the federal election five weeks later, the coalition government lost majority support in the House of Representatives. Thus, John Curtin became Prime Minister on 7 October 1941, announcing in December of that year that Australia was also at war with the Japanese Empire. Curtin suffered a coronary occlusion in November 1944 which led to his hospitalisation for many weeks. Although he resumed office in January 1945, he never fully recovered, and died unexpectedly in The Lodge on 5 July 1945.
Ben Chifley, born Joseph Benedict Chifley in 1885, had won the Bathurst-based seat of Macquarie in the House of Representatives in 1928, and in 1931 he became Minister for Defence, under Scullin. He lost his seat again shortly afterwards when the Scullin government fell, but regained it in 1940, becoming Treasurer in Curtin's government. After Curtin's death, Deputy Prime Minister Frank Forde temporarily acted as Prime Minister. Chifley defeated Forde when the Federal Parliamentary Labor Party elected Ben Chifley as its new leader, to become the new Prime Minister of Australia.
Chifley was sworn into office on 13 July 1945. He effectively implemented necessary post-war economic controls, remaining Prime Minister until his defeat by Robert Menzies and the Liberal Party in 1949. Two years later, Chifley died of a heart attack.
1985 - The Live Aid concert raises in excess of £150 million for famine relief in Africa.
Live Aid was a rock concert held at several venues around the world on 13 July 1985 to raise money to assist the famine-affected people in Africa. The main stadia for the event were Wembley in London, and JFK Stadium, Philadelphia. Some acts performed at other venues such as Sydney and Moscow. It was estimated that 1.5 billion viewers in 100 countries watched the live broadcast, in the largest satellite link-up and TV broadcast to date. It was organised by Boomtown Rats singer Bob Geldof, and conceived as a follow-up to the release in the previous December of the hit single "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Originally, it was envisaged that the concert would raise £1 million but when the money was ultimately added up, the concert had raised more than £150 million.
1994 - 41 refugees, including 23 children, are killed by agents of the Cuban government.
In the early hours of 13 July 1994, a group of 72 refugees sought to flee the communist regime of Cuba in a tugboat named "13 de Marzo". When the small craft was just over ten kilometres from the Cuban coast, it was intercepted by the Cuban Coast guard. The government boats first attacked the tugboat repeatedly, causing it to split in two. Equipped with water tanks and hoses, they then positioned themselves on opposite sides of the tugboat and proceeded to direct powerful streams of water from pressured hoses onto the passengers. As the tugboat sank, the boats then circled the tug at high speed, creating a whirlpool which swallowed many of those who had not been drowned in the initial spraying attack. In all, 41 people were killed, including 23 children.
When confronted with accusations of ordering the massacre, Cuban dictator President Fidel Castro denied tha coast guard had anything to do with the attack, claiming they arrived at the scene after the event. On 16 October 1996 the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights concluded that the Cuban government was responsible for the massacre and for the subsequent trauma endured by relatives of the victims. However, the Cuban government has denied closure for the relatives of the victims, by refusing to allow recovery of the bodies for proper burial. Castro himself remains unrepentant of his actions.
1995 - The spacecraft 'Galileo' releases a probe to penetrate and take measurements of Jupiter's atmosphere.
Galileo was an unmanned spacecraft designed to study Jupiter and its moons. On 13 July 1995, the Galileo Orbiter and the probe separated for the latter to penetrate Jupiter's atmosphere. Its scientific objectives included measuring Jupiter's temperature, chemical composition and its atmospheric pressure structure. The probe entered Jupiter's atmosphere on 7 December 1995. In order to collect data, it was required to drop its protective shield during its 57 minute descent, and was subsequently crushed by the density of the core. However, the probe collected valuable data in that time, which it relayed back to the Orbiter.
Cheers - John
Gday...
[Out of range on 14 Jul so you have it a day early
)
1770 - The first European sighting of a kangaroo is recorded.
The kangaroo is a native Australian marsupial, of which there are over 60 species. The kangaroo family includes wallabies, tree kangaroos, wallaroos, pademelons, rat-kangaroos and the quokka, all of which are classified as macropods. Because the larger species - the Red and Grey Kangaroos - are plentiful throughout the continent, the kangaroo has long been regarded as symbolic of Australia.
Even though James Cook was not the first European to discover Australia, he and his crew were the first known Europeans to sight the kangaroo. As Cook sailed up the east coast of the continent, mapping the coastline, his ship, the "Endeavour" struck the Great Barrier Reef and nearly sank. The Endeavour was eventually brought for repairs into the harbour formed by the Endeavour River. Landing on 10 June 1770, Cook and his crew spent almost two months repairing the ship, allowing botanist Sir Joseph Banks ample time to study the flora and fauna of the area.
On 14 July 1770, a crewman shot a strange looking, unknown animal. The creature was brought back to the camp site for examination, and the skin eventually taken back to England. The word "kangaroo" is believed to have come from the Aboriginal word gangurru, a Guugu Yimidhirr word referring to the Grey Kangaroo. The word was recorded by Sir Joseph Banks as "kangaru" or "kanguroo" (sources vary). It is not true that the word means "I don't understand"; this is a popular myth often applied to various other Aboriginal-based Australian words.
1814 - The book in which Matthew Flinders proposes the name of Terra Australis for the southern continent, is published.
Matthew Flinders was an English sea explorer known for his exploration around Australia. He added significantly to the knowledge of the coastline, and his meticulous observations and calculations enabled him to produce accurate maps. As well as being the first to circumnavigate Australia, Flinders, together with Bass, was the first to prove that Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, was an island and not connected to the mainland.
Australia was previously named New Holland by the Dutch sea explorers, and after James Cook claimed the continent for England in 1770, the entire eastern half became known as New South Wales. Some years after his exploration, Flinders wrote an account of his voyages just after his return to England. "A Voyage to Terra Australis" was published on 18 July 1814, ironically just one day before Flinders died. It was in this account that Flinders proposed the name "Terra Australis" be adopted for the southern continent. This became "Australia", the name officially adopted in 1824.
1850 - The first public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration is staged at Apalachicola, Florida, USA, by Dr John Gorrie.
Dr John Gorrie was a physician, scientist, inventor, and humanitarian who lived in the first half of the nineteenth century. He experimented with reducing the fever of patients by cooling sickrooms, using ice suspended from the ceiling in a basin. The problem was that the ice had to be shipped in from the northern lakes of North America. In 1945, Gorrie's interests turned more to the artificial production of ice.
The first public demonstration of ice made by refrigeration in the US occurred during a dinner at the Mansion House, Apalachicola, Florida, on 14 July 1850. Gorrie produced blocks of ice the size of bricks. He installed his system in the U.S. Marine Hospital in Apalachicola. He obtained the first mechanical freezer patent on 6 May 1851.
1900 - Australia's first Governor-General is appointed.
Prior to 1901, Australia was made up of six self-governing colonies; New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. These colonies were ultimately under British rule from the time the First Fleet landed, in 1788, until 1901. Numerous politicians and influential Australians through the years had pushed for federation of the colonies, and self-government. After not being accepted by the states the first time, the amended Commonwealth Constitution was given Royal Assent on 9 July 1900.
The office of Governor-General was created to be the representative of Britain's ruling monarch, who remained Australia's head of state. The functions and roles of the Governor-General include appointing ministers and judges, dissolving Parliament, giving Royal Assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and bestowing honours. These actions are implemented under the authority of the Australian Constitution and carried out in the name of the ruling monarch.
Australia's first Governor-General was appointed on 14 July 1900. He was the previous Victorian Governor, John Adrian Louis Hope, the 7th Earl of Hopetoun. On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. Australia's first Governor-General, John Hope, made the proclamation at Centennial Park in Sydney. Hope's first act was to appoint the inaugural Prime Minister, Edmund Barton.
1958 - King Faisal of Iraq, members of his family and his prime minister are assassinated in a coup by army officers which results in Iraq becoming a republic.
Faisal II, born on 2 May 1935, was the last king of Iraq, ruling from 1939 to 1958. Faisal's father was the second king of Iraq, Ghazi. Ghazi was killed in a car accident when Faisal was three, so his uncle 'Abd al-Ilah ruled as regent until Faisal came of age in 1953. As a teen, Faisal attended Harrow School in the United Kingdom, together with his cousin King Hussein of Jordan. The two boys were close, and reportedly planned even then to merge their two realms to counter what they considered the threat of militant pan-Arab nationalism.
