Gday...

1512  -             Michelangelo's magnificent artwork on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel is exhibited to the public for the first time.

Michelangelo Buonarroti, considered by many to be the greatest of the Italian Renaissance artists, was born near Arezzo, in Caprese, Tuscany, Italy, in 1475. He was apprenticed to artist Domenico Ghirlandaio at age 13. Ghirlandaio was so impressed with his young protege that he recommended him to Lorenzo de' Medici, the ruler of the Florentine republic and a great patron of the arts. After demonstrating his mastery of sculpture in such works as the Pietý (1498) and David (1504), he was commissioned by Pope Julius II della Rovere in 1508 to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the chief consecrated space in the Vatican.

Michelangelo spent four years painting the epic ceiling frescoes, depicting detailed Biblical scenes. There are nine panels devoted to biblical world history, the most famous of which is The Creation of Adam, a painting in which the arms of God and Adam are stretching toward each other. Michelangelo's frescoes on the vaulted ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome were first shown to the public on 1 November 1512.

1539  -             Sea dikes burst in Holland, submerging much of the country and killing 400,000 people.

The Netherlands, or Holland, has always been well-known for its dykes. A dyke, or dike, is a stone or earthen wall constructed to reclaim land from the sea. In order to make the country inhabitable, people in the Netherlands needed to protect themselves against the sea and rivers flooding. They also drained the lowland areas as well. This was achieved by the construction of thousands of kilometres of dykes. Many dykes in early Holland were earthen or peat embankments, essential to the continued drainage of reclaimed land. In the sixteenth century, great storm surges caused large-scale dike slides, and on 1 November 1530, sea dikes burst in Holland, allowing the sea to burst through, submerging much of the country and killing 400,000 people.

1755  -             A massive earthquake and tsunami hits Lisbon, Portugal, killing between 60,000 and 90,000 people.

In 1755, Lisbon, capital city of Portugal, was a sophisticated and wealthy city. Considered to be a cultural centre of Europe, it had a population of around 250,000. On the evening of 31 October 1755, water in the city's wells developed an unusual taste, strange plumes of yellow smoke could be observed, and animals became agitated. At around 9:30am the next day, 1 November 1755, an earthquake estimated to have had a magnitude of 8.6 or higher hit about 200km offshore, killing 600 with its initial devastation and generating a catastrophic tsunami which hit the city 40 minutes later. The actual size of the earthquake is unknown, as there were no instruments for measuring earthquake magnitude at the time.

It is believed that the great Lisbon earthquake occurred along the Azores-Gibraltar fracture zone (AGFZ), which marks the boundary of significant tectonic activity between the African and Eurasian plates. The severe rocking motion of the ground weakened Lisbon's buildings so that they collapsed on the people fleeing through the streets. Being a Sunday and All Saints' Day, tens of thousands of people were worshipping in the city's great cathedrals such as Basilica de Santa Maria, Sao Vincente de Fora, Sao Paulo, Santa Catarina and the Misericordia. These all collapsed, killing thousands more.

The effects of the earthquake were felt on an even wider scale. Shock waves were felt throughout Europe and North Africa, over an area of more than two million square kilometres. In Lisbon, buildings that survived the earthquake and tsunami were devastated by a fire that raged for the next three days. Much of the cultural collections contained in the city were decimated as Lisbon's museums and libraries were destroyed. Archives, manuscripts, historical records and other precious documents were completely consumed, as were the invaluable records of the India Company. The inferno destroyed the king's palace and its 70,000-volume library. Over two hundred fine, priceless paintings, including paintings by Titan, Reubens, and Coreggio, were burned in the palace of the Marques de Lourcal.

1791  -             A party of convicts escapes from Parramatta, intending to walk to China.

Australia was originally settled by convicts and officers of the First Fleet. The fleet assembled in Portsmouth, England, and set sail on 13 May 1787. They arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. After determining that Botany Bay was unsuitable for settlement, Captain Arthur Phillip led the Fleet northwards to Port Jackson, arriving on 26 January 1788.

Conditions in the new colony were tough. The English tools could not stand up to the hard work of tilling the Australian soil, and they broke easily. The convicts were disinclined to work hard, many of them not being used to manual labour, and the heat and humidity of the Australian climate only added to their discomfort and lack of motivation to work. In addition, rations had to be meted out very carefully until farms could start producing crops. Many convicts were hungry enough to steal food, and punishment for theft was severe, ranging from lashing with a cat o' nine tails, or even death by hanging. Governor Phillip could not afford for any rations to be lost to theft, so he felt compelled to enforce harsh disciplinary measures. As a result, many convicts attempted escape.

