Gday...

1789  -             The first police force in the convict colony of New South Wales is formed.

Australia was settled by the convicts and officers of the First Fleet in January 1788. It was believed that the colony's isolation from any civilisation would be deterrent enough for convicts attempting to escape. Many thought they could reach China by escaping into the bush; some returned, exhausted and starving, to the flogging that inevitably awaited them. Many never returned, and stories abounded that skeletons of convicts who escaped but could not survive littered the bushland surrounding Port Jackson and Sydney Cove.

It was necessary to establish a police force to pursue the errant convicts, and to also guard against petty thievery that went on. On 8 August 1789, Australia's first police force was established in the colony of New South Wales. It was made up of a dozen convicts.

The NSW police force has continued to develop and change over the years. The force in its current form was established in 1862 with the passing of the Police Regulation Act and drew upon members of the Royal Irish Constabulary.

1802  -             Explorer Matthew Flinders discovers Port Curtis in Queensland, now the site of Gladstone.

Matthew Flinders was an English sea explorer, and the first European to circumnavigate Australia. Between December 1801 and June 1803, Flinders charted the entire coastline of Australia. In July 1802, he undertook to survey the coast of Queensland and Torres Strait, with the intention of improving current charts and maps of the area. Hope still abounded that an entrance might be found from the Gulf of Carpentaria to a navigable inland sea. To that end, he was accompanied by another ship, the 'Lady Nelson', which had sliding keels, enabling it to sail any body of water more than 1m 80cm deep.

On 8 August 1802, Flinders discovered an excellent harbour, sheltered and deep, on what is now the central Queensland coast. He named it Port Curtis after Admiral Sir Roger Curtis, commander-in-chief at the Cape of Good Hope. The port city of Gladstone now stands at that site.

1893  -             The Act to allow socialist-style village settlements to be established in South Australia is introduced to parliament.

When Great Britain colonised New South Wales in 1788, it sought to offset Frances interest in the Australian continent by establishing new colonies. Explorer Matthew Flinders was the first Englishman to investigate the possibilities for settlement on the coast of what is now South Australia, doing so in 1802. Captain Charles Sturts discovery in 1830 that the Murray River was a mighty, navigable waterway which emptied into the ocean off the southern coast suggested that a viable colony could be built on the southern coast. As a result, the British authorities moved to establish an official colony, which would be known as South Australia. The South Australia Act, enabling the founding of the colony of South Australia, was passed by British Parliament in 1834. The colony of South Australia was officially proclaimed in England two years later, in February 1836, and then in South Australia itself in December of that year, several months after the arrival of the first settlers in July.

South Australia was the driest colony in the continent and it struggled to maintain itself economically. Colonial planners had ignored recommendations from Surveyor-General Charles Goyder that settlement be limited to the south according to the Goyder Line, a theoretical line of demarcation between the southern areas of reliable landfall and where the vast tracts of saltbush began, signalling arid lands. When economic depression hit the Australian colonies in the 1890s, South Australia was particularly affected by drought, low prices for produce, and unemployment.

In an attempt to combat the economic problems, the South Australian opted to establish communal settlements, under the Village Settlement Scheme. Within this scheme, settlements of twenty of more people would be established to utilise otherwise wasted land for irrigation, working the land communally and sharing the profits. Within each settlement was to be a village association which would be governed by socialist-based rules allowing for the division of labour amongst the villagers, the distribution of profits and the regulation of industry and trade. Initially, coupons were to be used for currency, rather than a monetary system. The government granted each of the settlers an advance to establish agricultural production, with the first instalment of the repayment to be paid within three years. The Crown Lands Amendment Act, which included provision for village settlements, was introduced to parliament on 8 August 1893. It was given assent four months later, on 23 December 1893.

In all, thirteen village settlements were founded in South Australia. Most of them were along the Murray River and included Lyrup, Waikerie, Holder, Pyap, Kingston, Gillen, New Era, Moorook, Murtho, Ramco and New Residence. Each village settlement floundered for a variety of reasons, usually the inability of the settlers to work communally, and the scheme in all settlements was disbanded by 1903. However, some of these settlements thrived as agricultural centres once the regions were incorporated into the respective Irrigation Areas in the early 20th century and land was leased to individuals.

1926  -             The first aircraft produced by Qantas is turned out.

Qantas is Australia's national airline service and the name was formerly an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". Qantas was born out of a need to bring regular passenger services to remote communities. W Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, former Australian Flying Corps officers who had served at Gallipoli, had the inspiration after their plans to enter a major air race fell through. In March 1919, the Australian Federal Government offered a £10,000 prize for the first Australians to fly from England to Australia within 30 days. Necessary funding for the two war veterans was cancelled when wealthy grazier and sponsor, Sir Samuel McCaughey, died before the money could be delivered, and his estate refused to release the promised funds. Undaunted, Fysh and McGinness undertook an assignment from the Defence Department to survey part of the route of the race, travelling almost 2200km from Longreach in northwestern Queensland to Katherine in the Northern Territory in a Model T Ford. The journey took 51 days and covered territory which no motor vehicle had negotiated before, and the difficulties highlighted the need for a regular aerial service to link remote settlements in the Australian outback.

Fysh and McGinness gained sponsorship for a regular air service from wealthy grazier Fergus McMaster, whom McGinness had once assisted in the remote outback when his car broke an axle. As a regular traveller through difficult terrain, McMaster needed no convincing, and even secured further investment from his own business acquaintances. Originally purchased under the name of The Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, or Qantas, was launched in November 1920, with McMaster as Chairman.

Based in Winton, western Queensland, the original Qantas fleet was made up of just two biplanes: an Avro 504K with a 100 horsepower water-cooled Sunbeam Dyak engine and a Royal Aircraft Factory BE2E with a 90 horsepower air-cooled engine. The mens former flight sergeant Arthur Baird was signed on as aircraft mechanic. Initially, the service operated just for joyrides and demonstrations. Qantas commenced its first regular airmail and passenger service, between Cloncurry and Charleville in November 1922, and in 1925 extended the service another 400km west to Camooweal.

Mechanic Arthur Baird was placed in charge of a building programme in 1926. The first aircraft, a DH50A, was turned out under the Qantas banner on 8 August 1926. This was the first time an aircraft had been built in Australia under licence from overseas manufacturers.

1963  -             The Great Train Robbery in England occurs, in which £2.6m is stolen in used, untraceable bank notes.

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

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

1988  -             Princess Beatrice, the first child of Prince Andrew and his wife Sarah, is born.

Her Royal Highness Princess Beatrice of York (Beatrice Elizabeth Mary Mountbatten-Windsor), the Queen's fifth grandchild and fifth in line to the throne, was born on 8 August 1988. Princess Beatrice was born at Portland Hospital in London, and weighed 6 lb 12 oz. Her birth was greeted with 41-gun salutes at Hyde Park and Tower Green. Whilst some would say she was born on an auspicious day (8/8/88), the number eight has continued to figure in her life in a less auspicious way: Beatrice's parents, the Duke and Duchess of York (Prince Andrew and Sarah nee Ferguson) divorced when Beatrice was eight years old.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1173  -             Construction begins on the Tower of Pisa, which is later to become the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.

The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the bell tower, or campanile, of the cathedral in Pisa's Campo dei Miracoli (field of Miracles). The tower took nearly 200 years to complete, being finished in 1372.

The first floor of the white marble construction was commenced on 9 August 1173. After the third floor was built in 1178, the tower developed a lean, due to having only a three-metre foundation in weak, unstable subsoil. Constant battles between the Pisans and Genoa, Lucca and Florence halted the tower's construction for another 100 years, during which time the soil was able to settle more. The final floor, the bell chamber, was completed in 1372.

The tower was in serious danger of toppling completely by 1964, when the Italian government sought aid and advice in preserving its famous icon. Following decades of consultation and preparatory efforts, the tower was closed to the public in January 1990, remaining closed until December 2001 while corrective reconstruction and stabilisation work was implemented. The excessive lean of the tower was corrected by removing 38 cubic metres of soil from underneath the raised end. It is expected to remain stable for another 300 years.

1851  -             Gold is discovered at Sovereign Hill, near Ballarat, in Victoria.

Gold was discovered in Australia as early as the 1830s, but discoveries were kept secret for a number of reasons. To begin with, there were concerns that the discovery of this valuable resource would spark off unrest among the convicts. Further, land-owners did not want their properties being destroyed. The discoveries were usually made by farmers who did not wish to subject their sheep and cattle runs to a sudden influx of prospectors and lawlessness that would inevitably follow. However, as more people left the Australian colonies to join the gold rush in California, it became apparent that the outward tide of manpower would need to be stemmed. The government began to seek experts who could locate gold in Australian countrysides.

Gold was first officially discovered in Australia in 1851, not far from Bathurst, New South Wales. Edward Hargraves had carefully studied the geology of the area and, convinced that it was similar to that of the California goldfields, from where he had just returned, went prospecting. He enlisted the assistance of John Lister, a man with local knowledge of the region. Lister worked with his friends William and James Tom, utilising equipment such as the cradle, or rocker, the design for which Hargraves had brought to New South Wales, and located payable gold at Summerhill Creek. Hargraves named the site "Ophir", after the Biblical land of gold.

Less than three months later, on 9 August 1851, Victoria had its first gold strike at Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, in the same month it gained its independence from the NSW colony. While the Ballarat goldfields were rich and promising, the real goldrush began when gold was discovered at Mt Alexander, 60km northeast of Ballarat, and close to the town of Bendigo. Nowadays, Sovereign Hill offers a re-creation of life on the goldfields and in a goldmining town.

1890  -             The first recital is held on the largest pipe organ in the world at the time, the Grand Organ in the Sydney Town Hall.

The Grand Organ in the Sydney Town Hall was built by William Hill and Son in London. It was shipped to Sydney and installed in 1890. Having approximately 8,700 pipes, it was the largest organ in the world at the time, and is still the largest ever built with tubular-pneumatic action. Its five manuals (Choir, Great, Swell, Solo and Echo) and pedals have between them 126 speaking stops and 14 couplers. 4000 invited guests were present at the first recital, held on 9 August 1890, performed by W T Best, the City Organist from Liverpool, England. Mr Best had tested the organ in London before it was dismantled and shipped to Australia, and declared it "...a marvel of excellence in both tone and mechanism".

Due to deterioration in the organ's tone and function, the need for extensive restoration work became apparent during the 1950s and '60s, especially after the organ completely broke down in October 1971, causing performances to be cancelled. Sydney organ-builder Roger H Pogson gradually restored the instrument between 1972 and 1982. The Organ was reopened again on 11 December 1982 by Robert Ampt (appointed Sydney City Organist in 1978) with the ABC Sinfonia conducted by Helen Quach.