On 1 February 1958 Syria and Egypt joined to form the United Arab Republic. This prompted the Iraqi and Jordanian kingdoms to strengthen their position by establishing a similar bloc. Two weeks later, on February 14, it was signed into existence as the Arab Federation of Iraq and Jordan.
In mid-1958, King Hussein of Jordan requested Iraqi military assistance in his country. The movement of troops provided the opportunity for a group of army officers, under the leadership of officer Abdul Karim Qassim, to stage a coup in Iraq. Although Faisal and other members of his family surrendered, Faisal and his uncle were killed by an army officer as they departed the palace, on 14 July 1958. This action overthrew the monarchy and ultimately resulted in Iraq becoming a republic.
1965 - The spacecraft 'Mariner 4' collects the first close-up photographs of another planet as it passes by Mars.
Between 1962 and 1973, Nasa designed and built 10 spacecraft named Mariner for the purpose of visiting Venus, Mars and Mercury for the first time. Mariner 3 was launched on 5 November 1964, but technical problems prevented it reaching Mars. Mariner 4 was launched three weeks later, on 28 November 1964, and flew past Mars on 14 July 1965, 215 million kilometres away from earth and 16,900 kilometres from Mars.
The first close-up photograph of Mars consisted of 8.3 dots per second of varying degrees of darkness. The transmission lasted for 8.5 hours and depicted the regions on Mars known as Cebrenia, Arcadia, and Amazonis. The Mariner 4 also carried instruments for studying cosmic dust, solar plasma, radiation, cosmic rays and magnetic fields.
1967 - 4 digit post codes are introduced in Australia to help postal workers sort mail more efficiently.
In the early years of settlement in Australia, there was no official postal service. Early letters and packages were carried out by boat along the Parramatta River, and sending letters was a luxury largely restricted to officers and their families. After the arrival of Governor Lachlan Macquarie, Australia's first postmaster was appointed, and the first official post office was opened. Over the next ninety years, each of the colonies of Australia instituted its own postal service. After Federation, Australia's various post and communication services were all centralised under the name of the Postmaster-General's Department (PMG) which became effective in March 1901. The PMG controlled all postal services in Australia, and later also controlled the telecommunications services.
Postal services in Australia underwent a range of improvements as new technology was introduced. In 1930, in a world-first innovation, mechanical mail handling was introduced at the Sydney Mail Exchange. By 1962, the first automatic postal station had been installed in Melbourne. A system needed to be implemented that would assist with the introduction of machines for sorting letters. On 14 July 1967, 4 digit numeric postcodes were introduced for every suburb and mail delivery area in Australia. At the same time, an extensive $6 million mail exchange opened in Sydney, with the new electronic equipment attracting interest from around the world. By the following year, postcodes were being used on 75% of mail in Australia.
2001 - British tourist Peter Falconio goes missing, presumed murdered, in the Australian outback.
Peter Falconio and his girlfriend Joanne Lees were on a backpacking holiday in Australia when Falconio disappeared, on 14 July 2001. Falconio, then 28, was driving at night in a Volkswagen Campervan along an isolated stretch of the Stuart highway, north of Alice Springs. The tourists were flagged down by a man in a covered utility, who said he had seen sparks coming from the vans exhaust. When Falconio walked to the rear of the vehicle with the other motorist, Lees heard a gunshot. The man then returned without Falconio, tied Lees with electrical cabling and tape, and forced her into his own vehicle. Somehow, Lees managed to escape, fleeing into the bushland and hiding, whilst the gunman and his dog searched for her.
After some time, the gunman departed, and Lees then staggered out onto the road to wave down a passing truck, escaping to safety at Barrow Creek. No trace of Falconio was ever found, although a large amount of his blood was found where the VW had been abandoned. In 2004, 46-year-old Bradley Murdoch was charged with the murder of Falconio, and the unlawful assault and deprivation of liberty of Joanne Lees.
Cheers - John
1940......I am a great fan of the original Star Trek and since TV, the even better movies. Beam me up Scotty.
From 14th edition :)
1850....Ice, something we don't think much about except for keeping our happy hour drinks cold.
All editions :)
Keep up the great work Rocky, very edumacational indeedy.
Gday...
[OOPS two days without internet ... heres yesterdays]
1099 - Christian soldiers enter Jerusalem after a siege during the First Crusade, and murder almost every inhabitant of the city.
The First Crusade was launched in 1095 by Pope Urban II to regain control of the city of Jerusalem and the Holy Land from Muslims, and to help the Byzantine Empire fight the Seljuk Turks. (The term "Crusader" was not used until the twelfth century.) It was a long and difficult seige before Christians entered the city and took the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.
The Christians themselves suffered many casualties, due to the lack of food and water around Jerusalem. Morale improved when a priest, Peter Desiderius, claimed to have had divine vision instructing them to fast and then march in a barefoot procession around the city walls, after which the city would fall in nine days. This was reminiscent of the Biblical example of Joshua at the siege of Jericho. On 8 July 1099, the Christian army performed the procession. Meanwhile, siege engines were constructed and seven days later, on 15 July 1099, the army broke down sections of the walls and entered the city. Over the next day, the army massacred almost everyone in the city - Muslims, Jews, and even eastern Christians.
1662 - The Royal Society of London is formally created.
The Royal Society is also known as Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge. A voluntary organisation devoted to the advancement of Science, fellowship to the society is by peer election, and is considered a great honour.
The founding meeting for the Royal Society was held on 28 November 1660, at Gresham College in Bishopsgate. It followed a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren, who was Gresham's Professor of Astronomy. Those present included theologian, natural philosopher, chemist, physicistand inventor Robert Boyle, and English clergyman and author John Wilkins. All subsequent meetings, and the concept and design of the society, received endorsement from the restored monarchy of King Charles II.
The Royal Society of London was formally created after the passing of the Great Seal on 15 July 1662. Lord Brouncker was the first President, while Robert Hooke was appointed as Curator of Experiments in November 1662. A second Royal Charter was sealed on 23 April 1663, naming the King as Founder and changing the name to "The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge". Her Majesty The Queen is the current patron, and, since the foundation of the Royal Society, the reigning monarch has always been the patron.
1869 - Margarine is patented in Paris.
In the 1860s Emperor Louis Napoleon III of France offered a prize to the maker of a suitable substitute for butter, for use by the military and the lower classes. The contest was won by French chemist Hippolyte Mège Mouriés. The primary component of the product was tallow, but the formula included a fatty component that, when mixed, had a pearly lustre. Thus, the product was named after the Greek word for pearl - margaritari. The product was patented on 15 July 1869.
1922 - A platypus is displayed for the first time in the United States.
The platypus (Ornithorhynchus anatinus) is a semi-aquatic mammal unique to the Australian continent. It is one of only two monotreme species, that is, egg-laying mammal, in the world. The other monotreme is the echidna, also found in Australia. Upon first being discovered in Australia, scientists were baffled by the unusual creature, and when a pelt was sent back to Britain for scientific examination, it was believed to be a hoax created by sewing a duck's bill onto the skin of a beaver-like animal. The creature laid eggs like a bird, had webbed feet like a frog, a bill like a duck and venom like a snake. Thus, the platypus remained an object of scientific curiosity for many years.
Harry Burrell was a naturalist and wildlife photographer who devoted much of his life to the study of the platypus. He designed an artificial habitat which came to be known as a platypussary, which enabled the transportation of five platypuses to a New York Zoo in 1922. The platypuses were placed on display for the first time in the USA on 15 July 1922.
1964 - Rupert Murdoch unveils 'The Australian' newspaper in Sydney.
In the early days of the New South Wales colony, a newspaper called "The Australian" was established. Co-published by explorer William Wentworth, who was one of three explorers to make the first crossing of the Blue Mountains in 1813, it was only a colonial newspaper, and not national.
Rupert Murdoch's 'The Australian' newspaper, published by News Corp Australia, was Australia's first national daily newspaper. The front page of the paper, published on 15 July 1964, contained a promise to deliver "the impartial information and the independent thinking that are essential to the further advance of our country." Initially, the headquarters for 'The Australian' were in the nation's capital, Canberra, but today its head office is in Sydney.
Cheers - John
Gday...
1825 - The western border of New South Wales is extended to offset French and Dutch interests in Australia's north coast.
James Cook is remembered for being the first explorer to recognise the potential of Australia. In August 1770, he claimed the part of the continent that had previously been known as "New Holland" for Great Britain, renaming the eastern half as "New South Wales". He also took possession of the whole eastern coast, from latitude 38 degrees S to this place, latitude 10.5 degrees S, in right of His Majesty King George the Third. This essentially included just the eastern parts of what is now New South Wales, Victoria and Queensland.