It was not known what lay beyond the boundaries of the colony at Port Jackson, but many believed that China lay beyond the Blue Mountains. On 1 November 1791, a group of 20 or 21 male convicts and one pregnant female convict escaped from the gaol at Parramatta in an attempt to reach China. They took with them rations, tools and clothes. Whilst some of the convicts were recaptured, many simply died in the unfamiliar bushland of New South Wales.

1865  -             The first European explorer to see Ayers Rock, William Christie Gosse, is appointed Government Surveyor in the South Australian colony.

William Christie Gosse was born on 11 December 1842 in Hoddesdon, England. His parents migrated to Adelaide in 1850, where his father became a leading figure in Adelaide, being elected to the Board of the Adelaide Hospital, establishing the Home for Incurables, forming the second branch of the British Medical Association outside England and becoming the first warden of the Senate of the University of Adelaide.

William attended John Lorenzo Young's Adelaide Educational Institute on North Terrace, and joined the Government Survey Office in 1859. Gosse was appointed Government Surveyor on 1 November 1865. He gained considerable expertise and understanding of travel in the outback while working on the Overland Telegraph Line in 1872.

In 1873, Governor Goyder sent Gosse to open up a route from the recently completed Overland Telegraph Line at Alice Springs in Central Australia, to Perth. It was while on this expedition that Gosse made perhaps his greatest discovery: Uluru, or Ayers Rock. Gosse became became the first European explorer to see Ayers Rock, which he named in honour of former South Australian Premier, Sir Henry Ayers. Gosse discovered the rock, now known by its native name of Uluru, by accident during an expedition through Australia's interior. The need to find water for his camels forced him to take a more southerly course than he had originally planned, and in July 1873, he sighted Ayers Rock, recording that, "This rock is certainly the most wonderful natural feature I have ever seen".   

1884  -             Greenwich Mean Time (GMT) is adopted.

Greenwich Mean (or Meridian) Time (GMT) is the mean (average) time that the earth takes to rotate from noon-to-noon. GMT sets the current time or official time around the globe. The time zones division was officially adopted on 1 November 1884, at a meeting of the International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, USA. During the conference, the International Date Line was drawn up and 24 time zones created, every 15 meridians east and west of 0 (the prime meridian) at Greenwich, England.

1934  -             Billy Graham, the man who would become a world-wide evangelist, is converted to Christianity.

William Franklin "Billy" Graham was born on 7 November 1918, four days before the Armistice which ended World War I. He grew up on a dairy farm near Charlotte, North Carolina, working hard during the difficult Depression years, and he had little interest in spiritual matters. Graham credits his conversion to Mordecai Ham, a Baptist preacher who was determined to take the Gospel to people from all walks of life, from the well-off to the down-and-out, doggedly pursuing atheists with Gods Word. Ham visited Grahams home town in 1934. Initially, fifteen-year-old Billy was not ready to hear the Gospel, and he hid in the choir loft to escape Hams preaching. However, on the night of 1 November 1934, Billy Graham was convicted and converted by Ham's preaching.

In The Reason for my Hope, one of over thirty books he wrote, Billy Graham recalled:
On the night of November 1, 1934, my hardened soul was redeemed. I exchanged my will for Gods way. I traded my calloused heart for a cleansed soul. I had sought thrills. I found them in Christ. I had looked for something that would bring perfect joy and happiness. I found it in Christ. I had looked for something that would bring pleasure and would satisfy the deepest longing of my heart. I found it in Christ.

Graham was ordained in 1939 by a church in the Southern Baptist Convention. He studied at Florida Bible Institute, now Trinity College, and in 1943 he graduated from Wheaton College in Illinois. This was also the year he married his fellow student Ruth McCue Bell, who was the daughter of a missionary surgeon who had spent many years in China.

Graham first served at the First Baptist Church in Western Springs, Illinois. However, he rose to prominence after he joined Youth for Christ, an organisation founded for ministry to youth and servicemen during World War II. Considered by many to be the greatest Christian evangelist of the 20th century, in his lifetime Graham spoke the Gospel to live audiences totalling nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories across the continents - more than anyone else in history has ever reached. Including radio and television broadcasts, his lifetime audience is estimated to have exceeded 2.2 billion. During the 1950s, at a time when integration was unpopular in the US, Graham insisted that his revivals and crusades be open to all races. In 1957, he invited Martin Luther King Jr to share the podium with him at a revival in New York City. Graham was spiritual adviser to several American presidents including Dwight D. Eisenhower, Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon. Since 1955, Graham has appeared 55 times on American research-based, global company Gallup's list of the "Ten Most Admired Men in the World. His missionary work continues through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA), which was founded in 1950.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1755  -             Marie Antoinette, queen of France and wife of Louis XVI, is born.

Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna on 2 November 1755, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife Empress Maria Theresa. When a new peace treaty was signed between Austria and France, it was hoped that a royal marriage would seal the peace. At age fourteen, Marie Antoinette was chosen to marry the dauphin in France, who became King Louis XVI four years later.

Marie Antoinette embraced the lavish lifestyle with enthusiasm. She had little regard for the poor and struggling peasants, and spent money frivolously. For her attitude, she became the symbol of the people's hatred for the old regime during the French Revolution. When the French Revolution began, Marie Antionette supported the old regime. When the National Convention established the French Republic in 1792, Marie Antoinette and the king were imprisoned. Antoinette was beheaded on 16 October 1793.

1868  -             New Zealand becomes the first country to adopt a standard national time.

New Zealand is an island nation in the South Pacific, located approximately 2,250 km to the southeast of Australia. Although the first European discoverer was Abel Tasman, in 1642, New Zealand was claimed for Great Britain by James Cook in November 1769. Following Cook's visit to the islands, they were settled by whalers, missionaries, and traders. The islands were annexed by Great Britain early in 1840, and the first permanent European settlement established on 22 January 1840. Early in February, the Treaty of Waitangi was signed by over 500 Mori chiefs of New Zealand and the British Governor William Hobson, signalling that New Zealand was now an official colony of Great Britain. Initially part of the Australian colony of New South Wales, New Zealand became a separate colony in 1841 and attained self-government in 1852.

New Zealand is believed to be the first country in the world to adopt a standard time zone, doing so on 2 November 1868. The standard was known as New Zealand Mean Time (NZMT). This was even before the Greenwich Mean Time zone divisions were officially adopted in 1884. In 1941, clocks were advanced half an hour in a move which was made permanent in 1946, putting New Zealand exactly 12 hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time.

1903  -             Manly Council (Sydney) rescinds its by-law prohibiting bathing in the ocean during daylight hours.

In the 1800s, a Manly Council by-law (Sydney) prohibited swimming in the ocean during daylight hours, specifically between 6am and 8pm. William Henry Gocher was the proprietor of a local newspaper, who disagreed with the law enough to openly defy it. In his newspaper, the 'Manly and North Sydney News', he announced his intention to go bathing in the ocean during the daylight hours on 2 October 1902.

Gocher flouted the law three times before he was actually arrested. However, he maintained his campaign against the bathing laws, and a year later, on 2 November 1903, the Manly Council rescinded the by-law that prohibited bathing during daylight hours, specifically, after 7:00am. A new by-law was issued permitting bathing in daylight hours, but emphasising the need for neck-to-knee swimwear for anyone over 8 years old. Men and women were also required to swim at separate times.

1922  -             Qantas establishes its first regular passenger air service between Charleville and Cloncurry.

Qantas is Australia's national airline service and the name was formerly an acronym for "Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services". The inspiration for Qantas came when, 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. The challenge was taken up by W Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, former Australian Flying Corps officers who had served at Gallipoli. The men were promised sponsorship for the race by wealthy grazier Sir Samuel McCaughey, but McCaughey died before funding could be delivered.

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 sought sponsorship once again, but this time for a regular air service, rather than a one-off race. Wealthy grazier Fergus McMaster, whom McGinness had once assisted in the remote outback when his car broke an axle, was happy to fund the venture. McMaster also garnered further investment from his own business acquaintances. Originally purchased under the name of The Western Queensland Auto Aero Service Limited, the air service became the Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services, or Qantas, in November 1920.

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, until the first major air contract was landed in November 1922.

On 2 November 1922, Qantas commenced its first regular airmail and passenger service, between Cloncurry and Charleville. The first passenger was 84-year-old outback pioneer Alexander Kennedy, who flew on the Longreach-Winton-McKinlay-Cloncurry leg of the inaugural mail service from Charleville to Cloncurry.

1917  -             Britain declares its intention to establish a new Jewish state within Palestine.

On 2 November 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour submitted a declaration of intent to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This letter, to Lord Rothschild, a leader of the British Jewish community, became known as the Balfour Declaration, and stated that the British government supported Zionist plans for a Jewish "national home" in Palestine. Some of the motivation for the Declaration came from Britain's hopes to increase Jewish support for the Allied effort in World War I.

The Balfour Declaration was unpopular among Arabs in Palestine, who feared that their own rights would be subjugated with the creation of a Jewish homeland. Increased tension between Jews and Arabs during the post-war period caused delays in the enacting of the Balfour Declaration. However, after the atrocities to the Jewish people during the Holocaust in WWII, the Zionist cause gained much support from the international community, resulting in the creation of the State of Israel in 1948.

2000  -             An American astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts became the first permanent residents of the International Space Station.

The International Space Station (ISS) is located in "low Earth" orbit around our planet at an altitude of approximately 360km. It is a joint project of 6 space agencies: the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Russian Federal Space Agency, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA/ASC), Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) and the European Space Agency (ESA).