1945  -             The United States drops a second atomic bomb, this time on the Japanese city of Nagasaki.

On the morning of 6 August 1945, the "Enola Gay", an American B-29 Superfortress dropped the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima in Japan. Another atomic bomb was dropped on Nagasaki three days later, on 9 August 1945, killing 74,000 immediately. However, the real death toll from the impact and the effects of the bomb was closer to 150,000, not including the effects on generations to come. Nagasaki was targetted as it was one of Japan's most important ports providing vital access to and from Shanghai. The destruction was limited to about 6.5 square kilometres as Nagasaki is surrounded by mountains.

President Truman issued the order to drop the bombs after Japan failed to act upon the Potsdam Declaration. The declaration had been issued 10 days previously, calling for the unconditional surrender of Japan.

Japan surrendered to the Allies on 14 August 1945.

1974  -             In the wake of the Watergate scandal, US President Richard Nixon resigns.

The Watergate scandal was an American political scandal and constitutional crisis that led to the resignation of US President Richard Nixon. It began with a burglary at the Watergate Apartment complex. On 17 June 1972, five men were caught searching through confidential papers and bugging the office of President Nixon's political opponents, the Democratic National Committee. One of the men, James McCord, was officially employed as Chief of Security at the Committee to Re-elect the President (CRP), indicating that the burglary was linked to US President Nixon's re-election campaign.

On 17 May 1973, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities began televised proceedings on the escalating Watergate scandal. On 24 July 1973, it was revealed that that Nixon had secretly taped all conversations in the Oval Office. With this information available, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered President Richard Nixon to surrender the tape recordings. After prevaricating for three months, Nixon finally produced the tapes.

The break-in, resultant cover-up by Nixon and his aides, and the subsequent investigation ultimately led to the resignation of the President on 9 August 1974, preventing his impeachment by the Senate. When President Gerald Ford pardoned Nixon a month later, this prevented any criminal charges from being filed against the former president.

Cheers - John

Hello Rockylizard
Good posts, and I missed them while travelling, keep up the good work

Re August 8
1963 - The Great Train Robbery in England occurs, in which £2.6m is stolen in used, untraceable bank notes.

Mister Ronnie Biggs certainly proved that crime does pay
He had a good life while spending his ill gotten gains, had the legal people on his side when he was unlawfully kidnapped, and then gave himself up, to obtain the free medical treatment he required.

Re August 9
1173 - Construction begins on the Tower of Pisa, which is later to become the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa

From memory, (so I could be wrong). I read that the builders were somehow related to Al Capone the American gangster

Gday...

1519  -             Ferdinand Magellan leaves Seville on his first leg of the journey to circumnavigate the world.

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sea explorer. He was born in 1480, and at age 12 he became a page to King John II and Queen Eleonora at the royal court at Lisbon. Here he was able to pursue his academic interest in astronomy and geography. He first went to sea when he was 20, and gained much seafaring experience over the next 10 years. He was the first to sail from Europe westwards to Asia, and the first European to sail the Pacific Ocean.

On 10 August 1519, five ships under Magellan's command left Seville to commence their journey to circumnavigate the world. Magellan waited in Spain for five weeks whilst the Spanish authorities switched his crew of mostly Portugese men with a Spanish crew. On 20 September 1519, Magellan set sail to circumnavigate the world. His fleet reached the Philippines a year and a half later. Whilst Magellan was well received by many of the people, he died on 27 April 1521 during a battle with an indigenous group. 18 members of his crew and one ship of the fleet returned to Spain in 1522, having completed Magellan's aspirations of circumnavigating the globe.

1844  -             Charles Sturt sets out on his final expedition to search for an inland sea in Australia.

For decades after New South Wales was first settled, the people of Australia believed the rivers in the east emptied into an inland sea as the great majority of waterways flowed away from the coast. When Sturt filled in the gaps in knowledge of the network of rivers in NSW, and determined that the Murray River emptied out at the southern coast, he seemed to solve the mystery of the inland rivers. That is, he solved it to the satisfaction of everyone but himself.

Dissatisfied with Eyre's reports of salt lakes and arid desert in central Australia, Sturt determined to settle the question and find out for himself. He was given permission to explore as far north as latitude 28 degrees. On 10 August 1844, Sturt departed Adelaide with 16 men, 11 horses, 30 bullocks, a boat and carriage, a spring cart and several drays, 200 sheep, two sheep dogs and four kangaroo dogs. Rather than heading directly northward, Sturts party first travelled to the Murray River and up the Darling, in an attempt to avoid the horseshoe lakes which Eyre had reported.

During the arduous journey, Sturts men suffered terribly from scurvy, heat and lack or water. Remarkably, only one man was lost James Poole. Sturt discovered no inland sea; he did, however, find much forbidding countryside and desert, and he added greatly to the understanding of Australias arid interior. Today, his name lives on in Sturt's Stony Desert.

1874  -             American President Herbert Hoover, who worked for some time in Australia as a mining engineer, is born.

Herbert Clark Hoover was born on 10 August 1874, in West Branch, Iowa, USA, into a Quaker family. Hoover went on to become the 31st President of the United States. However, as a young man, he spent a year working for Bewick Moreing Company as a mining inspector, overseeing its Western Australian gold mines. In 1897, he arrived at Coolgardie, a remote town in Western Australia, on the tail end of the WA goldrush. As a mining engineer, his job was to select the mines which had the best prospects. A manager's house was built for him at Leonora, about 830km east of Perth. He was promoted before it was finished, however, and shipped off to China to oversee the coal mines.

In 1902, Hoover returned to Australia with his young bride, as Director of Bewick Moreing, and Manager of their Western Australian operations. He did not stay in Australia, but continued to travel, using his mining expertise around the world. In 1907, he finally inhabited the house built for him at Leonora, but it was not long before he returned permanently to the US.

1893  -             Today is International Biodiesel Day, in remembrance of when Rudolf Diesel's engine, powered by a biofuel, ran on its own power for the first time.

Rudolf Christian Karl Diesel was born on 18 March 1858 in Paris, although his parents were German. Diesel was a German inventor, most famous for his invention of the Diesel engine. He designed a single 3 m iron cylinder with a flywheel at its base which ran on its own power for the first time in Augsburg, Germany on 10 August 1893. August 10 has thus been declared International Biodiesel Day, to commemorate this event. The diesel engine was originally intended to run on bio-fuel such as vegetable oil, rather than the petroleum-based diesel fuels predominantly used today.

1990  -             The Magellan spacecraft arrives at Venus to begin mapping the planet's surface.

The Magellan spacecraft was named after the sixteenth-century Portuguese explorer Ferdinand Magellan. Magellan was the first planetary spacecraft to be launched by a space shuttle when, on 4 May 1989, it was conveyed by the shuttle Atlantis from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The shuttle took Magellan into low Earth orbit, where it was released from the shuttle's cargo bay. After its launch, it arrived at Venus over a year later.

The Magellan carried an advanced imaging radar to enable it to map the surface of Venus in detail. Portions of other space projects were salvaged to produce the Magellan spacecraft: its radio dish came from Voyager and the central control system came from the Galileo project. Magellan remained in orbit around Venus for four years before it lost altitude and crashed on the planet's surface in October 1994.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re 1874 - American President Herbert Hoover, who worked for some time in Australia as a mining engineer, is born.

There is a house in Kalgoorlie (painted white), which President Hoover lived in for a short time, while in Kalgoorlie
They call it the white house

John - where would we be today without Rudolf Diesel - and I was reading about some people driving a bus round the block, running on vegetable oil - what I wanted to know though, was - how many potatoes to the kilometre??

Gday...

1680 -              Pueblo Revolt Begins

The Pueblo Revolt was an uprising of Native American communities against Spanish colonization in New Mexico. Organized by a medicine man called Popé and other Pueblo leaders, the uprising led to the deaths of some 400 colonists and missionaries and forced the surviving Spaniards to retreat to El Paso, freeing the Pueblo of Spanish rule for the first time in 82 years. However, internal dissension and Apache raids soon weakened the unity of the Pueblo.

1824  -             New South Wales is constituted a Crown Colony.

A Crown Colony is a British colony, controlled by the British Crown and represented by a Governor, yet a distinct and separate settlement. The British Governor oversaw consultative councils composed mostly of the governor's nominees who, in turn, delegated powers of local government to local authorities. Whilst the colony of New South Wales was settled with the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, it was not until 11 August 1824 that New South Wales was formally constituted a Crown Colony. The Government in New South Wales therefore had powers to delegate local authorities in the other colonies, such as Moreton Bay, until these colonies were, in turn, constituted Crown Colonies in their own right.

1877  -             American astronomer Asaph Hall discovers Phobos and Deimos, the two moons of Mars.

Asaph Hall was born in Goshen, Connecticut, on 15 October 1829. He was an American astronomer, and is credited with discovering the two moons of Mars on 11 August 1877, though there is some dispute about the dates. Mars's two moons are Phobos, the larger and innermost, and Deimos, smaller and non-spherical. Hall named the two moons after the sons of Ares (Mars) from Greek Mythology. Phobos, one of the smallest moons of the known planets in the solar system, orbits less than 6000 km above the surface of Mars.

1889 -              Charles Darrow is born.

Darrow was a heating engineer who is generally credited with developing "Monopoly," a board game in which players compete to purchase real estate and bankrupt their opponents, though there is evidence that he merely adapted Elizabeth Magie's realty and taxation game "The Landlord's Game." "Monopoly" was initially rejected by Parker Brothers, but after Darrow met with success selling the game himself, the toy firm reconsidered and bought it in 1935.

1897  -             British children's author, Enid Blyton, is born.

Enid Blyton was born in East Dulwich, England, on 11 August 1897. Blyton became a prolific writer of children's books, and many of her titles have been translated into 40 different languages. It is estimated that she wrote over 600 titles, many under the same series, such as the Secret Seven, Famous Five, Magic Faraway Tree and Adventure series. Blyton's "Noddy" books became famous from the 1980s for being "politically incorrect": Golliwogs, for example, were replaced by teddy-bears, which did not allude to racial stereotypes. For all their controversy, however, Blyton's books have remained popular with modern children for their escapism and fantasy themes.

1999  -             Up to 350 million people watch the last total solar eclipse of the twentieth century.