The authorities in Great Britain felt it was necessary to establish a definite western boundary. This was largely because the Dutch had first landed on the continent and had a strong presence to the north, while the Portuguese still held strong interests in Timor. When Captain Arthur Phillip arrived in Port Jackson with First Fleet of convicts on 26 January 1788, he raised the British flag and claimed the entire eastern part of the Australian continent, including Van Diemens Land. As Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief of New South Wales, Phillip was required to take formal possession on behalf of the British Crown, of territory ... extending from the Northern Cape or extremity of the coast called Cape York, in the latitude of ten degrees thirty-seven minutes south, to the southern extremity of the said territory of New South Wales or South Cape, in the latitude of forty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes south and of all the country inland westward as far as the one hundred and thirty-fifth degree of east longitude reckoning from the meridian of Greenwich, including all the islands adjacent in the Pacific Ocean within the latitudes aforesaid of ten degrees thirty-seven minutes south and forty-three degrees thirty-nine minutes south.
The western boundary had been established at 135 degrees E as this was not considered too close to Timor, and should appease Portugal, then Britains oldest ally. However, the French continued to hover off the coast, sending numerous scientific and exploratory expeditions. In 1824, the British trading post of Fort Dundas on Melville Island was established, in an attempt to offset French or Dutch plans to colonise any part of the northern coast. However, Fort Dundas lay just outside the western boundary. Thus, Governor Ralph Darling, following the Commission outlined in Letters Patent issued on 16 July 1825, extended the western boundary of New South Wales to 129 degrees E.
Formal possession of the remaining western section was undertaken when Captain Charles Fremantle took formal possession in 1829 of that part of New Holland not included in the Colony of New South Wales.
1914 - Australia's first interstate air mail departs Melbourne.
The first domestic airmail service in Australia departed from Melbourne on 16 July 1914. The airmail was flown from Melbourne to Sydney by French aviator Maurice Guillaux. The first airmail from overseas arrived in Darwin from England in a war-surplus Vickers Vimy bomber in 1919 piloted by a WW1 Ace, Ross Smith and his brother Keith.
It was another twelve years before the first official overseas air mail service from Australia commenced. The first official air mail flight from Australia to England took place in 1931 and consisted of 25 bags, weighing a total of about 300 kilograms. The first aircraft to carry the mail overseas was supposed to have been an Imperial Airways flight, but it was forced to make an emergency landing on Timor. Thus, aviator Charles Kingsford Smith was called in to fly from Darwin to Burma in 'The Southern Cross' in order to meet up with the Imperial Airways craft which then carried the mail to England.
1914 - The original Man From Snowy River, on whom Banjo Patersons ballad was based, is buried.
The Man From Snowy River is a bush ballad by Australian poet and writer A B Banjo Paterson. 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. Arguably, two of his best known poems are "The Man From Snowy River and Waltzing Matilda.
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. Like many of Patersons ballads, it paints a rich picture of the countryside, peppered with unique Australian characters. 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 would be developed in The Man From Snowy River.
Riley lived a wild and exciting life as a stockman until he was in his seventies. In July 1914, his mates in Corryong received the news that Riley was seriously ill so, taking a stretcher, they attempted to carry him from his hut back to Corryong. Reaching Surveyor's Creek Junction, the group sheltered overnight in a deserted mining hut, but during the night, Riley died. He was buried in Corryong Cemetery on 16 July 1914.
1942 - Over 13,000 French Jews are rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp outside Paris.
Vichy France, or the Vichy regime was the French government of 1940-1944 during the Nazi Germany occupation of World War II, based at and named after the town of Vichy. Vichy France was established after France surrendered to Germany in 1940, and took its name from the government's capital in Vichy, southeast of Paris near Clermont-Ferrand. While officially neutral in the war, it was essentially a Nazi puppet state that collaborated with the Nazis, including with the Nazis' racial policies.
On 3 October 1940 the first anti-Semitic laws were passed by the Vichy government which excluded Jews from public life. French Jews began to be deported in smaller numbers to Auschwitz on 7 March 1942. However, the impact of the WWII Holocaust hit in earnest amongst the French on 16 July 1942, when over 13,000 Parisian Jews were rounded up and sent to Drancy Internment Camp located outside Paris. The French police were acting under the orders of the Germans who at that stage were occupying southwest France. During the course of the war, approximately 74,000 French Jews, including 11,000 children, were transported from Drancy to Auschwitz, Majdanek and Sobibor.
1969 - The Apollo 11 is launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, the first mission to successfully land a man on the moon.
The Apollo 11 was the fifth manned mission in the Apollo program, the third human voyage to the moon and the first attempt to land man on the moon. The launch occurred at 1432 BST (1332 GMT) on 16 July 1969, and twelve minutes later Apollo 11 went into orbit around the Earth.
The crew consisted of astronauts Neil Armstrong, Michael Collins and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin. All three had previous experience flying in space during the Gemini manned space missions. The primary purpose of the mission was to fulfil President John F Kennedy's goal of "landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the Earth" by the end of the 1960s. Man first set foot on the moon five days later, on 21 July 1969.
1999 - John F Kennedy Jr, son of assassinated president John F Kennedy, is killed in an aircraft accident.
John Kennedy Jr was born John Bouvier Kennedy on 25 November 1960, less than a month after his father was elected President. John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassinated three days before John Jr turned three, and the poignant image of the little boy saluting his father's coffin captured the heartbreak of the president's murder with a powerful image.
John Jr married Carolyn Bessette in 1996. The couple, together with Carolyn's sister Lauren, was killed on 16 July 1999 when the aircraft John Jr was piloting crashed in the sea whilst flying from Essex County Airport in Fairfield, New Jersey, to Martha's Vineyard. The subsequent investigation into the crash determined that no mechanical malfunction was involved. The report concluded that the probable cause of the accident was "the pilot's failure to maintain control of the airplane during a descent over water at night, which was a result of spatial disorientation. Factors in the accident were haze, and the dark night."
Cheers - John
16th......1969.....Remember that day well Rocky. The same for what happened not long after.
1999....That family sure did have their share of tragedy.
Gday...
1674 - Preacher and hymn writer, Isaac Watts, is born.
"When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of glory died,
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride."
Thus begins one of Christianity's greatest hymns, which, though written in the eighteenth century, is as pertinent now as it was 300 years ago. The writer of this hymn, Isaac Watts, was born in Southampton, England, on 17 July 1674. Watts did not just believe his faith: he lived it. He refused to accept funds for his education if it meant conforming to the man-made rules and regulations of the Church of England. His own father had twice been imprisoned for refusing to conform to that church's beliefs. Watts worked towards his education with no external help, and became a preacher. He gave his first sermon on his birthday, 17 July 1698, at Mark Lane in London. In 1707, Watts published his "Hymns and Spiritual Songs" which included "Joy to the World." These hymns are Watts' main legacy to Christendom.
1799 - Matthew Flinders first sights and names Red Cliff Point, now Redcliffe, in Queensland.
The city of Redcliffe is so named for its red cliff faces. The first known European to visit the area was Matthew Flinders who, on 17 July 1799, landed and named Red Cliff Point. The area was first recommended by Captain John Oxley as the site for a new convict settlement. In 1823, he set out to explore the Moreton Bay area, and it was there that he came across the stranded ticket-of-leave timber-cutter, Thomas Pamphlett, who together with his companion Finnegan had been living with the aborigines for seven months, after being shipwrecked off Moreton Island.
Oxley and Settlement Commandant Lieutenant Miller, together with a crew and 29 convicts, sailed on the 'Amity' from Sydney and arrived at Redcliffe in September 1824 to found the new colony. The settlement was established at Humpybong, but abandoned less than a year later when the main settlement was moved 30km away, to the Brisbane River. The name "Humpybong" was given by the local aborigines to describe the "dead huts" left behind, "humpy" being huts, and "bong" meaning "dead", or "lifeless". The name is still used for one of the regions on the Redcliffe Peninsula today.
1900 - Sydney completes its Bubonic Plague Cleansing Operations.
Through the centuries, Bubonic Plague has been one of the most-feared scourges of countries around the world. Australia, too, suffered a severe outbreak in the early part of the 20th century. It began in January 1900 when 33-year-old Arthur Payne showed symptoms of Bubonic plague as a result of coming into contact with the disease at Central Wharf where he worked as a carter. Within eight months, 303 people had contracted the plague, and 103 of them had died.