On 2 November 2000, American astronaut William Shepherd, together with Russian cosmonauts Sergei Krikalev and Yuri Gidzenko, became the first permanent residents of the International Space Station. The mission of this first crew was to activate life support systems and experiments, while continuing stowage and checkout of the new station. They also assisted with the ongoing assembly of the Space Station and conducted the first station-based spacewalks. The turnaround for crews is four months, and so far, only Americans and Russians have inhabited the Space Station.

Cheers - John

Another good read John so thanks for that

Re 1755 - Marie Antoinette, queen of France and wife of Louis XVI, is born

Reading between the lines, she was in an arranged and not so happy marriage, and I read somewhere that she did not like the French

Gday...

1804  -             George Caley crosses the Hawkesbury River in his unsuccessful attempt cross the Blue Mountains west of Sydney.

George Caley was born at Craven, Yorkshire, England on 10 June 1770, within a few days of James Cooks observation of the transit of Venus in Tahiti. He undertook a mere four years of formal schooling before leaving to work in his fathers stables. However, his interest in farriery led him to study botany, and eventually to a position in the Kew Gardens. In 1798, renowned botanist Sir Joseph Banks appointed him to go to New South Wales as a collector; Caley duly arrived in Sydney in April 1800.

In New South Wales, Caley undertook extensive studies of the native flora and fauna, and he was the first to study the eucalyptus species in detail. One of his first tasks was to try to procure a platypus, as a drawing sent back to England in 1797 was deemed a hoax. Whilst collecting specimens of various plants and animals for Sir Joseph Banks, he visited Western Port and Jervis Bay, the Hunter River, Norfolk Island and Van Diemen's Land. However, his real desire lay in crossing the Blue Mountains, a feat attempted unsuccessfully by numerous previous expeditions. He was motivated by an enthusiastic pride of going farther than any person has yet been. From Parramatta, he headed in a direct line for the range which Governor Phillip had named the Carmarthen Hills, specifically, the most obvious peak now known as Mount Banks. He took with him three strong men, believed to be convicts. On 3 November 1804, Caley crossed the Hawkesbury River, and continued west on his mission.

Caley took a different approach from that of previous explorers who had tried to cross the Blue Mountains: he sought out the ridgetops, rather than travelling through the river valleys. However, like others before him, Caley was confounded by the unpredictability of the terrain, describing himself as thunderstruck with the roughness of the country. His naming of features such as Devils Wilderness, Dark Valley and Dismal Dingle reflected his frustration. The men reached Mount Banks on 14 November, where the precipitous cliffs of the upper Grose Valley prevented them from penetrating any further inland. He was forced to return to Sydney, and later wrote to Banks the roughness of the country I found beyond description. I cannot give you a more expressive idea than travelling over the tops of houses in a town. He returned to Parramatta on 23 November, unsuccessful, but having reached a point further west than any previous expedition had done.

1829  -             Charles Sturt sets out to solve the mystery of the westward-flowing rivers.

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

Pleased with Sturt's discoveries, the following year Governor Darling sent Sturt to trace the course of the Murrumbidgee River, and to see whether it joined to the Darling. Sturt's party departed Sydney on 3 November 1829. It was Sturt's habit to carry a collapsible whaleboat on all his excursions, and this was the one where it proved its worth. On this expedition, Sturt discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume), as did the Darling. By following the Murray in the whaleboat, Sturt found that it flowed to the southern ocean, emptying out at Lake Alexandrina on the south coast.

1942  -             The Australian flag is hoisted as Kokoda is retaken by the Allies, declaring the success of the Australian troops, aided by the Papua New Guinean villagers.

During World War II, Papua New Guinea was the site of an invasion by Japanese troops, which brought the threat of Japanese invasion of Australia closer. Beginning with the invasion of Rabaul in January 1942, the serious Japanese offensive was launched in the South Pacific. The first of over 100 Japanese bombings of the Australian mainland began in February, and on 8 March, the Japanese invaded the New Guinean mainland, capturing Lae and Salamaua.

Port Moresby was the next major target, and in May 1942, the Japanese launched an invasion fleet to Port Moresby from Rabaul. After being repelled by US forces in the Battle of the Coral Sea, the Japanese then sought to invade Port Moresby from the northern coast, over the rugged Owen Stanley Range via the Kokoda Trail, which linked to the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. Kokoda village itself fell to the Japanese after an intense engagement on 29 July which killed Lieutenant Colonel William Owen, the commanding officer of the 39th Battalion, which was virtually the only Australian force resisting the enemy invasion through the Range.