The last total solar eclipse of the twentieth century, on 11 August 1999, was witnessed by up to 350 million people across Asia and Europe. Overcast skies or sudden rain obscured the view for many Europeans, but the central south of Romania had the best view, with totality lasting the longest at the city of Ramnicu Valcea. A national holiday was declared for the citizens of Jordan and Syria. Because the eclipse travelled across many well populated areas of Europe, Asia and the Middle East, it was considered to have probably been the most-viewed eclipse of all time.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Your "Today in History", is always a good read, so thanks for that

Re 1897 - British children's author, Enid Blyton, is born.

The Famous Five were some of my favourite books, as a child.

I also remember my children bringing them home from the school library, and was amazed to find that they were still popular, twenty years after I had read them

Gday...

1806  -             Captain Philip Gidley King, third Governor of New South Wales, is succeeded by Captain William Bligh.

Philip Gidley King, born in England in 1758, came as one of Captain Arthur Phillips officers with the First Fleet of convicts to Australia. After the First Fleet arrived at Port Jackson in January 1788, King was appointed Superintendent and Commandant of the proposed settlement at Norfolk Island. He led a party of fifteen convicts and seven free men to take control of the island and prepare for its commercial development. The island proved to be crucial, developing as a farm and supplying Sydney with grain and vegetables during the early years of the colony's near-starvation.

Although Governor Arthur Phillip recommended King as his successor in 1795, that position went to Captain John Hunter. However, King then succeeded Hunter in September 1800 to become the third Governor of New South Wales. As Governor, he sought to place controls on the corrupt liquor trade, which had developed as the New South Wales Corps began importing large quantities of rum as a means of controlling the convict population. It was a particularly lucrative trade, and despite Kings attempts at prohibition, trafficking in both imported and home-distilled rum continued, even among the highest colonial officials. It was Kings discouragement with the NSW Corps, and the open hostilities with them that led him to resign in 1804. However, his successor, William Bligh, did not arrive in the colony until 1806. King ended his term as Governor on 12 August 1806.

Despite the enormous difficulties King faced, he was a man of initiative and vision. He regarded the indigenous Australians the real Proprietors of the Soil. He did much to build and develop the colony, improving the quality and quantity of the governments sheep and cattle herds; he established the first coal-mines; he encouraged the growth of a variety of crops; and he assisted the development of the whaling and sealing industries. King sent out exploration missions to try to cross the impassable barrier of the Blue Mountains, and established a colony in Van Diemens Land (now Tasmania). He also established the first official colonial newspaper, the Sydney Gazette.

1829  -             The city of Perth, Western Australia, is founded.

The first official landing of a European on the northwestern coast of Australia occurred when Dutch captain Dirk Hartog landed near Cape Inscription in 1616. Although further Dutch sightings of Australia followed as the route became more popular and the land became known as "New Holland", the Dutch saw no value in the dry and barren country.

Although the northwest was forbidding and inhospitable, the southwestern corner held more promise. Dutch sea-captain Willem de Vlamingh named the Swan River in 1697 because of the black swans he saw in abundance there while exploring the area. The name remained for the early years of British settlement.

The city of Perth, capital of Western Australia, grew up around the Swan River, and was therefore originally known as the Swan River Colony. The city itself started out as a free colony in 1829 with the arrival of around 100 pioneer men, women and children. The Swan River colony was proclaimed in June 1829. The settlement of the Colony was founded with the ceremonial cutting down of a Sheoak tree, by Mrs Helen Dance, on a site close to the present Town Hall, on 12 August 1829.

1883  -             The last known specimen of the Quagga, a subspecies of the Plains Zebra, dies in captivity in Amsterdam.

The Quagga is a recently extinct subspecies of the Plains Zebra. Unlike other zebras, with their full-body black and white stripes, the quagga was striped only on the front part of its body, with its hindquarters a solid, darker brown. This creature once roamed Cape Province and parts of South Africa in great numbers. Because it was seen by the settlers as competition for the grazing of their livestock, the quagga was hunted to extinction by the 1870s. The last known specimen died in an Amsterdam zoo on 12 August 1883. However, since then, a breeding-back programme has commenced, through selective breeding of the southern Plains Zebras.

1977  -             The space shuttle 'Enterprise', named after the Star Trek space module, passes its first solo flight test.

The space shuttle, or shuttle orbiter, was intended to be a reusable space-travelling vehicle. Initially, the space shuttle did not use rockets, but rode on the back of a Boeing 747, being tested first on the ground, then in a series of eight "captive flight tests" in the air. On 12 August 1977, Enterprise took off on the back of a 747, separating from the 747 at an altitude of 24,100 feet. It flew alone for more than five minutes before landing on a dry lake bed. Approximately 65,000 people watched the flight and landing.

When the prototype was developed, thousands of fans of the science fiction series "Star Trek" wrote to NASA requesting that it be called 'Enterprise', rather than the originally-planned 'Constitution'. Ironically, the 'Enterprise' of Star Trek fame had itself had been named after historical maritime vessels. Many of the cast of the original series, together with Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, were present at the dedication ceremony, which featured the Star Trek theme music. In Star Trek: The Next Generation, a mural in Captain Jean-Luc Picard's office depicts this Space Shuttle as one of the starship's own namesakes. The shuttle also features in the opening credits of the series Star Trek: Enterprise. Even Star Trek: Deep Space Nine later pictured a model of the International Space Station with the Space Shuttle Enterprise docked with it. However, the 'Enterprise' was only ever designed as a test vehicle, being constructed without engines or a functional heat shield, so it has never actually travelled between Earth and space. It now sits on display in the Smithsonian Institute.

1985  -             Over 500 are killed as a Japanese jumbo jet crashes into a mountain 112km from Tokyo.

On 12 August 1985, Japan Airlines flight 123 took off at 6:12 PM, bound from Tokyo International Airport, Tokyo, to Osaka International Airport, Itami, Hyogo. 10 minutes into the flight, the pilot told air traffic control that he planned to return to make an emergency landing, as a door at the rear of the plane was damaged. Two minutes later, the pilot lost control of the aircraft, crashing it first into Mount Osutaka and then into Mount Takahamagara in Gunma Prefecture, Japan. All 15 crew were killed, as were 505 passengers out of 509 aboard the aircraft.

The aircraft had been in a tailstrike accident 7 years earlier. Investigations into the 1985 crash revealed that the subsequent repair to the aircraft's rear bulkhead had been faulty, and joining two bits of fuselage had left the section up to 70% less resistant to decompression. A number of people who were employed by the Boeing company in Japan at the time of the repair committed suicide, unable to bear the ramifications of what had happened.

2000  -             The Russian submarine 'Kursk' explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea, killing 118 men.

The 'Kursk' was launched in 1994. It was 155 metres long and four storeys high, with a double hull that theoretically made it unsinkable. It was on an exercise of firing dummy torpedoes at a battlecruiser on the morning of 12 August 2000, when an explosion ripped through the first two of nine compartments. The explosion was probably caused by explosive propellant seeping through rust in the torpedo casing when the submarine fired its torpedoes. The hydrogen peroxide propellant reacted with copper and brass in the tube from which the torpedo was fired, causing a chemical explosion.

It was standard practice to leave open the watertight door isolating the torpedo room from the rest of the submarine, and this facilitated the spread of the explosion before the captain had time to send a distress signal. As the 'Kursk' hit the seabed, more on-board torpedoes exploded, registering 1.5 on the Richter scale. The torpedo explosion blasted a two-metre-square hole in the hull and ripped open the third and fourth compartments, which caused water to pour in, killing all within those compartments. 118 men died in the tragedy. There were no survivors.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re 2000 - The Russian submarine 'Kursk' explodes and sinks in the Barents Sea, killing 118 men.

Over the years there has been a lot of (unknown at the time), information about this tragedy.

I am led to believe, so could be wrong, that in hindsight, the Russian Generals sacrificed these sailors, so that they, and their country, would not lose any prestige.

It appears from my understandings, that the Russians did not have their rescue equipment in good enough order, and were too proud to accept the help, which other countries had offered, until it was too late to mount a proper rescue.

Gday...

1806  -             Captain William Bligh becomes Governor of New South Wales.

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

Bligh was honourably acquitted in a London court, and later assigned as Governor to the fledgling colony of New South Wales. He took up this position on 13 August 1806, replacing Philip Gidley King. He was selected as the new Governor because he was known to be a strong character, which was required to restore order in an increasingly difficult colony. Bligh sought to normalise trading conditions in the Colony by prohibiting the use of spirits as payment. He received criticism for his seemingly despotic ways, and apparent disregard for English law as opposed to his own law.

Blighs chief critic was grazier and wool grower John Macarthur, who convinced men from the New South Wales Corps to rebel against Bligh. Early in 1808, Governor Bligh was overthrown and replaced with a military Junta in an event later known as the Rum Rebellion. The name came about because Bligh asserted that Macarthur's main attack against the Governor came about because of his prohibition on Spirits for trading. The Rum Rebellion caused Bligh to be imprisoned from 1808 to 1810. Evidence suggested the catalyst to the event was more a clash of strong personalities than any real disregard for English laws. Bligh was known for his violent temper and tendency to alienate others, but his motives were honourable. Bligh was exonerated in 1811, after which he returned to England.

1817  -             Explorer John Oxley discovers the Bogan River in central western New South Wales.

John Oxley was born in England in 1783 and came to Australia in 1802. He was made Surveyor-General of the New South Wales colony in 1812. In 1817, Governor Macquarie ordered Oxley to follow the course of the Lachlan River, to determine where it led. Because the rivers of NSW flowed west, away from the coast, belief prevailed that somewhere in Australia's interior was an inland sea. After following the Lachlan for three months and being continually obstructed by swampland and waterholes, Oxley concluded that the countryside was useless (though it is now valuable pasture and grazing land).

It was shortly after his party turned its course back in the direction of Sydney that Oxley came across the Bogan River, on 13 August 1817. The small New South Wales town of Nyngan is situated on the banks of the Bogan, as are several smaller settlements such as Gongolgon, and the river is a popular spot for inland fishing.

1888  -             John Logie Baird, inventor of television, is born.

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

Baird called his pictorial-transmission machine a "televisor," and it used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses. A number of inventors including Paul Gottlieb Nipkow and Boris Rosing contributed towards the development of television, but Baird was the first to transmit clearly discernible images. Baird died on 14 June 1946.

1940  -             Three Parliamentary Ministers are killed when their aircraft crashes in Canberra.

The war years for Australia were a difficult and uncertain time, and they were marked by political instability in the early years. However, no-one could have predicted the tragedy which occurred in August 1940 and undermined the government just one month before the federal election.