Cleansing operations began in Sydney on 24 March. Extensive washing, liming, disinfecting and burning of property was undertaken, while buildings classified as slums were demolished in an attempt to rid the city of the rats spreading the disease. More than 44 000 rats were burned by rat-catchers. Wharves and docks were also cleared of silt, debris and sewerage.
The Cleansing Operations finished on 17 July 1900. However, ships continued to bring the disease to Australia, and between 1900 and 1925, there were twelve major outbreaks of Bubonic plague, with Sydney bearing the brunt of the disease. In all, 1371 cases were reported, along with 535 deaths certainly far fewer than the deaths reported in some countries.
1918 - Czar Nicholas II of Russia, his wife, children and several servants are executed during the Russian Revolution.
Czar Nicholas II, full name Nikolai Alexandrovich Romanov, was the last crowned Emperor of Russia. He ruled from 1894 until he was forced to abdicate in 1917 amidst civil war. A year later, on 17 July 1918, he and his wife, together with their five children, the family doctor and three attendants, were taken to the cellar of a house in Yekatarinburg. They were told to line up for a family portrait, but instead a detachment of Bolsheviks led by Yakov Yurovsky burst in and began firing, killing the family and servants.
Attempts were made to hide the evidence of the bodies, disposing of them down a mine-shaft. As rumours of what had happened began to surface, Yurovsky removed the bodies and buried most of them in a sealed and concealed pit. It was not until the 1970s that geologists found some of the remains, and the 1990s that bodies of the Romanovs were located, exhumed, and formally identified.
1976 - 25 African countries boycott the opening ceremony of the Olympic games in Montreal.
On 17 July 1976, at the opening ceremony of the Montreal Olympics, 25 African countries withdrew their teams. The boycott was due to long-standing tensions over South Africa's refusal to condemn the policy of apartheid. South Africa had been banned from the Olympics since 1964, but the boycotting countries protested at New Zealand's continued sporting links with South Africa. The International Olympic Committee refused to ban New Zealand, whose rugby team was touring South Africa at the time, so the boycotting nations took it upon themselves to make a stand.
1998 - The International Criminal Court is established.
The International Criminal Court is an international court that meets in The Hague, Netherlands. It was established as a permanent court to preside over matters of crimes of serious concern to the international community such as genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of aggression.
The concept of an international tribunal was proposed by the Commission of Responsibilities during the Paris Peace Conference in 1919, following World War 1, although the notion was first mooted at the Hague Peace Conference of 1907. The idea of a permanent international court to deal with atrocities was raised again on various occasions, and gained further impetus after the United Nations was established. The Cold War hindered further development, despite two statutes being drafted by the International Law Commission (ILC) at the request of the UN General Assembly. However, the need for an international court became more pressing as stories of atrocities committed in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda emerged in the 1990s.
The founding treaty of the ICC is the Rome Statute. On 17 July 1998, 120 States representing all regions of the globe adopted the Rome Statute. The Rome Statute took effect in 2002, after the required number of 60 States ratified it. Although the ICC is independent of the UN, the two bodies signed an agreement governing their institutional relationship on 4 October 2004.
Cheers - John
Gday...
64 - The Great Fire of Rome is started, ultimately destroying two-thirds of the city.
The Great Fire of Rome broke out on 18 July AD 64 in the merchant district of the city, near the Circus Maximus, Rome's huge chariot stadium. Because of the strong summer winds, the fire quickly spread. It burned for six days and seven nights, then reignited and burned for another three days. In that time, the fire destroyed two-thirds of the city, including the 800-year-old Temple of Jupiter Stator and the Atrium Vestae, the hearth of the Vestal Virgins.
The Emperor Nero was blamed for his inaction, and there were even suggestions that he may have started it himself in order to bypass the senate and rebuild Rome to his liking. Evidence to support this theory includes the fact that the Domus Aurea, Nero's majestic series of villas and pavilions set upon a landscaped park and a man-made lake, was built in the wake of the fire. To deflect attention away from himself, Nero used the Christians as scapegoats. Thus began the earliest persecutions of Christians in Rome, action which included feeding them to the lions. The city was rebuilt after the fire, greater and more spectacular than before.
1873 - Explorer William Gosse sights and names Ayers Rock in an accidental discovery after being forced to take a more southerly route due to lack of water.
Uluru/Ayers Rock, in central Australia, is the second largest monolith in the world, second only to Mt Augustus which is also in Australia. Located in Kata Tjuta National Park 450 km southwest of Alice Springs, Ayers Rock was given its European name to commemorate the former Premier of South Australia, Sir Henry Ayers. With a circumference of just over 9km, and rising 349 metres above the surrounding plain, Uluru/Ayers Rock is a striking landform.
Explorer William Gosse, of the South Australian Survey Department, became the first European explorer to see Ayers Rock. His expedition into the central interior departed Alice Springs on 23 April 1873, heading in a northwesterly direction. Gosse discovered the rock (now known by its native name of Uluru) by accident during an expedition through Australia's interior. The need to find water for his camels forced him to take a more southerly course than he had originally planned. It was on 18 July 1873 that he sighted Ayers Rock, recording that, "This rock is certainly the most wonderful natural feature I have ever seen".
1878 - The foundation stone for South Australia's grand Vice-Regal Summer Residence, Marble Hill, is laid.
Marble Hill was the grand summer residence of the Governor of South Australia. Situated in the bushland of the Adelaide Hills, it was an ideal location to catch any summer breezes, whilst it also held commanding views of the surrounding countryside.
The 1870s was a time of economic boom for South Australia. When William Jervois became Governor in 1877, he commissioned the construction of a grander residence than the country retreat of Government Farm at Belair. Jervois supervised the architecture and selected the site. The first stone for the Marble Hill residence was laid on 18 July 1878, and the building was completed by late 1879. The Vice-Regal Summer Residence, as it was known, was designed in Victorian Gothic Revival style and adapted for Australian conditions with the addition of spacious verandahs on three sides which shielded the interior from the intense northern sun. Constructed from locally quarried sandstone, its 26 rooms included a drawing room, a morning room, a dining room and a grand staircase of kauri pine and blackwood. Because the building was a summer residence only, it did not feature the ballroom and grand dining room typical of the Governor's official residence.
Between 1880 and 1955, Marble Hill was used by each of the Governors, as well as other dignitaries such as King George V and Queen Mary (as Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York) who were guests in 1901. The grand building was destroyed by what came to be known as the Black Sunday bushfire of 2 January 1955.
1897 - The final victims of Australia's exploration era, Charles Wells and George Jones, are laid to rest in Adelaide.
Very little of Australia was left unexplored by the late 1800s, but the Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia remained an unconquered frontier. In 1896, Albert Calvert, a London-based gold-mining engineer with interests in Western Australia, sponsored an expedition to fill in the unexplored blanks on the map and hopefully find some likely gold-bearing country into the bargain. The Royal Geographical Society of South Australia was asked to organise the Calvert Scientific Exploring Expedition, financed by Calvert. The expedition's leader was surveyor Lawrence Wells, and accompanying him was surveyor Charles Wells, his cousin, an Adelaide mineralogist by the name of George Jones, a cook and a camel driver.
In October 1896, the party camped at a small permanent waterhole south-east of Lake George, Western Australia, which they named Separation Well. Here, on 11 October 1896, Lawrence Wells made the fateful decision to split the party into two groups. Charles Wells and Jones set off on a bearing of 290 degrees to survey lands for 144 kilometres north-west, before turning north-north-east to rejoin the main party at Joanna Spring, located and mapped by explorer Warburton in 1873. When Lawrence Wells's party reached Joanna Spring on 29 October, there was no sign of the other party. Unable to even locate the spring, the leader made for the Fitzroy River, where he raised the alarm regarding the missing explorers via the Fitzroy Crossing Telegraph Station.
Four search parties were dispatched, covering over five thousand kilometres, with no success. Aborigines had found the missing explorers and plundered the bodies of all clothing and other items: when some of these items were located in the Aborigines' possession, the Aborigines led the searchers to where the bodies lay. On 27 May 1897 the bodies of Wells and Jones were recovered by the white search party, perfectly preserved by the intense heat, just 22km from Joanna Spring. The mummified bodies were sewn in sheets and taken to Derby, where they were shipped to Adelaide and given a State funeral on 18 July 1897.
1918 - Nelson Mandela, anti-apartheid campaigner and the first democratically-elected President of South Africa, is born.
Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born on 18 July 1918. Rolihlahla Mandela was seven years old when he became the first member of his family to attend school: it was there that he was given the English name "Nelson" by a Methodist teacher.
In his university days, Mandela became a political activist against the white minority government's denial of political, social, and economic rights to South Africa's black majority. He became a prominent anti-apartheid activist of the country, and was involved in underground resistance activities. Although interred in jail from 1962 to 1990 for his resistance activities, including sabotage, Mandela continued to fight for the rights of the South African blacks. He was eventually freed, thanks to sustained campaigning by the African National Congress, and subsequent international pressure. He and State President F.W. de Klerk shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 1993. Mandela was elected to the Presidency of South Africa in 1994. He retired in 1999, and died in 2013.
1936 - The first Wienermobile, a giant hotdog on wheels, rolls out of the General Body Company in Chicago.
The Wienermobile is essentially an all-metal 4m long hotdog on wheels. The first Wienermobile was built for $5000. Carl G. Mayer, nephew of the lunchmeat tycoon Oscar Mayer, created the Wienermobile to transport the company's first spokesperson, "Little Oscar", through the streets of Chicago, Illinois, promoting Oscar Meyer's "German Style Wieners" and handing out "Wienerwhistle" toys to children.
By 1988, ten new Wienermobiles joined the fleet. These new vehicles were fibreglass and 7m in length. Manufactured by the Stevens Automotive Corporation of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, they were built on converted 1988 Chevrolet van chassis powered by V-6 engines. The Wienermobile continues to be upgraded and developed each year.
1969 - Senator Edward Kennedy, brother to assassinated President John F Kennedy, crashes his car off the bridge at Chappaquiddick Island, killing passenger Mary Jo Kopechne.
Edward Kennedy was born on 22 February 1922, the youngest of the nine Kennedy children. He was being considered as a likely candidate for presidency in the 1972 elections, until the accident that took the life of Mary Jo Kopechne.
Kopechne was a former campaign worker for Kennedy's brother, Robert F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1968 whilst campaigning for the Presidency. On 18 July 1969, Robert Kennedy and Kopechne had been attending a party on Chappaquiddick Island, Massachusetts, which was intended to be a reunion of those who had worked on his brother Robert's 1968 presidential campaign. After the two left the party together, the Senator drove his car off the Dike Bridge into tide-swept Poucha Pond. The car overturned and Kopechne drowned. Because Kennedy did not report the accident until the following day, there were allegations of attempted coverup. Kennedy later pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident. The accident caused a scandal that damaged his reputation, but had a limited effect on his political career.
Cheers - John
1936......I saw a similar float on the telly while surfing a few moons back, Rocky, I think the show was called the G&L Mardi Gras from Sydney.
1969......I read one of Deryn Hinch's books a few moons back and he went into detail about all that, very interesting indeed. It was one of those "Tragedies" I mentioned a couple of days ago Rocky.
Gday...
1799 - The Rosetta Stone is discovered, holding the key to unlock the secrets of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
The Rosetta Stone is a dark grey-pinkish stone of granite, although it was originally thought to have been basalt. It was discovered on 19 July 1799 by French Captain Pierre-François Bouchard during Napoleon Bonaparte's campaign in Egypt. The irregularly shaped stone inscribed with ancient writing was found near the town of Rosetta, approximately 60km north of Alexandria.
The stone contained fragments of passages written in three different scripts: Greek, Egyptian hieroglyphics and Demotic Egyptian. The Greek passage stated that all three scripts were identical in meaning. Because Greek was well known, the stone was the key to deciphering the hieroglyphs, a language that had been considered dead for two thousand years. Twenty five years later, French Egyptologist Jean Francois Champollion successfully deciphered the hieroglyphics, using the Greek as a guide. This enabled further study of Egyptian hieroglyphics which had previously been indecipherable. It was the first time that the world became aware of the depth of the history and culture of ancient Egypt.
1814 - Matthew Flinders, the first explorer to circumnavigate Australia, dies.
Matthew Flinders was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1774. Flinders and George Bass did much sea exploration around Australia, adding to the knowledge of the coastline, and producing accurate maps. As well as being the first to circumnavigate Australia, Flinders, together with Bass, was the first to prove that Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, was an island and not connected to the mainland. Australia was previously known as New Holland, and after Captain Cook claimed the continent for England in 1770, the entire eastern half became known as New South Wales. Flinders was the one who first proposed the name "Terra Australis", which became "Australia", the name adopted in 1824.
Flinders was captured by the French, on the island of Mauritius, in 1803. He was kept prisoner until 1810 on the grounds that he was a spy. He was finally released to return to England, but his health began to fail and he died young, on 19 July 1814. (Some accounts say Flinders died on 15 July 1814.) Before his death he completed a book on his travels called 'A Voyage to Terra Australis', and died on the day that his book was published.
1916 - Australia begins its worst 24 hours in history, with the loss of almost 2000 men in a single night.
The night of 19 - 20 July 1916 is sometimes referred to as Australias worst day in history. This is the day the nation lost almost 2000 men in a single night, during World War I.
The Battle of Fromelles was the first significant battle fought by Australian troops on the Western Front. Begun 19 days after the Battle of the Somme began, the main purpose of the Fromelles was to draw German troops away from being redeployed to the Somme from areas of the Western Front where less fighting was taking place. The main battle commenced with an attack at 6:00pm by troops of the 5th Australian and 61st British Divisions. The Australian troops were to attack from the north, from a point known as the Sugarloaf while the British were to come in from the west. The problem was that the Australian Division was inexperienced, while the British Division were under strength. Although small sections of the German trenches were captured by the 8th and 14th Australian Brigades, the attack lacked the necessary element of surprise to be effective, as it was preceded by seven hours of artillery bombardment. German machine-gunners inflicted heavy damage on the Allied troops and, by 8:00am the following morning, the Battle of Fromelles was all but over, and the troops forced to withdraw.
The Battle of Fromelles was a categorical failure. Insufficient communications, together with misreading of the situation by distant headquarters and lack of local knowledge, resulted in inadequate retrieval and evacuation of the casualties. Many Australian troops who were wounded died because of the delay of several days in arranging a truce so they could be collected. The 5th Australian Division suffered a total of 5,533 casualties, including over 1900 deaths, while the 61st British Division suffered 1,547 casualties, to the Germans 1,000.
1935 - The world's first parking meter is installed in Oklahoma City, USA.
The parking meter was originally invented by Carlton Cole Magee, the head of Oklahoma City's Chamber of Commerce, in response to growing parking congestion. Magee filed for a patent for a "coin controlled parking meter" on 13 May 1935. He then formed the Magee-Hale Park-O-Meter Company to manufacture his invention.
The first parking meter in the world was installed in Oklahoma City, USA, on 19 July 1935. It is estimated that there are now over five million parking meters in the USA. England received its first parking meter some 22 years later, on 10 July 1958. In all, 625 parking meters were installed in England that day.
1941 - The 'V for Victory' campaign is inaugurated by Winston Churchill.
Winston Churchill had been Prime Minister of England for less than a year, during the early stages of World War II, when he inaugurated the 'V for Victory' campaign, on 19 July 1941. The BBC used the opening notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which matched the dot-dot-dot-dash Morse code for the letter V, playing it before news bulletins and in its overseas transmissions. On the radio program that launched the campaign, Churchill announced, "The V sign is the symbol of the unconquerable will of the occupied territories and a portent of the fate awaiting Nazi tyranny. So long as the people continue to refuse all collaboration with the invader it is sure that his cause will perish and that Europe will be liberated."
Cheers - John
1799.....Phew! Thank goodness I read all that Rocky, I thought the key was going to unlock some sort of belt.
1916.....There should be a minutes silence to remember those that lost their life. Wonder why we don't remember this day like other days in battle.
Edit......Well after a few hours I discovered there was a few services around Aus plus OS today to remember the fallen.
-- Edited by Dougwe on Tuesday 19th of July 2016 08:07:08 PM
Gday...
1797 - Polish explorer Strzelecki, who first climbed and named Mt Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mountain, is born.
Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, born 20 July 1797, was a Polish explorer and skilled geologist who emigrated to London following the national uprising against tsarist Russia in 1830. In 1839 he arrived in Australia, where he made influential friends, among them wealthy grazier James MacArthur. MacArthur was keen to explore promising-looking land in Australia's southeastern corner with the view to acquiring more grazing land and establishing a harbour from which to export pastoral products. Interested in the geology of the Great Dividing Range, Strzelecki agreed to accompany MacArthur, and the two departed from Ellerslie Station near Adelong, New South Wales, in February 1840.