Further battalions were dispatched to retake ground along the Kokoda Track. Fighting remained intense, and casualties were high. With much assistance from the Papua New Guinean natives, dubbed "Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels", the Australian and the US troops turned back the Japanese forces, which then retreated to bases at Buna, Gona and Sanananda. On 2 November, a patrol from the 2/31st Battalion found that Kokoda village had been abandoned by the Japanese. On 3 November 1942, Major General George Vasey, Commander of the 7th Division, raised the Australian flag once again over Kokoda in a display of confidence in the success of the campaign.

1957  -             Animal welfare organisations are outraged as Russia launches a dog into space.

Laika, the Russian space dog, was part Siberian husky. Prior to being enlisted into the Soviet space program, she was a stray on Moscow's streets. On 3 November 1957, Laika was launched into space aboard the Sputnik 2 spacecraft. She was fitted with monitors to check her heartbeat and other vital signs and was reported to be calm during the first hours of the flight.

Animal welfare organisations expressed outrage at the Russians sending a dog into space for experimental purposes. The RSPCA was inundated with calls protesting the flight, while the National Canine Defence League called upon dog lovers to observe a minute's silence for each day Laika was in space. Whilst Laika achieved fame for her part, and provided valuable information about the prospects for human space travel, fears of the animals welfare groups were indeed founded. Sadly, new evidence released in 2002 indicated that Laika died of stress and overheating within a few hours of launch, contrary to the Russian position that she died painlessly when life support gave out after a few days.

1973  -             NASA launches the Mariner 10, which later becomes the first space probe to reach Mercury.

The Mariner 10 space probe, the last spacecraft in the Mariner program, was launched on 3 November 1973. It was the first to use the gravitational pull of one planet, Venus, to reach another, Mercury. Its mission was to measure the atmospheric, surface, and physical characteristics of Mercury and Venus. After taking some 4000 photographs of Venus, Mariner 10 then flew by Mercury, taking the first photographs detailed enough to reveal the planet's cratered surface and a faint atmosphere of predominantly helium.

1997  -             Europe feels the effects as striking truck drivers blockade French roads and ports.

On the evening of the first Sunday in November 1997, truck drivers in France began strike action, blocking access to roads and the Channel ports. By Monday, 3 November 1997, their action had already brought French ports and border crossings to a standstill, and the effects were being felt in other ports across Europe. France is the crossroads of Europe for goods from Spain and Britain headed for other European countries. The strikers focussed on stopping heavy goods vehicles at ports, oil refineries and major roads by erecting heavy concrete barricades or simply using their laden vehicles. Trucks, unable to board ferries, were lined up for kilometres on roads approaching ports all across Europe.

The strike action followed a stalemate in pay talks between employers and the truckers' union. The strike action ended after five days, when France's biggest transport union, representing about 75 percent of the country's truckers, signed a deal with employers. The deal called for a 6 percent raise for truckers and a 4 percent raise for office workers in the transport industry. The drivers' increase was also extended to bus and ambulance drivers, and all raises were retroactive to October 1.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1878  -             Police patrols are increased along the Murray River as the manhunt for the Kelly gang intensifies, following the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek.

Ned Kelly, Australia's most famous bushranger, was born in December 1854 in Beveridge, Victoria. Kelly was twelve when his father died, and he was subsequently required to leave school to take on the new position as head of the family. Shortly after this, the Kellys moved to Glenrowan. As a teenager, Ned became involved in petty crimes, regularly targeting the wealthy landowners. He gradually progressed to crimes of increasing seriousness and violence, including bank robbery and murder, soon becoming a wanted man, together with the members of his gang, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.

Following a series of robberies in 1878, police hunts for the Kelly Gang intensified. Whilst attempting to track down the gang, three policemen were murdered at Stringybark Creek on 25 October 1878. The ruthless killing of Constable Lonigan, Sergeant Michael Kennedy and Mounted Constable Michael Scanlon resulted in the Kelly gang being declared outlaws. Two hundred police were brought into the area, while aboriginal troopers with tracking skills were brought down from Queensland.

On Monday, 4 November 1878, police patrols were increased along the Murray River, as the gang had been reported in the Chiltern area. However, the gang remained at large, even managing to rob the National bank in the Victorian town of Euroa of about 2000 pounds early in December.

1922  -             The entrance to King Tutankhamen's tomb is discovered.

Egypt's King Tutankhamen was the son of King Akhenaten, who lived from 1353 to 1337 BC. He was born around 1347 BC and died in his late teens. His tomb lay undiscovered for over 3300 years until a team of British archaeologists, led by Howard Carter, discovered a step leading to the tomb on 4 November 1922. The step was hidden in the debris near the entrance of the nearby tomb of King Ramses VI, in the Valley of the Kings. Twenty-two days later, Carter and his crew entered the tomb itself, eventually discovering a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins, fitted within each other. Inside the final coffin, which was made out of solid gold, was the mummified body of King Tutankhamun.