On 13 August 1940, three Victoria-based United Australia Party ministers, in addition to Sir Brudenell White, the Chief of the General staff, were aboard an RAAF Lockheed Hudson bomber coming in to land at Canberra when it stalled. The aircraft then crashed into the hills adjacent to the airfield. White, two officials and the four crew, along with Minister for the Army and member for Corangamite, Geoffrey Street, Minister for Air and member for Flinders, James Fairbairn and Sir Henry Gullet, member for Henty and Vice-President of the Executive Council, were all killed. A Judicial Court of Inquiry following the incident issued a stern warning to RAAF pilots regarding the tendency of the Hudson aircraft to stall when the speed was allowed to drop too far.

Arthur Fadden was given the portfolios of Air and Civil Aviation following the deaths of the Country Party ministers. Although a terrible tragedy, this provided the opportunity for Fadden to show greater leadership. It was one of a series of events which allowed Fadden to rise to the position of Deputy Leader of the Country Party and, ultimately, leader of the Country Party in March 1941.

1941  -             The Australian Womens Army Service is formed, to enable more men to serve in fighting units.

Prior to World War II, women in Australia were only permitted to serve in the defence forces within the Medical Services. The need for men to be released from military duties for utilisation within fighting units became increasingly obvious as the war progressed, and this could only be done if women were employed for certain tasks. Thus, on 13 August 1941, the War Cabinet of the Australian Government approved the establishment of the Australian Army Womens Service, later known as the Australian Womens Army Service.

Selection for the first 29 Officers was stringent and dependent on interviews in each of the states. Only women who had shown leadership within their own profession or in the form of community service were considered. These women received training at the first Officer's Training School, held in Victoria through November and December 1941. Recruitment of other workers then followed. Initially, just a small number of women between the ages of 18 and 45 were to be employed as clerks, typists, cooks and motor transport drivers. However, the entry of Japan into the war changed that. By the end of 1942, 12,000 women had been recruited and trained, and their duties were far-ranging, from butchers to Cipher clerks. Motor transport drivers duties included forming military convoys, and driving cars, ambulances, trucks up to 3 tons, jeeps, floating jeeps, Bren Gun Carriers and amphibious vehicles.

Special approval was granted by the War Cabinet in 1945 for 500 women in the AWAS to serve outside Australia. A contingent was posted to Lae, New Guinea, and a smaller group sent to The Netherlands. In June 1946, an Officer, 3 NCOs, and one Private AWAS were included in the Army quota of 160 personnel in the Victory March contingent in London.

In all, by the time the war ended in 1945, 24 026 women had served in the Australian Womens Army Service. The Australian Womens Army Service was disbanded in June 1947.

1961  -             East Berlin is cut off from the west by the Berlin Wall.

Berlin is the capital city of Germany. Following WWII, it was divided into four sectors, with sectors being controlled by the Soviet Union, USA, the UK and France. Whilst the countries initially cooperated, governing the city jointly by a commission of all four occupying armies, tensions began to increase between the Soviet Union and the western allies with the development of the Cold War. The border between East and West Germany was closed in 1952, and movement of citizens between East and West Berlin also became more restricted, particularly as people continued to defect from East Germany via West Berlin. Shoppers from East Berlin tended to make their purchases in the western sector, where goods were cheaper and more readily available. This damaged the Soviet economy, which was subsidising East Germany's economy.

Overnight on 13 August 1961, the East and Western halves of Berlin were separated by barbed wire fences up to 1.83 metres high. Over the next few days, troops began to replace the barbed wire with permanent concrete blocks, reaching up to 3.6m high. Ultimately, the wall included over 300 watchtowers, 106km of concrete and 66.5km of wire fencing completely surrounding West Berlin and preventing any access from East Germany. The wall remained as a barrier between East and West until 1989, when the collapse of communism led to it being dismantled.

1989  -             Thirteen people die in the world's worst hot-air balloon crash, near Alice Springs in central Australia.

The hot-air balloon was invented in 1783 by brothers Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier. The first flight took place on 5 June 1783 in Paris, France. Ballooning gradually evolved from a unique form of transportation to a leisure-time activity enjoyed by tourists around the world.

The world's worst ballooning disaster to that date occurred on 13 August 1989, near Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory. Two tourist balloons were launched within minutes of each other, resulting in a mid-air collision. One balloon tore into the fabric of the other, which then plunged to the ground from a height of 600 feet, killing the pilot and all 12 passengers.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1861  -             William Landsborough organises a relief expedition to find missing explorers Burke and Wills.

Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills set off from Melbourne in 1860 with a huge party of men, supplies and camels, aiming to be the first to cross Australia's interior from south to north and back again. Only one of the party survived the entire trek: John King, who was tended to by the Aborigines of the Cooper Creek area.

A number of expeditions were attempted in order to rescue Burke and Wills when their fate was still unknown. The first of these was led by Alfred Howitt, leaving from Melbourne; the second left from Adelaide under the leadership of William McKinlay; a third set out from Rockhampton, under Frederick Walker. Howitt's expedition determined the untimely fate of Burke and Wills, but his report did not reach the major town centres before the other expeditions set out. William Landsborough, born in 1825, led the fourth expedition to find Burke and Wills. He departed from Brisbane on 14 August 1861, and in the course of his search, became the first recorded explorer to cross the continent from north to south, although the official honours for the first successful crossing south to north and back again (alive) went to South Australian explorer John McDouall Stuart. It is notable that McKinlay's journals of his relief expedition also suggest he crossed the continent but he, too, remains uncredited.

1875  -             The Queenslander newspaper reports on the first ever game of Association Football, later Soccer, played in Australia.

Soccer is a popular sport in Australia, and is played by men and women at both the recreational and professional level. Soccer had its origins in Association Football which was quite distinct from either Australian Rules Football or Rugby Football, both of which had formed as new codes in the southern colonies of Victoria and New South Wales during the 1850s and 1860s. Reports of early football games in the Brisbane area appear to have been played under the code of Melbourne Rules which later became Australian Rules.

On 14 August 1875, newspaper The Queenslander reported on the first game of London Association Football ever played in Brisbane. The match had taken place a week earlier, on 7 August, between the Brisbane Football Club and the inmates and warders of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum, now Wolston Park Hospital at Goodna. One of the rules stipulated that the ball should be neither carried nor handled under any circumstances. This code later became known as soccer'. Not only was the Brisbane game the earliest known such game played in the Brisbane region, it was most likely the first to be played in Australia. In 1884, soccer games commenced on a regular basis in Brisbane.

1924  -             The final Cobb & Co coach makes its run from Yuleba to Surat on the Darling Downs.

Cobb & Co was the name of Australias famous coach company which operated from the goldrush days of the 1850s through to the 1920s. Based on the transportation model utilised in the United States, Freeman Cobb, John Murray Peck, James Swanton and John Lamber initiated a horse and coach network to ferry passengers between the goldfields and major cities. Horses were replaced regularly at changing stations 25 to 40 kilometres apart, meaning they were fresher, and this improved travelling time over local coach lines that were running at the time.

Cobb & Co's first run was in January 1854, and departed Melbourne for the Forest Creek diggings (now Castlemaine) and Bendigo. The network of routes was quickly expanded to deal with increased demand in the growing colony of Victoria. Although it was begun as a passenger service, Cobb & Co's reputation for speed and reliable service soon saw it being used for mail delivery and gold escort as well. In 1856, the coach line was sold to Thomas Davies. In 1861 it was sold again to the man whose initiative guaranteed its success, James Rutherford, who headed an association of several business partners. Rutherford moved headquarters to Bathurst, New South Wales in 1862, to take in the goldfields west of the Blue Mountains, and the network was expanded further.

In 1866, the service began operating in Queensland, with the first Cobb & Co coach in Queensland running from Brisbane to Ipswich. Passengers took the train from Ipswich to Grandchester, and another Cobb & Co service took them from Grandchester to Toowoomba. In 1969 the network took in Gympie, where gold had recently been discovered. It expanded to central western Queensland, including Clermont and Copperfield in the 1870s, and north to Palmer River, Charters Towers and Croydon by the 1880s. During the companys heyday, Cobb & Co coaches travelled as far as Normanton in the Gulf of Carpentaria, and to Port Douglas in the far north. Major depots were established at Barcaldine, Longreach, Winton and Charleville, the latter also becoming the site for more Cobb & Co workshops.

In the early 1920s, the development of the motor car, coupled with the changing political and economic climate in post-war Australia meant that coaches were no longer viable. The last Cobb & Co coach, number 112, ran from Yuleba to Surat, Queensland, on 14 August 1924.

1945  -             Japan surrenders in WWII.

Japan, a major antagonist in WWII, had suffered catastrophic losses following the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on August 6 and 9 respectively, and conventional attacks upon other major cities, such as the firebombing of Tokyo. The Soviet invasion of Manchuria debilitated the only significant forces the Japanese still had left. The USA had captured the islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa, bringing the Japanese homeland within range of naval and air attack. Hundreds of thousands of people had been killed, and millions more were casualties or refugees of war.

Japan surrendered to the Allies on 14 August 1945, when Emperor Hirohito accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, also known as the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender. The official surrender papers were signed on 2 September 1945 aboard the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay.

1963  -             The Yirrkala Bark Petitions are presented to the Australian Parliament, becoming a catalyst to the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Commonwealth law.

The Yirrkala Bark Petitions were pair of bark paintings sent to the Australian Parliament in 1963. They were signed by 13 clan leaders of the Yolngu people of Yirrkala on the Gove Peninsula in northeast Arnhem Land, Northern Territory, in response to the announcement by Prime Minister Robert Menzies that bauxite mining leases could be granted by the Federal Government. The Yolngu people sought recognition of their rights to the land they had traditionally occupied by using traditional forms, combining bark painting with text typed on paper for the petitions the first of their kind.

The Bark petitions protested the granting of mining rights on 300 square kilometres of land which had been excised from Arnhem Land, and called for the government to reconsider its decision. They also requested that a Parliamentary committee be sent to speak directly with tribal elders. There had been no consultation with Aboriginal leaders regarding the mining licences, and the Yolngu people were concerned that the mining would not only disturb their sacred sites, but restrict their own access to such sites.

The petitions were first tabled in the House of Representatives on 14 August 1963 by Jock Nelson, Member of Parliament for the Northern Territory, and again on 28 August by the Leader of the Opposition, Arthur Caldwell. The first traditional documents to be recognised by the Commonwealth Parliament of Australia, the documents sought to gain the Commonwealth Parliament's recognition of rights to traditional indigenous lands on the Gove Peninsula. Although the petitions did not achieve constitutional change directly, they were a catalyst to the process of legislative and constitutional reform which led to the eventual recognition of Indigenous rights and people in Australian law. They brought about changes to the Constitution in the 1967 referendum, which led to the statutory acknowledgement of Aboriginal land rights a decade later, and the overturning of the concept of terra nullius by the High Court in 1992. Thus, the petitions were instrumental in shaping the nations acknowledgment of Aboriginal people and their native land rights.