A month later, the two men climbed Mt Townsend, believing it to be the highest peak in the Australian Alps. Using his numerous geological instruments, Strzelecki determined that another peak was higher. Whilst not interesting in acquiring land, Strzelecki was interested in the fame that accompanied important discoveries, and he was determined to climb the peak. He did so, on 15 March 1840, and named the mountain after a Polish patriot, Tadeusz Kosciuszko. At the time, Strzelecki determined the height of the mountain to be 6,510 feet (1984m) above sea level, but it is probable that, whilst making the steep and perilous descent during which he fell many times, Strzelecki damaged his instruments. The actual height of Kosciuszko is 7,316 feet, or 2228m.
1851 - Gold discoveries at Mt Alexander spark the goldrush in Victoria.
Gold was discovered in Australia as early as the 1830s, but discoveries were suppressed for fear of sparking off unrest among the convicts. When gold was first officially discovered in Australia in 1851, it was at a time when the government in New South Wales sought to encourage gold finds, to limit the numbers leaving Australia for the Californian goldfields.
The first payable gold in Victoria was at Clunes and Warrandyte by James Esmond at Clunes on 11 June 1851. At almost the same time, gold was also discovered at Anderson's Creek, near Warrandyte, by Melbourne publican Louis Michel. Both Clunes and Warrandyte claim to be the first town in Victoria where gold was found.
While these strikes were significant, the real goldrush began when gold was discovered on 20 July 1851 at Mt Alexander, 60km northeast of Ballarat, and close to the town of Bendigo. The discovery was made by John Worley and Christopher Thomas Peters at Specimen Gully. This was a considerable boost for the colony which had achieved independent government separate from New South Wales just that month. Within a year, tens of thousands of prospectors had arrived at the Mt Alexander goldfields. This was also the first Victorian goldfield to which Chinese miners came in large numbers.
1919 - The first man to summit Mt Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, is born.
Edmund Hillary was born on 20 July 1919 in Tuakau, south of Auckland, New Zealand. Hillary's interest in climbing was sparked at age 16 during a school trip to Mt Ruapehu. Despite not being an athletic teenager, he found that he was physically strong and had greater endurance than many of his fellow climbers.
During World War II, Hillary was a RNZAF navigator. He was part of an unsuccessful New Zealand expedition to climb Everest in 1951 before attempting again in 1953. Hillary became the first explorer to reach the summit of Mt Everest at 11:30am local time on 29 May 1953. He was accompanied by Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, as part of a British expedition led by John Hunt. Hunt and Hillary received knighthoods on their return.
Hillary climbed 10 other peaks in the Himalaya on further visits in 1956, 1960-61 and 1963-65. He also reached the South Pole, as part of the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, on 4 January 1958. He has devoted much of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust which he founded and to which he has given much of his time and energy. Through his efforts he has succeeded in building many schools and hospitals in this remote region of the Himalaya. As of 2006 Hillary lives in a quiet retirement at his home in Auckland, New Zealand, although he does appear for occasional official engagements. For many years, Hillary was the only living New Zealander to appear on a banknote.
Sir Edmund Hillary died of heart failure at Auckland City Hospital on 11 January 2008. A state funeral was held, attended by thousands.
1944 - Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg attempts to assassinate Hitler.
During World War II, despite numerous military setbacks by 1944, Hitler refused to surrender and negotiate peace with the Allied forces. A group of high-ranking German officers became frustrated by his stubbornness and sought to assassinate the German dictator.
On 20 July 1944, Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg, a German aristocrat and a Reichswehr and Wehrmacht officer, placed a briefcase containing explosives and a timer near Hitler during a briefing at the Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair) near Rastenburg, East Prussia (today Ktrzyn, Poland). Though some at the conference were killed, Hitler was barely injured, being shielded from the blast by a solid oak conference table.
Shortly thereafter, a number of co-conspirators were implicated in the plot. Stauffenberg, who had staged a bogus telephone call to create an excuse to leave the briefing hut, was arrested, tried and condemned later the same day, and executed half an hour after midnight. The rest of the conspirators were tried and hanged or offered the choice to commit suicide.
1969 - Australia's radio telescope at Parkes transmits the first pictures of the Apollo 11 moon walk.
Parkes, in central western New South Wales, was the site of the first radio telescope to be built in Australia. Its completion in 1961 was the result of ten years of of negotiation between CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory staff, the Australian Government and significant American Scientific institutions, Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Affectionately dubbed "The Dish", the telescope comprised a disc some 210 feet (64 m) in diameter, constructed of mesh woven from high-tensile strength steel designed to withstand a range of pressures. The total cost of construction was 800,000 Australian pounds.
NASA first proposed that the Parkes radio telescope be incorporated into its worldwide tracking network in 1966, and in 1968 requested Parkes's involvement in the Apollo 11 mission. On 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The Parkes telescope was crucial in transmitting the first pictures of the Moon landing, although it almost didn't happen. At the time the astronauts were to leave the landing module, the moon was only in the view of the southern hemisphere. However, mission commander Neil Armstrong elected to forgo the astronauts' scheduled six-hour rest period, and make the moon walk earlier, meaning the moon would not yet have risen over Parkes to get clear enough pictures. Fortunately, the astronauts took so long to prepare for the Moon walk that the Moon was just rising over Parkes.
The controllers at Parkes then faced another crisis. One of the reasons Parkes was chosen was that it had the weather conditions most conducive to gaining the best signal: ironically, as the Moon rose over Parkes, wind gusts of 110 km per hour gusts hit the radio telescope, threatening the integrity of the telescope structure as the dish was hammered back against its zenith axis gears. Nonetheless, tracking was able to begin just as the Moon rose into the Parkes radio telescope's field of view. Being a larger telescope, it captured more signal and so produced better pictures. The command centre at Houston switched to the Parkes feed, staying with that transmission for the remainder of the 21.5-hour broadcast.
In this way, the Parkes radio telescope, which still sits in the middle of a sheep paddock, became an integral part of the history of space exploration.
1969 - Astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon.
Apollo 11 was the first attempt to land man on the moon and the fifth manned mission in the Apollo program. It was launched on 16 July 1969, and passed behind the Moon on July 19, firing the SPS rocket to enter lunar orbit. In the several orbits that followed, the crew had passing views of their landing site. While on the far side of the Moon, the lunar module, named Eagle, separated from the Command Module, named Columbia. After the lunar module separated from the command module, the Eagle landed on the moon's surface at 09:18 GMT on the Sea of Tranquillity, while astronaut Michael Collins remained in orbit above.
American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969, uttering the immortal words, "That's one small step for man but one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong described the surface as being like powdered charcoal. Transmissions of the first photographs, enabled by cameras installed on the Eagle landing craft, were watched by millions of people around the world. Fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface twenty minutes later. They planted the American flag at 0341 GMT, and later unveiled a plaque bearing President Nixon's signature and an inscription which read: "Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind."
1976 - The 'Viking I Lander' separates from the Viking I Orbiter spacecraft and successfully lands on Mars.
The Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. America's "Viking I Orbiter" spacecraft was launched on 20 Aug 1975, taking almost a year to reach its destination, achieving orbit of Mars on 19 June 1976. The Viking I Lander separated from the Orbiter a month later on 20 July 1976 and landed on Mars, touching down at Chryse Planitia. The craft transmitted photographs, deployed seismometers, and collected samples of material which were then deposited into on-board experiments to be analysed for composition and signs of life. Studies were also done on atmospheric composition and meteorology.
Cheers - John
NASA were a cover up.
1969....Neil Armstrong........I remember the day Rocky and if I remember correctly, I was at work and the boss bought in a TV and we all stood around watching it.
We all found out that day that there was really a man in the moon, well on the moon anyway.
Another day I remember at work was 2 mates and myself along with the other staff and boss standing around a radio listening to the marbles drop...
.....BUGGA! :( 2xBugga's actually.
Gday...
1858 - Adelaide and Melbourne are linked by the first intercolonial electric telegraph line.
Canadian-born Samuel Walker McGowan is credited with bringing the telegraph technology to Australia. Lured by the opportunities opened up by the discovery of gold in Victoria, McGowan came to Melbourne, Australia, in 1853. Although isolated from telegraph technology in America, and limited by lack of equipment and suitable component manufacturing firms in Australia, McGowan succeeded in opening up the first telegraph line in Australia on 3 March 1854. It ran from Melbourne to Williamstown.