The tomb also contained hundreds of objects, elaborately decorated and covered in gold, that the Egyptians believed would be needed by the king in his afterlife. These rich artifacts are now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The walls of the burial chamber were painted with scenes of his voyage to the afterworld. The find was considered particularly significant, not only for the remarkable preservation of the mummy and the treasures, but for the fact that most of the Egyptian kings' tombs were believed to have already been found.

1930  -             Australia's greatest racehorse, Phar Lap, wins the Melbourne Cup.

Phar Lap, a giant chestnut thoroughbred gelding, standing 17.1 hands high, is regarded by many to be Australia's and New Zealand's greatest racehorse. A much loved Australian national icon, he was actually born and bred in Timaru, in the South Island of New Zealand, but never raced in New Zealand.

The name Phar Lap was derived from the shared Zhuang and Thai word for lightning. According to the Museum Victoria, medical student Aubrey Ping often visited the track in Randwick, talking with riders and trainers. He had learned some Zhuang from his father, who migrated to Australia from southern China. He reputedly suggested "Farlap" as the horse's name. Sydney trainer Harry Telford liked the name, but changed the F to a Ph to create a seven letter word, and split it into two words, so as to replicate the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.

Phar Lap dominated the racing scene in Australia during a long and distinguished career. In the four years of his racing career, he won 37 of 51 races he entered. During 1930 and 1931, he won 14 races in a row. On 4 November 1930, ridden by Jimmy Pike, Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup. He started as the shortest-priced favourite in the history of the race at odds of 811, having finished third in 1929.

Phar Lap died in April 1932. A necropsy revealed that the horse's stomach and intestines were inflamed, and many believed he had been deliberately poisoned. A variety of theories have been propounded through the years. In 2006 Australian Synchrotron Research scientists said it was almost certain Phar Lap was poisoned with a large single dose of arsenic 35 hours before he died, supporting the belief that Phar Lap was killed on the orders of US gangsters, who feared the Melbourne-Cup-winning champion would inflict big losses on their illegal bookmakers.

Phar Lap's heart was a remarkable size, weighing 6.2 kg, compared with a normal horse's heart at 3.2 kg. Phar Lap's heart is now held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. It is consistently the display visitors request most often to see, and pay their respects to the gentle, big-hearted giant of the horse racing world.

1932   - Australia's first Milk Bar is opened.

A milk bar in Australia is a small, local general store, known as a corner store in some places. As well as selling basic groceries and newspapers, early milk bars offered milkshakes, lollies and drinks.

Australia's first milk bar was opened in Martin Place, Sydney, on 4 November 1932. Called the Black and White 4d Milk Bar, it was established by Greek migrant Joachim Tavlaridis who later adopted the name "Mick Adams". The milk bar was famous for its milkshakes and for its mechanical cow. Unlike contemporary businesses with table service, it featured a bar counter with limited seats on one side and milkshake makers and soda pumps on the other, harking back to an American influence. The success of the business had a strong influence in making the term "milk bar" known throughout Australia, and even the United Kingdom.

1956  -             Soviet troops invade Hungary in a massive dawn offensive.

Hungary had been subjected to Soviet occupation since 1944. On 23 October 1956, a group of students began a peaceful demonstration in Budapest, demanding an end to Soviet occupation and the implementation of "true socialism". This was the beginning of the Hungarian Uprising. The next day, commissioned officers and soldiers joined the demonstration on the streets of Budapest, pulling down the statue of Stalin. On October 25, the Soviets responded by firing on the protestors in Parliament Square with tanks. Newly elected Hungarian leader Imre Nagy promised the Hungarian people independence and political freedom, and the demonstrations increased in response.

On 4 November 1956, Soviet troops invade Hungary in a massive dawn offensive. Over 1000 tanks rolled into Budapest, and troops were deployed throughout the country. Nagy appealed to the UN and Western governments for protection, but his pleas were largely ignored as other crises occupied the attention of the west. Thousands of Hungarians were killed and injured, and the demonstrations were quelled. Nagy and others involved in the uprising were captured, secretly tried and executed in June 1958. It was not until 1991, with the collapse of communism across Europe, that Soviet troops finally withdrew from Hungary.

1995  -             Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated.

Yitzhak Rabin was born on 1 March 1922. He was the first Israeli-born Prime Minister of Israel, and the fifth Prime Minister, serving first from 1974 until 1977 and again in 1992 until his death in 1995. Even though Israel and Jordan had long maintained good relations in secret, theoretically the two countries were in a state of war. Rabin was instrumental in negotiating formal peace with Jordan. He and Jordan's King Hussein formally made peace at a ceremony in Wadi Araba on the Israeli-Jordanian border, on 26 October 1994. Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to create peace in the Middle East.