2000  -             An operation gets underway to rescue the men stranded in the sunk Russian submarine, the 'Kursk', in the Arctic Circle.

Two days earlier, the Russian submarine 'Kursk' was on an exercise of firing dummy torpedoes at a battlecruiser when an explosion ripped through the first two of nine compartments. As the 'Kursk' hit the seabed, more on-board torpedoes exploded, registering 1.5 on the Richter scale, blasting a two-metre-square hole in the hull and ripping open the third and fourth compartments. Russia waited two days before it released details of the accident to the world, on 14 August 2000, by which time the country had sent out ten of its own ships to the distressed submarine. There was no radio contact with the survivors in the 'Kursk', only the sound of them pounding on the hull. By the time any other nations could offer assistance, the 'Kursk' was lying lifeless and powerless 150m down on the seabed of the Barents Sea. The delay contributed to the loss of all on board.

A salvage team from the Netherlands was finally able to retrieve the 'Kursk' in October 2001.

2003  -             North America suffers a power outage affecting over 50 million people.

The United States has suffered a number of major power outages in the last few decades, with millions of consumers affected in 1965, 1977 and 1996. To date, the biggest was the one that occurred in the middle of summer, on 14 August 2003, hitting the northeastern states and Canada.

50 million people were affected in a massive breakdown in the power grid which was initially attributed to terrorist attack. However, investigations later indicated that the fault lay mainly with the Ohio-based plant operator, FirstEnergy. When one of FirstEnergy's plants shut down unexpectedly, it severed a major supply route into the main electrical grid. The alarm system failed to alert employees to the problem, meaning that the plant did not opt out of the electrical grid. This created enormous extra demands on neighbouring power grids, which in turn caused overloading, and ultimately led to a domino effect as other power supplies failed one by one. Many areas had power restored within 30 hours, although full service to all affected areas was not restored for a week.

Cheers - John

Dougwe wrote:

---

2000.....If I remember correctly, Rocky, didn't Australia offer assistance and Russia refused to accept the help???

---

Hello Dougwe

A lot of countries offered their help and expertise

England had even sent a rescue ship which was carrying a Norwegian bathysphere type vessel, from the North Sea Oil Rigs, hovering nearby.
Russia refused to let it get close.

Hello rockylizard

Re 1875 - The Queenslander newspaper reports on the first ever game of Association Football, later Soccer, played in Australia.

No disrespect intended but
If the first game of footy played in Brisbane, had one team made up of the inmates and warders of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum?

Tongue in cheek
Would there have been a bit of mayhem on the field?

Gday...

You stimulated my thoughts Tony, so I did a bit of searching.

I found this article for 14 August 1875 ... seems to cover the subject of the soccer game/s between Brisbane Football Club and the inmates and warders of the Woogaroo Lunatic Asylum

I offer it for what ever it may be worth for information.

cheers - John

Gday...

1663  -             A huge fireball descends over the town of Robozero, Russia, ascends again, then reappears once more.

Robozero is a small Russian village about 1120km from St Petersburg. The story of the huge fireball that descended over Robozero is documented by a monastery monk. Around midday on 15 August 1663, a huge ball of fire estimated to be 45m wide, with two beams of fire shooting out from the front, descended out of the perfectly clear sky and hovered over the village lake.

The fireball was noisy and emitted blue smoke. It disappeared for an hour, then returned to the same place, where it stayed for another hour and a half, lighting up the entire lake to its full depth of about 9m, and causing severe burns to some fishermen. Fish tried to escape the unusual phenomenon by throwing themselves up on dry land. An unusual rust deposit coated the lake for quite a few weeks afterwards, and fish caught there glowed and displayed burn marks.

1769  -             Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor of France, is born.

Napoléon Bonaparte was born Napoleone Buonaparte in Ajaccio, Corsica, on 15 August 1769. His father, Carlo Buonaparte, was an attorney and Corsica's representative to the court of Louis XVI of France in 1778, so Napoleon later adopted a more French form of his name. He began his military career at the age of 16, and rapidly advanced through the ranks. Famed for being an excellent military strategist, he deposed the French Directory in 1799 and proclaimed himself First Consul of France. His military forays into Europe were highly successful, and by 1807 he ruled territory stretching from Portugal to Italy and north to the river Elbe. Napoleon crowned himself Emperor of France on 2 December 1804, at Notre-Dame Cathedral.

Despite Napoleon's military successes, he failed in his aim to conquer the rest of Europe. He was defeated in Moscow in 1812 in a move which nearly destroyed his empire, and his 1815 loss to the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo resulted in his exile to the island of St Helena, where he died in 1821. However, his codification of laws, the Napoleonic Code, remains the foundation of French civil law.

1904  -             Dalgety is named as the site of the future Federal Capital Territory of Australia.

Prior to 1901, Australia was made up of six self-governing colonies; New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, Queensland, Western Australia and Tasmania. These colonies were ultimately under British rule from the time the First Fleet landed, in 1788, until 1901. Numerous politicians and influential Australians through the years pushed for federation of the colonies, and self-government. On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. With the establishment of a new nation came the need to build a federal capital.

Rivalry between Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, meant that neither should become the nation's capital. Section 125 of the Constitution of Australia provided that:

"The seat of Government of the Commonwealth shall be determined by the Parliament, and shall be within territory which shall have been granted to or acquired by the Commonwealth, and shall be vested in and belong to the Commonwealth, and shall be in the State of New South Wales, and be distant not less than one hundred miles from Sydney.

Such territory shall contain an area of not less than one hundred square miles, and such portion thereof as shall consist of Crown lands shall be granted to the Commonwealth without any payment therefore. The Parliament shall sit at Melbourne until it meets at the seat of Government."

Numerous sites were evaluated by members of Parliament. The site for the national capital could not be on the coast, as this could cause it to be susceptible to enemy bombardment. The necessity for a naval port was satisfied by the acquisition of federal land at Jervis Bay. The climate needed to be bracing, to ensure clear minds for political decision-making. There could be no established urban development or industry already, and access to sufficient water was a necessity. It needed to be in an elevated position, preferably surrounded by picturesque mountains.

Locations raised for consideration were Albury, Armidale, Bathurst, Bombala, Dalgety, Delegate, Goulburn, Lake George, Lyndhurst, Orange, Queanbeyan, Tumut, Wagga Wagga and Yass. On 15 August 1904, the Seat of Government Act named Dalgety as the site of Australias future Federal Capital Territory. However, there were concerns that Dalgety was too far from Sydney and too close to the Victorian border. Therefore, in 1908, the former Limestone Plains region of YassCanberra superseded Dalgety as the site for the federal capital.

1945  -             Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley announces the end of the war against Japan, on what is now known as VP Day (Victory in the Pacific) in Australia.

On 14 August 1945, Japan accepted the Allied demand for unconditional surrender following the devastating atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. On this day, Emperor Hirohito accepted the terms of the Potsdam Declaration, also known as the Proclamation Defining Terms for Japanese Surrender. On 15 August 1945, Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley officially announced the end of the war against Japan. August 15 has subsequently been commemorated as "Victory in the Pacific" or "VP Day" since then.

Japan's formal surrender took place two and a half weeks later, on 2 September, when Japanese envoys boarded the USS Missouri in Tokyo Bay and officially signed the surrender document. Under the Potsdam Declaration, to this day Japan's sovereignty remains confined to the islands of Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, along with some minor islands determined by the allies.

VP Day is also known as VJ (Victory over Japan) Day in other countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States and New Zealand. The day is still observed with respect by veterans and members of the Defence forces.

1945  -             Allied nations celebrate Victory over Japan (VJ) Day.

In the closing days of World War II, Japan had been delivered an ultimatum to surrender on 28 July 1945, but had refused to do so. Because of this, the USA felt its only recourse was to hit hard at the heart of Japanese armament production by dropping atomic bombs on two major cities, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Following the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Japanese Emperor conceded that continued fighting would only destroy what was left of Japan, and quite possibly lead to the annihilation of the human race. The Japanese surrendered on 14 August 1945, and the announcement was made the following day. Thus, 15 August 1945 marked VJ Day, the end of World War II. The Japanese Government agreed to comply in full with the Potsdam declaration which demanded the unconditional surrender of Japan. The end of WWII was celebrated with two-day holidays in the USA, UK and Australia.

In Australia, VJ Day has always been known as VP Day, for Victory in the Pacific, despite some myths suggesting the name was changed from Victory over Japan.

1950  -             Princess Anne, second child of Princess Elizabeth, later Queen Elizabeth II, is born.

Before her coronation in 1956, Queen Elizabeth II had two children. As Princess Elizabeth, she gave birth to Charles, first in line to the throne, then Princess Anne. Anne Elizabeth Alice Louise, official title Princess Anne of Edinburgh, was born at 11:50am on 15 August 1950. The birth was celebrated with the firing of the Royal Salute at 3:30pm in Hyde Park, by the King's Troop of the Royal Horse Artillery.

1985  -             The opal is made the state gemstone of South Australia.

Opal is a precious stone which shows a variety of iridescent colours from reds, pinks and purples to yellows, greens and blues. The brilliant colours are produced by the diffraction of light through microscopic spheres within the opal which split the white light into all the colours of the spectrum. Along with diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire, opal is one of the most valuable of gemstones.

Opal was first discovered in Australia in 1849 near Angaston, South Australia, by German geologist Johannes Menge. Australia now produces around 97% of the world's opal. It is mined mainly in the Quilpie-Yowah region of western Queensland and Lightning Ridge in north-west New South Wales, as well as significant fields in South Australia. The fields at Coober Pedy, Mintabie and Andamooka in the central north of the state produce around 80% of the Earth's total production. Because of South Australia's rich opal fields, the opal was adopted as the state gemstone on 25 August 1985. It is also Australia's national gemstone.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re the attachment about the newspaper report of the soccer match in Brisbane

It certainly was a colourful description LOL, so thanks for that

Quote
It is regretted that the Asylum people cannot come to Brisbane to play before the metropolitan audience, but ill natured people, who decry football, say that it makes no difference, seeing that all who play the game are either in Woogaroo, or ought to be there if they got their deserts
Unquote

Re August 15 1663 - A huge fireball descends over the town of Robozero, Russia, ascends again, then reappears once more.

First I heard of this one
It does make you wonder, what it was

Gday...

1861  -             South Australian John McKinlay departs Adelaide to search for the missing Burke and Wills expedition.