The network of telegraph lines quickly spread throughout Victoria, and then to Adelaide, South Australia. Construction began on the Adelaide-Melbourne electric telegraph line in April 1857 and the line opened on 21 July 1858.
1904 - Construction of the Trans-Siberian railway, connecting European Russia with the Pacific coast, is completed.
The Trans-Siberian railway is over 7000km long and connects European Russia with the Pacific Coast. It is the longest railroad in the world, crosses eight time zones, and covers a huge area made up mostly of the Asian part of the former Soviet Union. The railroad was begun in 1891, thanks to the efforts of Count Sergei Yulyevich Witte (18491915) and completed on 21 July 1904. The railroad had a significant effect on the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and modern Russia by opening up Siberia to development.
1952 - TV actor and comedian Robin Williams is born.
Academy Award-winning American actor and comedian Robin McLaurin Williams was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on 21 July 1952. Williams landed his first big break as "Mork", an alien who guest-starred on "Happy Days" with Ron Howard and Henry Winkler. Shortly after that, he starred in his own spin-off sitcom, "Mork and Mindy". When auditioning for the part of the alien Mork from Ork, Williams met Gary Marshall who told him to sit down. Williams sat on his head on the chair. Gary Marshall immediately chose him saying that he was the only alien who auditioned.
Williams has appeared in a number of films, with the better-known ones being "Mrs Doubtfire", "Good Morning Vietnam" and the dramas "Dead Poets' Society" and "Awakenings". In 1997 he won an Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his role as a psychologist in Good Will Hunting. Williams is known for his quick wit, creativity, improvisation skills and impersonations, and his ability to deliver his humour in rapid-fire succession.
1969 - The CSIRO Observatory in Parkes, Australia, transmits the first pictures of the Apollo 11 Moon walk to the world.
Parkes is a rural town in the central west of New South Wales, located about 265km west of Sydney. The region was originally settled by pastoralists in 1865. Known as Bushmans when it was founded in 1871 following gold discoveries, the town was renamed Parkes in 1873, in honour of a visit by Governor Henry Parkes. However, the town's greatest claim to fame is the role played by the Parkes Radio Telescope in the first Moon landing.
Parkes was the site of the first radio telescope to be built in Australia. Its completion in 1961 was the result of ten years of of negotiation between CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory staff, the Australian Government and significant American Scientific institutions, Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Affectionately dubbed "The Dish", the telescope comprised a disc some 210 feet (64 m) in diameter, constructed of mesh woven from high-tensile strength steel designed to withstand a range of pressures. The total cost of construction was 800,000 Australian pounds.
NASA first proposed that the Parkes radio telescope be incorporated into its worldwide tracking network in 1966, and in 1968 requested Parkes's involvement in the Apollo 11 mission. On 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The Parkes telescope was crucial in transmitting the first pictures of the Moon landing, although it almost didn't happen. At the time the astronauts were to leave the landing module, the moon was only in the view of the southern hemisphere. However, mission commander Neil Armstrong elected to forgo the astronauts' scheduled six-hour rest period, and make the moon walk earlier, meaning the moon would not yet have risen over Parkes to get clear enough pictures. Fortunately, the astronauts took so long to prepare for the Moon walk that the Moon was just rising over Parkes.
The controllers at Parkes then faced another crisis. One of the reasons Parkes was chosen was that it had the weather conditions most conducive to gaining the best signal: ironically, as the Moon rose over Parkes, wind gusts of 110 km per hour gusts hit the radio telescope, threatening the integrity of the telescope structure as the dish was hammered back against its zenith axis gears. Nonetheless, tracking was able to begin just as the Moon rose into the Parkes radio telescope's field of view. Being a larger telescope, it captured more signal and so produced better pictures. The command centre at Houston switched to the Parkes feed, staying with that transmission for the remainder of the 21.5-hour broadcast.
In this way, the Parkes radio telescope, which still sits in the middle of a sheep paddock in rural New South Wales, became an integral part of the history of space exploration.
Cheers - John
Gday...
1822 - The first anti-cruelty bill is passed in British Parliament.
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (RSPCA) is a charity in England and Wales that promotes animal welfare. Since its founding in 1824, it has inspired the creation of similar, but independent, organisations in other countries, including the Scottish SPCA, RSPCA Australia and the ASPCA in the USA.
The first anti-cruelty bill was introduced by Richard Martin MP, who would later earn the nickname of 'Humanity Dick', leader of a group of twenty-two reformers. Also leading the group were William Wilberforce MP, who was already famous for his efforts to abolish slavery in the British Empire, and the Reverend Arthur Broome. The Act was passed in Parliament on 22 July 1822 and was against cruelty to farm animals, particularly cattle. The group assembled at the "Old Slaughters" Coffee House in London to create a society with the will and authority to enforce the new law. The SPCA, the first animal welfare society in any country was thus founded on 16 June 1824, and was subsequently granted its royal status by Queen Victoria in 1840.
1844 - William Archibald Spooner, from whom the word 'spoonerism' was derived, is born.
William Archibald Spooner was born in London on 22 July 1844. He became an Anglican priest, and later lectured at Oxford in history, philosophy and divinity. Although a brilliant scholar, Spooner was known for his unwitting ability to transpose letters in words, giving a phrase a whole new meaning. Some of his more memorable utterances include:
During a toast to Her Highness Victoria: "Three cheers for our queer old dean!"
During World War 1: "When our boys come home from France, we will have the hags flung out."
At chapel: "Our Lord is a shoving leopard."
To a stranger sitting in the wrong place: "I believe you're occupewing my pie. May I sew you to another sheet?"
To a Dean's secretary: "Is the bean dizzy?"
When announcing the hymn 'Conquering Kings': "Kinkering Congs Their Titles Tale."
Commenting on a naval display: "This vast display of cattle ships and bruisers."
Officiating at a wedding: "It is kisstomary to cuss the bride."
The word "spoonerism" began appearing in popular use as early as 1885. Once when a group of students gathered outside his window, calling for him to make a speech, he replied: "You don't want to hear a speech: you just want me to say one of those... things."
A lasting legacy, indeed.
1900 - Frederick Lane becomes the first Australian swimmer to win Gold at the modern Olympics.
Frederick Freddie Claude Vivian Lane was born on 2 February 1879 in Sydney. Lanes earliest swimming instruction came when, at the age of 4, his brother saved him from drowning in Sydney Harbour. His first major championship was achieved at the age of 13, when he won the All Schools' handicap race. He continued to progress, setting new records and winning further championships. In his late teens, he won national titles in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. He set an Australasian record of 64.8 seconds for the 100 yards freestyle, won the Australasian 100 yards title at Christchurch in New Zealand, and went on to win State freestyle titles. He set another record at the 1899 English championships when he swam the 220 yards freestyle title in 2 minutes, 38.2 seconds. He also won the 440 yards salt-water title.
It was while attending the prestigious British championships that Lane was recruited as part of the British swimming team for the second modern Olympics held in Paris in 1900. On 22 July 1900, he became the first Australian swimmer to win Gold. He beat Hungarian Zoltan Halmay by 5.8 seconds in the 200-metre freestyle with a time of 2 minutes, 25.2 seconds. Just 45 minutes after this race, he won his second Gold, beating Austrian Otto Wahle in the 200-metre obstacle race.
In 1902, Lane became the first to swim the 100-yard freestyle in under a minute, in the record time of 59.6 seconds. He continued a successful European tour, and by the time he returned to Australia, he had accumulated a total of about 350 trophies, including over 100 medals. He did not continue his sporting career, but returned to Australia to become a master printer and partner in the printing and stationery firm Smith & Lane of Bridge Street, Sydney. His name is engraved on the World Trophy, originally known as the Helms Award, for 1900. In 1969, the year of his death, he was honoured by the International Swimming Hall of Fame at Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
1933 - Wiley Post becomes the first person to fly solo around the world.
Wiley Post was born on 22 November 1898. An oilfield accident resulted in his wearing a patch over one eye, but did not stop him from gaining his flying licence under Orville Wright in 1926. Post completed the first round-the-world solo flight of over 25,000km in his single-engine Lockheed Vega 5B aircraft "Winnie Mae". The journey took 7 days 18 hours and 49 minutes. Post landed at the Floyd Bennett Field near New York at 11:50 PM, 22 July 1933. He had previously flown around the world in the Winnie Mae with his navigator, Australian Naval cadet Harold Gatty, who went on to found Fiji Airways, which became Air Pacific.
1969 - Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin depart the moon after 21 1/2 hours on the surface.