On 4 November 1995, Rabin was shot three times at close range by a gunman as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv. The gunman, extreme right-wing activist Yigal Amir, was quickly arrested, and ultimately received a life sentence in prison. The day on which Rabin died was designated a national memorial day in his honour, and many public places now bear his name.        

Cheers - John

Gday...

1605  -             Guy Fawkes attempts to blow up the English Houses of Parliament.

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

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

November 5 came to be known as Guy Fawkes Day. At dusk, citizens across Britain light bonfires, set off fireworks, and burn effigies of Guy Fawkes, celebrating his failure to blow up Parliament and James I.

1804  -             Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson lands in Van Diemen's Land (Tasmania) in order to begin a new settlement in the north.

Tasmania was first discovered by Abel Tasman in November 1642. Tasman discovered the previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named it "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

In 1804, Lieutenant-Governor David Collins moved most of the members of the settlement he had founded at Port Phillip Bay, but which had faltered due to unsuitable conditions, across Bass Strait. He established the settlement of Sullivan Cove, which was later renamed Hobart Town, on the Derwent River.

In that same year, the British Government appointed Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson as Lieutenant Governor of Van Diemen's Land and instructed him to form a settlement at Port Dalrymple in the north of Van Diemen's Land. This was to further offset French interest in the island. Paterson arrived at Outer Cove on 5 November 1804 with a detachment of soldiers and seventy-five convicts. He initially established the site at Western Arm, which he named York Town, but two years later he formed a new settlement on the present site of Launceston.

1928  -             Mount Etna, Sicily, erupts and destroys the town of Mascali, but all inhabitants are evacuated safely.

Mount Etna is the largest volcano on the east coast of Sicily, an island off Italy. Etna stands about 3,320 m high with a basal circumference of 140 km, and covers an area of 1190 km². As one of the most active volcanoes in the world, it is in an almost constant state of eruption, but is not regarded as being dangerous.

On 5 November 1928, Mount Etna erupted, and the resultant lava flow largely destroyed the town of Mascali on the eastern side of the volcano. However, prior to its destruction, the town's inhabitants had time to be systemically evacuated, with the help of the military. An entirely new town was rebuilt by 1937.

1935  -             Parker Brothers releases the board game 'Monopoly'.

The popular board game 'Monopoly' is named after the economic concept of monopoly, the domination of a market by a single seller. The game was developed by Charles B Darrow, but the concept was actually based on a game patented in 1904 by Lizzie J Magie, a Quaker from Virginia. Magie's invention was called the Landlord Game, and was designed to promote her political agenda by demonstrating how rents enrich property owners and impoverish tenants.

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

1956  -             The ABC's first television broadcast commences.

John Logie Baird first demonstrated the television in 1926. Although the United States introduced television broadcasts in 1928, and the UK in 1936, it was another decade before steps were made to bring the medium to Australia. In 1950, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced a gradual introduction of television in Australia, commencing with a launch of an Australian Broadcasting Commission (ABC) station, as the Broadcasting Act 1948 prohibited the granting of commercial television licences. Three years later his government amended the Broadcasting Act to allow for commercial television licences. Test transmissions commenced in Sydney and Melbourne in July 1956, and at 7:00pm on 16 September 1956, Australia's first TV broadcast was made by TCN Channel 9 in Sydney.

The inaugural ABC television station was ABN2 Sydney. The first broadcast was on 5 November 1956, and commenced with the ABC logo, and presenter Michael Charlton, whose father Conrad had introduced Australians to ABC radio in 1932. Charlton announced: "Hello there, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and children. This emblem that you've just seen is tonight the symbol of a historic occasion - the opening of the national television service, which, of course, is YOUR television service. And we hope that tonight, and in the weeks and years to come, that you're going to see and enjoy a lot more of it on ABN2 - ABN Channel 2. My name is Michael Charlton, and I'm your host here tonight."

Shortly afterwards, Charlton invited Prime Minister Robert Menzies to launch ABC Television. The first news bulletin was then read by ABC radio newsreader James Dibble, who became the senior ABC television newsreader. The ABC then followed two weeks later with a transmission in Melbourne.

2010  -             It is reported that the world's oldest ground-edge tool has been discovered in northern Australia.

Australia has come to be regarded as the home of one of the world's oldest races. On 5 November 2010, the Monash University online news site reported that a Monash university archaeologist, with a team of international experts, had uncovered the oldest ground-edge stone tool in the world.