The Burke and Wills expedition was supposed to mark the state of Victoria's greatest triumph: Victoria hoped to be the first state to mount an expedition to cross the continent from south to north. Instead, due to mismanagement and lack of clear communication, three of the four members of the party who finally made the attempt to cross to the gulf and back, never made it back. Robert O'Hara Burke, William John Wills and Charles Gray all died. John King alone survived, after being taken in and nursed by the Aborigines of the Cooper Creek area.

Although the expedition had been financed by the colony of Victoria, several other states mounted their own rescue missions for Burke and Wills, who were long overdue to return. John McKinlay, born at Sandbank on the Clyde in 1819, first came to New South Wales in 1836. He joined his uncle, a wealthy grazier, under whose guidance he soon gained practical bush skills, and then took up several runs in South Australia. McKinlay was chosen to head up the South Australian relief expedition for Burke and Wills, setting out from Adelaide on 16 August 1861. During the course of his search, McKinlay's journals show that he crossed the continent from south to north, then east and back again, possibly making McKinlay the uncredited first explorer to cross the continent and survive. The remains of Burke and Wills were eventually located by the Victorian relief expedition.

1884  -             Hugo Gernsback, the American publisher credited with the establishment of science fiction as an independent literary form, is born.

Hugo Gernsback was born in Luxembourg on 16 August 1884, and immigrated to the USA in 1905. As an inventor, he held 80 patents. He was also a publisher, and the owner of a magazine called Modern Electrics. In 1911, the need to fill in a blank section of the magazine prior to publishing the current issue led him to quickly write the first chapter of series called 'Ralph 124C 41+'. The 12-part story, whilst somewhat devoid of any real storyline, detailed a variety of wild inventions unheard of in 1926, including fluorescent lighting, juke boxes, solar energy, microfilm, vending machines, television and radar.

Following the success of the 'Ralph' series, in 1926 Gernsback founded 'Amazing Stories', which was the first magazine dedicated to the genre of science fiction. In 1996, Gernsback was one of the inaugural inductees into the Science Fiction and Fantasy Hall of Fame.

1896  -             Gold is found in Alaska, sparking the Klondike goldrush.

Klondike is a region of the Yukon Territory in Northwest Canada, just east of the Alaskan border. On 16 August 1896, rich gold deposits were found in Bonanza (Rabbit) Creek, a tributary of the Klondike River. This sparked the Klondike goldrush of 189798. News of the discovery reached the United States in July, 1897, and within a month thousands of people were leaving their homes and jobs and pouring into the north. Over the next six months, approximately 100,000 gold-seekers set off for the Yukon: only 30,000 completed the trip.

1898  -             Edwin Prescott patents the roller coaster.

The roller coaster was designed and patented by Edwin Prescott of Arlington, Massachusetts on 16 August 1898. It was named by the U.S. patent office as "the pleasure railway." The first design was a simple one which included just a single circular loop. The design caused an uncomfortable shock to passengers as the car entered the loop, so was hardly a pleasure to ride. Subsequently, in 1901 a loop-the-loop centrifugal railway was patented by Prescott. The new roller coaster was more comfortable to ride as it replaced the rough approach to the loop with a gentler curve, and had other modifications to improve the overall ride.

1951  -             The Australian Financial Review is launched.

The Australian Financial Review is a broadsheet newspaper published six days a week by Fairfax Media, one of the largest media companies in Australia and New Zealand. The publication aims to provide an independent source of business, investment, financial and political news.

The Australian Financial Review was launched on 16 August 1951 as a weekly newspaper. From October 1961 it was produced bi-weekly, and in 1963 it became a daily newspaper from Monday to Friday. In February 1995, a magazine supplement, the Australian Financial Review Magazine, was introduced, and in September 1997, the first Saturday edition of the newspaper was launched.

1977  -             Elvis Presley, king of rock 'n' roll, dies.

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

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

1995  -             Microsoft launches the first version of Microsoft Internet Explorer.

The first version of the now ubiquitous Internet Explorer browser, was launched on 16 August 1995. A revised version of the Spyglass Mosaic browser which had been licensed from Spyglass Inc. integrated with the Windows 95 platform and, coming after the original Mosaic browser, it offered a seemless Web browsing experience for the novice and experienced user alike.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re 1977 - Elvis Presley, king of rock 'n' roll, dies.

No disrespect intended, but I thought that he died of an overdose of prescription drugs, that led to his heart attack

RIP Elvis

Gday...

Like Norma Jean, I guess we will never know the real truth However, I found this for what its worth ...

"Drug use was heavily implicated" in Presley's death, writes Guralnick. "No one ruled out the possibility of anaphylactic shock brought on by the codeine pills ... to which he was known to have had a mild allergy." A pair of lab reports filed two months later each strongly suggested that polypharmacy [The practice of prescribing multiple medications for an individual patient, especially excessively, for a single disease] was the primary cause of death; one reported "fourteen drugs in Elvis' system, ten in significant quantity." Forensic historian and pathologist Michael Baden views the situation as complicated: "Elvis had had an enlarged heart for a long time. That, together with his drug habit, caused his death. But he was difficult to diagnose; it was a judgment call."

The competence and ethics of two of the centrally involved medical professionals were seriously questioned. Before the autopsy was complete and toxicology results known, medical examiner Dr. Jerry Francisco declared the cause of death as cardiac arrhythmia, a condition that can be determined only in someone who is still alive. Allegations of a cover-up were widespread. While Presley's main physician, Dr. Nichopoulos, was exonerated of criminal liability for the singer's death, the facts were startling: "In the first eight months of 1977 alone, he had [prescribed] more than 10,000 doses of sedatives, amphetamines and narcotics: all in Elvis's name." His license was suspended for three months. It was permanently revoked in the 1990s after the Tennessee Medical Board brought new charges of over-prescription.

Amidst mounting pressure in 1994, the Presley autopsy was reopened. Coroner Dr. Joseph Davis declared, "There is nothing in any of the data that supports a death from drugs. In fact, everything points to a sudden, violent heart attack." Whether or not combined drug intoxication was in fact the cause, there is little doubt that polypharmacy contributed significantly to Presley's premature death.

Also

DNA from Elvis' hair suggests he suffered from a genetic heart muscle disease, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

He appeared to suffer symptoms of the condition in his final years, including an irregular heartbeat, fatigue, fainting and high blood pressure.

The new findings suggest that regardless of his diet, the iconic singer was always destined to die young.

Elvis and his doctor have both been blamed over the years for his premature death. It was thought his overeating or overdosing on drugs had killed him.

"Whilst those addictions would have helped, this new evidence suggests Elvis may have had a flaw in his DNA and his early death was his genetic destiny."

During three months of DNA testing, problems were found on chromosome 11 - a variant known to cause hypertophic cardiomyopathy - a heart muscle disease that usually occurs in men between 20 and 40.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1807  -             Work commences on the Bell Rock Lighthouse, considered one of the "Seven Wonders of the Industrial World".

The Bell Rock Lighthouse, in the North sea, is the world's oldest offshore lighthouse. Situated 18 kilometres off the coast of Angus, Scotland, for many years Bell Rock was notorious for the danger it posed to ships, as it lies just under the surface of the water for all but a few hours at low tide. In one storm alone during the late 17th century, 70 ships were lost. Also known as Inchcape Rock, Bell Rock received its name after the Abbot from Arbroath tried to install a warning bell during the 14th century. Within a year, the bell had disappeared, either taken by Dutch pirates or lost during a storm.

Renowned Scottish engineer Robert Louis Stevenson initially proposed the construction of a lighthouse on Bell Rock in 1799, but the prohibitive costs and practicalities prevented further action. In 1804, the warship HMS York was wrecked on the rocks with over 500 crew, and all on board perished: this was enough to reignite interest in Stevenson's proposition.

Construction of the lighthouse began on 17 August 1807. The 60 workers lived on a ship moored over a kilometre from the rock for most of the day, rowing to the rock to work during the four hours it was uncovered. Finding this time-consuming, one of Stevenson's first actions was to construct a beacon house on tall wooden struts with living room for 15 men. Work was marred by an accident resulting in one worker's legs being crushed, the loss of two workers' lives and Stevenson's own personal loss of three of his children back home. Nonetheless, this incredible piece of engineering was finally completed in 1810. The beacon was first lit on 1 February 1811, and the man whose legs were crushed became the first lighthouse keeper.

2835 blocks of stone were used to construct the Bell Rock Lighthouse, whilst the total weight of masonry, the lantern and its apparatus is 2083.445 tons. The revolving light can be seen from land, 56.3km away. The lighthouse was automated in 1998.

1896  -             The UK's first ever fatality resulting from a car accident occurs.

Mrs Bridget Driscoll, a 44 year old housewife of Croydon, Surrey, achieved notoriety for being the victim of the world's first car crash in the UK resulting in a fatality. She was a pedestrian crossing the grounds of the Crystal Palace. As she and her daughter May crossed the road on 17 August 1896, an imported Roger-Benz which was part of a motoring exhibition being driven by Arthur James Edsall of Upper Norwood, approached. According to witnesses, the car hit Mrs Driscoll "at tremendous speed", about 6 kilometres per hour. The inquest into Mrs Driscoll's death lasted for about 6 hours, after which the jury returned a verdict of "accidental death". No prosecution was made. The coroner at the inquest, Percy Morrison, was the first to use the term "accident" to violence caused by speed, and stated, "This must never happen again."

1980  -             Two month old Azaria Chamberlain disappears while on a family camping holiday at Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia.

Uluru, also known as Ayers Rock, is a huge monolith in central Australia, second in size only to Mount Augustus, also in Australia. It has long been a popular tourist destination, but it gained a new notoriety on the night of 17 August 1980, when a baby girl went missing from the nearby camping ground.

Michael and Lindy Chamberlain and their three children had arrived at Ayers Rock just the day before. When baby Azaria disappeared, Lindy claimed that a dingo had stolen her baby. No trace of the child was ever found, although her bloodstained clothes were found a week later by another tourist. At the first inquest into her death, commencing in February 1981, it was found that the likely cause of Azaria's disappearance was a dingo attack.

Police and prosecutors moved for a second inquest which was held in September 1981. This time, the new finding was made that Azaria had been killed with a pair of scissors and held by a small adult hand until she stopped bleeding. Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murder on 29 October 1982. Her acquittal came several years later when a British tourist fell to his death from the Rock. When his body was finally located 8 days later amid an area full of dingo lairs, Azaria Chamberlain's missing jacket was also found. New evidence was presented showing that the methods of testing previous evidence had been unreliable, and no conviction could be made on those grounds. Lindy was released, and eventually awarded AU$1.3 million in compensation for wrongful imprisonment.