American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon on 21 July 1969, and fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin joined him on the surface twenty minutes later. They spent twenty one and a half hours on the surface before returning to the command module piloted by Michael Collins.
Whilst on the surface, they took numerous photographs, and studied both the nature of the lunar dust and the effects of pressure on the surface. Footprints left behind are expected to remain almost permanently, unless disturbed by the impact of a meteorite. Before leaving the surface, Armstrong and Aldrin planted the American flag and unveiled a plaque bearing the signature of President Nixon and an inscription reading: "Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind."
1994 - The last piece of the Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet hits Jupiter.
Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 was a comet which collided with Jupiter in 1994, providing the first direct observation of the collision of two solar system objects. The Shoemaker-Levy 9 comet was discovered by astronomers Carolyn and Eugene Shoemaker and David Levy. It was located on the night of 24 March 1993 in a photograph taken with the 0.4-metre Schmidt telescope at the Mount Palomar Observatory in California. Unlike all other comets discovered before then, it was orbiting Jupiter rather than the Sun.
Between 16 July and 22 July 1994, twenty-three fragments of comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with the planet Jupiter. July 22 saw the 23rd piece hit Jupiter. Observatories around the world captured the images, some of which can be seen at http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/sl9/sl9impacts.html
2003 - Two sons of Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein are killed by US troops in Iraq.
On 2 August 1990, one hundred thousand Iraqi troops backed by 300 tanks invaded Kuwait, in the Persian Gulf. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had amassed weaponry which was then deployed for the invasion. The action ultimately led to the Gulf War the following year, a six-week war in which the Allies, led by the USA, won a decisive victory, forcing the withdrawal of all Iraqi troops.
Following the war, Iraq suffered under Hussein's leadership. His government repressed movements that it deemed threatening, particularly those of ethnic or religious groups that sought independence or autonomy. While he remained a popular hero among many Arabs for standing up to Israel and the United States, some in the international community continued to view Saddam with deep suspicion following the 1991 Gulf War.
In the ensuing years, the USA maintained that Hussein was amassing weapons of mass destruction. Saddam was deposed by the United States and its allies during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, but managed to evade capture. On 22 July 2003, following a tip-off from an Iraqi informant, 200 US troops stormed a house in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul. The American soldiers came under attack as they entered the house, but rocket fire from helicopter gunships soon quelled the attack. When the dust had cleared, they found the bodies of Hussein's sons, Uday, 39, and Qusay, 36, together with the latter's 14 year old son, Mustafa. The two sons were highly influential figures in Saddam Hussein's regime, and news of their deaths was greeted with celebrations in the city of Baghdad. Saddam Hussein himself was captured in December of 2003, and following the trial which lasted many months, was executed by hanging on 30 December 2006.
Cheers - John
Very historic event most of us here will remember always I'm sure.
Well done Apollo 11.
Gday...
1773 - Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane, the man after whom the Australian city of Brisbane is named, is born.
Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane was born in Scotland on 23 July 1773. He was educated in astronomy and mathematics at the University of Edinburgh. From 1793 to 1814 he served in the army throughout the world, including Flanders, the West Indies, Spain and Canada, rising to the rank of brigadier general.
In 1821 he was appointed Governor of New South Wales. During his tenure as Governor of New South Wales (1821-25), he built an astronomical observatory at Parramatta and worked to develop the Brisbane Catalogue of 7,385 stars. Also while Governor, Brisbane encouraged the development of the agricultural industry in the colony, supported by land reclamation, exploration, and immigration, and he called for greater accountability of settlers with land grants to best utilise their land, and to take on convicts as assistants. His administration had a positive effect on the morality of the colony, as the number of persons convicted at the criminal court fell from 208 in 1822 to 100 in 1824. This enabled NSW to be transformed from a dependent convict outpost into a free, self-supporting colony.
The name of the city of Brisbane, now the capital of the state of Queensland, was derived from the Brisbane River. The Brisbane River was named in December 1823 by John Oxley, Surveyor-General and explorer, in honour of Sir Thomas Makdougall Brisbane.
1903 - The Ford motor company sells its first ever car.
Henry Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, was born on 30 July 1863 in Michigan, USA. In 1896 Ford invented the Quadricycle, the first "horseless carriage" that he produced. Its popularity helped fund and launch Ford's business, and the new Ford Motor Company was established seven years later in Detroit, Michigan, and incorporated on 16 June 1903. A month later, on 23 July 1903, Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago, Illinois became the first owner of a Ford Model A. The Ford Model A was also known as the 'Fordmobile', and featured a twin-cylinder internal combustion engine. It was Ford's first attempt to develop a reliable, inexpensive car for the average American market.
1904 - Charles E Menches of St Louis, Missouri invents the ice cream cone.
There is some contention about who really invented the first ice cream cone. One of the stories credits the invention to Charles E Menches, an ice cream seller in St. Louis, Missouri. At the time, ice cream was always served in dishes. The story goes that, whilst selling ice cream at the St Louis World's Fair (the Louisiana Purchase Exhibition), he ran out of dishes. Nearby, Ernest Hamwi was selling a Middle eastern treat called Zalabia, a crispy, wafer that was sold with syrup. Always the entrepreneur, Menches conceived the idea of rolling up the wafers, and filling the cone with two scoops of ice cream. Thus, Menches is credited with introducing the concept of the ice cream cone.
1939 - Indian spiritual and political leader, Mahatma Gandhi, writes a letter to Hitler, imploring him to prevent another world war.
Mahatma Gandhi was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, India. Gandhi was a peace-loving man who initially trained as a barrister in England, but was unsuccessful in pursuing a career in law once he returned to India. After accepting a post to Natal, South Africa, Gandhi experienced frequent humiliation and oppression commonly directed at Indians in South Africa. This caused him to then spend two decades fighting for the rights of immigrants in South Africa.
After WWI broke out, Gandhi returned to India. Following the end of the Great War, Gandhi actively - but peacefully - fought for India's independence from Great Britain, and suffered greatly for his stand. However, one of his least-known actions was the letter he wrote to German leader Adolf Hitler on 23 July 1939. At this time, Germany was advancing through Europe, and had already invaded Czechoslovakia. Gandhi sought to stop the horrors he foresaw with the advent of another world war. The letter read, in part:
"It is quite clear that you are today the one person in the world who can prevent a war which may reduce humanity to the savage state. Must you pay that price for an object however worthy it may appear to you to be? Will you listen to the appeal of one who has deliberately shunned the method of war not without considerable success?"
For whatever reasons, the letter never reached Hitler. Historians doubt that, if it had, it would have made any difference to Hitler.
1962 - Australian swimmer Dawn Fraser becomes the first woman to swim 100m freestyle in under one minute.
Dawn Fraser was born on 4 September 1937 in Balmain, New South Wales. She was fifteen years old when coach Harry Gallagher noted her exceptional swimming talent and took wher under his wing, preparing her for the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Fraser was the first female swimmer to win Gold in three consecutive Olympic Games, doing so in 1956, 1960 and 1964. Her career spanned some fifteen years, during which she broke and held 41 World records, and remained undefeated in the 100 metres freestyle. Between 1956 and 1964, Fraser broke the womens world record for the 100 metre freestyle nine successive times. On 23 July 1962, Fraser became the first woman to swim the 100m freestyle in less than one minute.
In 1999, Fraser was awarded World Athlete of the Century at the World Sport Awards in Vienna. In the same year, she was also inducted into the Australian Sports Hall of Fame when she was awarded Athlete of the Century.
1986 - Prince Andrew marries Sarah Ferguson at Westminster Abbey.
Prince Andrew, third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II, was born Andrew Albert Christian Edward Mountbatten-Windsor on 19 February 1960 at Buckingham Palace, London. He was the first child to be born to a reigning monarch for 103 years. As a child of the reigning monarch, he was styled His Royal Highness The Prince Andrew from birth. He is currently fourth in the line of succession to the throne.
Prince Andrew and Sarah Ferguson married on 23 July 1986, to become the Duke and Duchess of York. Prior to the marriage ceremony, Queen Elizabeth II conferred upon 26-year-old Andrew the title of Duke of York. The title Duke of York is traditionally reserved for the sovereign's second son and was last held by King George VI. The service was conducted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie. It is estimated that the wedding was watched by a TV audience worldwide of 500 million.
Together the Duke and Duchess of York have two children, Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of York, born 8 August 1988 and Her Royal Highness Princess Eugenie of York, born 23 March 1990. The Duke and Duchess of York divorced in May 1996.
Cheers - John