1999  -             1000 are feared dead as an earthquake hits Turkey: the eventual death toll is over 17,000.

 zmit is a city in the northwestern part of Anatolia, Turkey, by the Gulf of zmit and about 90 km east of stanbul. It is an important industrial centre, with a large oil refinery and major paper and cement industries. It is also a transportation hub, being located on the main road and rail lines between stanbul and Ankara, and having a major port.

Just after 3:00am local time on 17 August 1999, an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter scale hit the town of Izmit. Whole buildings collapsed, not having been constructed to withstand earthquakes. The earthquake had a rupture length of 150 kilometres and movement along the rupture was as large as 5.7 metres. Even Istanbul, 90km away, suffered building collapses in the quake. Over the next two hours, the area was rocked by at least ten strong aftershocks, which contributed further to the damage and loss of life.

Initial estimates put the death toll at 1000, but the real cost of the earthquake only became apparent later. The official death toll was about 17,000 although real numbers are thought to have been closer to 35,000.

2002  -             The Charles M Schulz Museum opens to the public, dedicated to the man who created the 'Peanuts' comic strip.

Charles Monroe Schulz was born in St Paul, Minnesota, on 26 November 1922. As a teenager he was shy and introverted, and when he created his comic strip 'Peanuts' he based the character of Charlie Brown on himself. Charlie Brown first appeared in the comic strip "Li'l Folks", published in 1947 by the St Paul Pioneer Press. In 1950, Schulz approached the United Features Syndicate with his best strips from "Li'l Folks", and "Peanuts" made its debut on 2 October 1950.

"Peanuts" ran for nearly 50 years, appearing in over 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. In 1999, Schulz had a stroke, and it was then discovered that he had colon cancer. Schulz died on 13 February 2000, just two months after announcing his retirement from drawing "Peanuts". After his death, comic strips all over the world paid tribute to Schulz and Peanuts within their own formats. The Charles M Schulz Museum was opened on 17 August 2002, for the purpose of preserving, displaying, and interpreting the art of Charles M Schulz.

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Thanks for the Elvis explanation, it was appreciated, that you went out of your way to dig it up

Re 1980 - Two month old Azaria Chamberlain disappears while on a family camping holiday at Uluru (Ayers Rock), Australia.

Around that time I lived in Kalgoorlie.
I read in a newspaper that a lady from the Bunbury area, had wrote to in to say

She had been at the same campsite and spoken to Lindy Chamberlain, and saw her with her baby, before the incident.
In her opinion, Lindy Chamberlain was not acting like the sort of mother, who would kill her child.

My opinion at the time, but now not so sure, was that the Chamberlain parents, may have been covering up for one of their other children

Gday...

1786  -             The decision is made in England to colonise New South Wales with convicts from Britain's overcrowded gaols.

Conditions in England in the 18th century were tough: the industrial revolution had removed many people's opportunities to earn an honest wage as simpler tasks were replaced by machine labour. As unemployment rose, so did crime, especially the theft of basic necessities such as food and clothing. The British prison system was soon full to overflowing, and a new place had to be found to ship the prison inmates. The American colonies were no longer viable, following the American war of Independence. Following James Cook's voyage to the South Pacific in 1770, the previously uncharted continent of New Holland proved to be suitable. Cook had claimed the eastern half of the continent for England, naming it "New South Wales", and determined that a small bay in the south which he named "Botany Bay" would present the ideal conditions for a penal colony.

On 18 August 1786 the decision was made to send a colonisation party of convicts, military and civilian personnel to Botany Bay, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, who was appointed Governor-designate. The First Fleet consisted of 775 convicts on board six transport ships, accompanied by officials, crew, marines and their families who together totalled 645. As well as the convict transports, there were two naval escorts and three storeships.

The First Fleet assembled in Portsmouth, England, and set sail on 13 May 1787. They arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Phillip immediately determined that there was insufficient fresh water, an absence of usable timber, poor quality soil and no safe harbour at Botany Bay. Thus the fleet was moved to Port Jackson, arriving on 26 January 1788. Australia Day, celebrated annually on January 26, commemorates the landing of the First Fleet at Port Jackson, and the raising of the Union Jack to claim the land as belonging to England.

1937  -             The Toyota Motor Company is founded.

The Toyota Motor Company, Ltd. is a Japanese automobile manufacturing company. It began as a division of the Toyota Automatic Loom Works and was founded on 18 August 1937. As a producer of a range of SUVs, one of its first export markets was exporting its Landcruiser model to Australia in the late 1950s. During the 1960s and 1970s Toyota underwent significant expansion, acquiring Hino Motors, Ltd., Nippondenso Company, Ltd., and the Daihatsu Motor Company Ltd. Toyota is currently Japan's largest automobile manufacturer.

1941  -             Hitler suspends his euthanasia program of the mentally ill and handicapped.

The T-4 Euthanasia program of the mentally ill and handicapped was another atrocity introduced by Hitler in Nazi Germany. It was established in 1939 for the purpose of maintaining the genetic purity of the German population by killing citizens who were physically deformed, disabled, handicapped, or suffering from mental illness. Selected victims were initially children, although later the programme was extended to include adults. They were executed by means of gassing, suffocation, injection, poisoning, starvation, or overdose of medication.

70,000 people had been exterminated by the time Hitler suspended the programme on 18 August 1941. The temporary halt was due to vocal protests from relatives of the victims, and churches. However, the programme was not terminated: it was merely carried out in greater secrecy. In all, about 200,000 people became victims of the T-4 Euthanasia programme before Hitler's attentions turned to the extermination of the Jewish people.

1964  -             South Africa is banned from the Olympic Games because of its apartheid policies.

Apartheid was an official policy of racial segregation under which the black majority was segregated, and was denied political, social and economic rights equal to those given to whites. It commenced in South Africa in 1948, and continued through to the early 1990s. South Africa's policy of apartheid led to the country being banned from participating in the Tokyo Olympics on 18 August 1964. The IOC would only overturn the ruling if South Africa renounced racial discrimination in sport, and removed the ban within its own country on competition between white and black athletes.

Initially, South Africa made a halfhearted attempt to compromise by including seven non-whites in their team of 62 Olympic hopefuls. However, the government was not prepared to make the required public announcement renouncing all racial discrimination in sport. The IOC therefore banned South Africa from competing in any Olympic Games until the country repealed all of its apartheid laws in 1991; this allowed South Africa to finally compete in the 1992 Barcelona games.

1966  -             Battle of Long Tan

Eighteen Australians were killed in the Battle of Long Tan and 24 wounded, all but one of the dead were from D Company.

http://vietnam-war.commemoration.gov.au/combat/battle-of-long-tan.php

Cheers - John

Hello rockylizard

Re 1966 - Battle of Long Tan
 
Lest we Forget

My name was in the ballot the following year, but my birth date was not drawn out

Over the years, I have met several ex NASHO's who resent the fact that some of their colleagues were spat upon, when they returned home

In my opinion, so I could be wrong
The only difference between us and them, from that era, is that our birth dates were not drawn out at the ballot

In that era, and at that age (19), most of us done as we were told, or faced the consequences

Gday...

1755  -             It is reported that a large quantity of earwigs are destroying Stroud, England.

Earwigs are elongated, flattish insects characterised by forceps-like protuberances at the end of their abdomens. They can vary in size from 5mm to 5cm long. They are found across the globe, and tend to hide under leaf litter, bark, stones and debris, and in crevices.

On 19 August 1755, it was reported that enormous quantities of earwigs had rained down over Stroud, England. The "Historical Chronicle of the Gentleman's Magazine" stated that vast amounts of earwigs had destroyed flowers and fruits, and even the cabbages. Earwigs had penetrated most of the houses, particularly the older wooden ones, covering the floors and filling every crack and crevice. Linen and furniture were full of earwigs, and people were advised to eat their provisions stored in cupboards with great caution.

1839  -             Louis Daguerre invents the daguerreotype photographic process, allowing an image to be chemically fixed as a permanent picture.

Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre was born on 18 November 1787 in Cormeilles-en-Parisis. He experimented on making pictures from 1824, showing dioramas around France, England and Scotland, until he became interested in the emerging field of photography.

Daguerreotype is an early photographic process by which a photograph is produced with the image made on a light-sensitive silver-coated metallic plate. It is a direct-positive process, creating a highly detailed image on a sheet of copper plated with a thin coat of silver without the use of a negative. Daguerre's invention was announced by the French Government on 19 August 1839. The daguerreotype photographic process was the first to allow an image to be chemically fixed as a permanent picture. Popular for many years, the daguerreotype was replaced in the 1850s by the ambrotype, which was both faster and cheaper.

1871  -             American pioneer aviator Orville Wright is born.

Orville Wright was born in Dayton, Ohio, on 19 August 1871. Together with his brother Wilbur, he operated a bicycle repair, design and manufacturing company, the Wright Cycle Company, and used the venture to fund his interest in flying. In 1903 the Wright brothers invented the first powered airplane, "Flyer", capable of sustained, controlled flight. The aircraft was tested at Kitty Hawk in North Carolina, making the first ever manned powered flight which lasted for 12 seconds. By 1905, their "Flyer III" was capable of remaining airborne for over 39 minutes, travelling at 39 kph.

As the Wright brothers' designs and flight capabilities improved, they sold many aircraft, but competition from European designers became too great. After Wilbur died of typhoid in 1912, Orville sold his interest in the Wright aeroplane company. He died of a heart attack in 1948.

1907  -             The rabbit-proof fence, the longest fence in the world, is completed.

Rabbits, an introduced species in Australia, have long been considered pests. Since 21 rabbits were released for the purpose of recreational hunting on Christmas Day 1859 by Victorian farmer Thomas Austin, their numbers have increased exponentially. Rabbits are responsible for widespread damage to the agricultural industry as well as to the environment, competing with native species for food and digging shallow burrows that destroy the deeper burrows of marsupials such as the bilby.

By the 1890s, rabbits had reached plague proportions across New South Wales and Victoria. By 1896, they had even spread to Western Australia. As a result, the Western Australian Undersecretary for Lands sent surveyor Arthur Mason towards the southeast of the state to report on the extent of the problem. Mason recommended the construction of a series of fences, one along the border with South Australia and another further west, to limit further spread of the pest. A 1901 Royal Commission ordered a fence be built from the southern coast of Western Australia to Eighty Mile Beach in the northwest. Construction began that same year.

This fence, known as the No 1 Rabbit Proof Fence, ran for 1837 km, the longest line of unbroken fence in the world. The fence utilised wooden posts, 12 1/2 gauge plain wires and wire netting, and extended 15cm into the soil, with 90cm of fencing exposed above ground. Construction took six years, and during this time rabbits were located outside the No 1 Fence, necessitating the construction of two more fences. Rabbit Fence No 2 began at Point Ann on the southern coastline and joined No 1 Fence at Gum Creek, a distance of 1166km. Fence No 3, a mere 257 km in length, ran west from the coast north of Geraldton to meet Fence No 2.

Construction of the No 1 Rabbit-proof fence was completed at Port Hedland in the north on 19 August 1907. Initially, the fence was patrolled and maintained by inspectors under the direction of the Chief Inspector of Rabbits, Alexander Crawford. Although not as effective against the spread of rabbits as first envisioned, the fence still stands today, with sections being maintained by property owners and local councils.

1921  -             Gene Roddenberry, creator of the Star Trek phenomenon, is born.

Eugene Wesley Roddenberry was born in El Paso, Texas, on 19 August 1921. After moving to Los Angeles when Roddenberry was very young, his father became a police officer. Roddenberry initially studied Criminal Justice, but then joined the Civilian Pilot Training Program, becoming a pilot. He flew bombing missions in the South Pacific during WWII, but two crashes led him to give up flying. After then following in his father's footsteps as a police officer, he found more satisfaction and monetary rewards in writing scripts for TV police dramas.

As a fan of science fiction, Roddenberry set his sights towards writing a sci-fi TV script. 'Star Trek' debuted in 1966. Although it ran for only three years and was never a top rating show, it became a cult classic. From the initial 'Star Trek' came six motion pictures, then the further series of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation' and accompanying motion pictures, 'Star Trek: Deep Space Nine', 'Star Trek: Voyager' and 'Star Trek: Enterprise'.

Roddenberry died on 24 October 1991. He was one of the first people to be sent posthumously into space: a small capsule of his ashes was sent into orbit for six years, after which they burned up in the earth's atmosphere. An asteroid called 4659 Roddenberry and a crater on Mars have been named in his honour.

1930  -             The two halves of the Sydney Harbour Bridge are joined.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge connects the Sydney CBD with the North Shore commercial and residential areas on Sydney Harbour. The Sydney Harbour Bridge is the largest steel arch bridge in the world, though not the longest, with the top of the bridge standing 134 metres above the harbour. At 48.8 m wide, it is the widest bridge in the world (as of 2004). In 1912, John Bradfield was appointed chief engineer of the bridge project, which also had to include a railway. Plans were completed in 1916 but the advent of WWI delayed implementation until 1922. Construction of the bridge began in 1924, and took 1400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 million. Sixteen lives were lost during its construction, while up to 800 families living in the path of the proposed Bridge path were relocated and their homes demolished when construction started.

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

1960  -             Sputnik 5, the first satellite to carry animals into orbit and back, is launched.

Sputnik 5, also known as Korabl-Sputnik 2, was the second test flight of the Russian Vostok spacecraft. It was launched on 19 August 1960, and carried two dogs, Belka and Strelka, 40 mice, 2 rats and numerous plants. A card accompanied Sputnik 5 requesting the finder not to open the capsule but to set it upright, and to leave it exactly where it had landed, in case the capsule landed outside the recovery zone. The spacecraft returned to earth on August 20, and all animals were recovered safely.

2008  -             It is reported that a British man returns from holiday to find friends mourning his death.

    It pays to always tell someone when you're going on holiday.

On 19 August 2008, it was reported that 49-year-old Michael O'Neill, from Middlesbrough, England, made a spur-of-the-moment decision to go on holiday to Australia. He failed to inform friends and neighbours of his plans. Growing concerned at his absence, his neighbours called in the police, who broke down the door to O'Neill's flat but found no trace of where he could be.

By an amazing coincidence, a death notice was placed in the local newspaper, informing readers of the demise of a Michael O'Neill of Middlesbrough, who had two brothers named Terry and Kevin - the same names as the first O'Neill's brothers. When O'Neill returned from holiday, he found himself being mourned for his premature passing.

At last reports, O'Neill is still alive and well in Middlesbrough

Cheers - John

1930......Hey Rocky mate, did it fall apart ? It was only a short time ago you told us about it opening  

As usual great edumacational information mate.

Gday...

1836  -             Colonel William Light arrives in South Australia to survey a site for the first settlement.

Colonel William Light was born in Malaya in 1786, the son of the founder and Governor of Penang. Educated in England, he joined the British navy at age 14. Following an illustrious naval career, he sold his commission at the age of 35. He travelled Europe and northern Africa, and in Egypt worked with John Hindmarsh, who was appointed first Governor of South Australia in 1835. It was upon Hindmarshs recommendation that Light became the Surveyor General in the new colony.

Travelling on the ship Rapid from London, Colonel Light arrived at Kangaroo Island on 20 August 1836. His task was to survey the area around Nepean Bay in order to establish the first settlement in South Australia. However, the lack of surface water or suitable arable land caused him to seek a better site on the mainland. He surveyed the west coast of the Fleurieu Peninsula, around Rapid Bay, following up on the exploration of Captain Collet Barker, who had already recommended the current site of Adelaide, but who had been speared by Aborigines while exploring around the Murray mouth. Although Lights chosen site for Adelaide clashed with Governor Hindmarshs preference for a more openly coastal site, in the end Lights decision prevailed.

Colonel Light began surveying Adelaide in January 1837, and completed his survey in March 1837. He then commenced the task of naming streets and squares in the new town on 23 May 1837.

1857  -             121 people die when the ship, the 'Dunbar', runs aground at The Gap, Sydney.

The Dunbar was a first class sailing vessel, and, at 1,320 tonnes, was the largest of the time to be built at Sunderland shipyards in England. The vessel left Plymouth on 31 May 1857, carrying 63 passengers and 59 crew.

On the night of 20 August 1857, the Dunbar approached the heads of Sydney Harbour. It seems that the captain, though experienced in Sydney waters, was disoriented by the driving rain and gale conditions. Possibly he mistook 'The Gap', a spectacular ocean cliff near South Head, for the entrance to Sydney Harbour. The swell pushed the ship into the reef at the foot of South Head and the Dunbar began to break up immediately. Only one person survived: 23 year old Irish seaman James Johnson, who was flung into the cliffs where he managed to gain a foothold, remaining there until he was noticed clinging to a ledge in the morning.

A mass funeral was held on 24 September for those who died in the shipwreck, as many of them were unidentified. A monument to the victims still sits at St Stephen's Cemetery, Camperdown.

1860  -             Australian explorers Burke and Wills commence their expedition to cross the continent from south to north.

Robert O'Hara Burke and William Wills led the expedition that was intended to bring fame and prestige to Victoria: being the first to cross Australia from south to north and back again. They set out on Monday, 20 August 1860, leaving from Royal Park, Melbourne, and farewelled by around 15,000 people. The cost of the expedition was almost 5,000 pounds.

Because of the size of the exploration party, it was split at Menindee so that Burke could push ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller party. The smaller group went on ahead to establish the depot which would serve to offer the necessary provisions for when the men returned from the Gulf. The expedition to the Gulf took longer than Burke anticipated: upon his return to Cooper Creek, he found that the relief party had left just seven hours earlier, less than the amount of time it had taken to bury Gray, who had died on the return journey. Through poor judgement, lack of observation and a series of miscommunications, Burke and Wills never found the supplies left for them by the relief party. They perished on the banks of Cooper Creek. King alone survived to lead the rescue party to the remains of Burke and Wills, and the death of one of the most elaborately planned expeditions in Australia's history.

1908  -             The first successful Australian transcontinental motor car journey is completed.

Australia's love affair with the car as a means of travelling the continent's huge distances began with the first transcontinental motor car trip. Engineer Horace Hooper Murrag Aunger was born on 28 April 1878 at Narridy, near Clare, South Australia. He collaborated with cycle maker Vivian Lewis and Tom O'Grady to build the first petrol-driven motorcar in South Australia. Aunger teamed up with Henry Hampden Dutton to be the first to cross Australia from south to north by motorcar. Their first attempt left Adelaide in Dutton's Talbot car on 25 November 1907, and travelled north through countryside suitable only for a modern 4WD. When the pinion in the Talbot's differential collapsed south of Tennant Creek, the car had to be abandoned as the wet season was approaching. Travelling on horseback, the men met the railhead at Oodnadatta, from where they returned to Adelaide.

Dutton then purchased a larger, more powerful vehicle, again a Talbot. The men made their second attempt to cross the continent from south to north, leaving Adelaide on 30 June 1908. They were joined at Alice Springs by Ern Allchurch. Reaching the abandoned Talbot at Tennant Creek, the car was repaired, and they drove in convoy to Pine Creek, where the original Talbot was freighted by train to Darwin. The men continued in the second Talbot, reaching Darwin on 20 August 1908. The car in which the men completed their journey now sits preserved in the Birdwood museum, South Australia.

1908  -             The 'Great White Fleet' arrives in Sydney, Australia.

The 'Great White Fleet', consisting of 16 new battleships of the Atlantic Fleet, was sent around the world by US President Theodore Roosevelt. Launched on 16 December 1907, it travelled down the eastern coast of America, around the southern cape and back up the western coast, as the Panama Canal had not yet been completed. After this, it continued on to various ports around the world. The fleet reached its final destination on 22 February 1909. The purpose of the fleet seemed to be as a show of American sea power, even though some of the ships were technically obsolete and no longer fit for battle.

The 'Great White Fleet' arrived in Sydney Harbour on 20 August 1908. After remaining there for seven days, it continued on to Melbourne, where it remained again for a week. The fleet then arrived in Albany, Western Australia, on September 11th, remaining for another week before setting sail for Manila.         

1977  -             The Voyager 2 spacecraft is launched, to become the first probe to visit Uranus and Neptune.

The Voyager programme was originally part of NASA's 'Mariner' programme. It involved sending unmanned space probes to Jupiter and Saturn, with Voyager 2 having the capability to continue on to Uranus and Neptune. Voyager 2 was launched on 20 August 1977, from Cape Canaveral, Florida. It carried a 12-inch copper phonograph record containing greetings in dozens of languages, samples of music and sounds of nature.

The mission provided valuable information about the nature of the gas giants. Voyager 2 closely examined the rings of Saturn but a problem with the steerable platform on which its optical instruments were mounted resulted in the loss of some significant high-resolution data. The problem corrected itself by the time the craft reached Uranus over four years later.

By late June 2010 Voyager 2 had completed 12,000 days of continuous operations. As of 1 November 2009, the spacecraft was located at 19.733 hours Right Ascension and -54.59 degrees declination. As observed from earth, it appeared to be in the constellation Telescopium. The spacecraft is expected to continue transmitting into the 2030s.

Cheers - John