The discovery was originally made back in May 2010 at Nawarla Gabarnmang, a large rock-shelter in Jawoyn Aboriginal country in southwestern Arnhem Land in Australia's far north. The tool appeared to be a stone-age axe, a significant tool in aboriginal communities. Axes were believed to carry the ancestral forces from the quarry from which they originated, providing a vital spiritual and cultural link through trade between aboriginal groups.

Cheers - John

Thanks again John, there has always been friendly rivalry between Newcastle and Hobart about who can actually claim to be Australia's 2nd oldest city. In 1801 a settlement called Kings Town was established at Coal River the site of present day Newcastle. The colonies first coal export was mined and sent to India at that time. The settlement was abandoned in 1802 and re established on the 15th March, 1804 renamed Coal River, then Kingston and finally Newcastle. The first settlement at present day Hobart (Sullivans Cove) was on 20th February, 1804 after relocating from Risdens Cove which had been settled on 9th September, 1803. The first settlement at Newcastle is older than Hobart by about 3 years the 2nd is younger than Hobart by about 3 weeks. If you lived in the city of Parramatta you would probably argue with either of us laying claim to the title.

Gday...

1861  -             Queensland is linked with New South Wales, Victoria, and South Australia by telegraph.

Canadian-born Samuel Walker McGowan is credited with bringing the telegraph technology to Australia. Lured by the opportunities opened up by the discovery of gold in Victoria, McGowan arrived in Melbourne in 1853. Although isolated from telegraph technology in America, and limited by lack of equipment and suitable component manufacturing firms in Australia, McGowan succeeded in opening up the first telegraph line in Australia on 3 March 1854. It ran from Melbourne to Williamstown.

The network of telegraph lines quickly spread throughout Victoria, and then to Adelaide, South Australia. In 1861, the first electric telegraph in Queensland was transmitted between Brisbane and Ipswich. Then on 6 November 1861, Brisbane was linked by telegraph to New South Wales, allowing transmission of telegraphs also to Victoria and South Australia.

1884  -             A British protectorate is proclaimed over the southern coast of New Guinea, now part of Papua New Guinea.

Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, positioned to the north of Australia. Consisting of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, as well as numerous offshore islands, it shares the island with the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. The country is renowned for being largely unexplored, with ancient tribes still occupying dense jungles in the rugged mountains, while it is also believed that undiscovered flora and fauna species lie in its interior.

The first known European incursions into the island began with the Dutch and Portuguese traders during the sixteenth century. The name 'Papua New Guinea' is a result of the country's unusual administrative history prior to Independence. 'Papua' comes from a Malay word, pepuah, used to describe the frizzy Melanesian hair, while 'New Guinea' is derived from 'Nueva Guinea', the name used by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez, who coined the term due to the physical similarities he noted in the people to those occupying the Guinea coast of Africa.

The northern half of the country fell to German control in 1884, and in 1899 the German imperial government assumed direct control of the territory. At this point, the territory was known as German New Guinea. On 6 November 1884, a British protectorate was proclaimed over the southern half, and on 4 September 1888, Britain annexed the territory completely. The southern half then became known as British New Guinea. After the Papua Act of 1905, the British portion was renamed to Territory of Papua. During World War I, Australian troops began occupying the island to defend the British portion. Once the Treaty of Versailles came into effect following World War I, Australia was permitted to administer German New Guinea, while the British portion came to be regarded as an External Territory of the Australian Commonwealth, though in effect still a British possession. The two territories remained separate and distinct as 'Papua' and 'New Guinea'.

Following the New Guinea Campaign of World War II, the two territories were merged as 'Papua New Guinea'. Australia continued to administer the country until it was granted full independence on 16 September 1975. Since independence, the two countries have retained close ties.

1893  -             Edsel Ford, after whom the failed Edsel car was named, is born.

Edsel Bryant Ford, the only child of Henry Ford, was born in Detroit, Michigan, on 6 November 1893. He became secretary of the Ford Motor Company in 1915, and president of Ford from 1919 to 1943. He died on 26 May 1943.

The Ford Edsel was named after Edsel Ford. The car was introduced in response to market research which indicated that car owners wanted greater horsepower, unique body design, and wrap-around windshields. It took five years for the car to move from mere conception to driveable reality. By the time the Edsel was ready to be released on the US market, the country was in a recession, and consumers were turning to smaller, more economical models. The Edsel ran for three models over three years, and only 110,847 Edsels were produced before Ford dropped the line.

1962  -             The United Nations condemns the policy of Apartheid.

Apartheid was an official policy of racial segregation under which the black majority was segregated and 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.

On 6 November 1962, the General Assembly of the United Nations established the UN Special Committee against Apartheid. In adopting a resolution condemning South Africa's racist apartheid policies, it called on all member states to terminate diplomatic, trade, transport and military relations with the country. This was in the wake of the 1960 massacre of unarmed black demonstrators at Sharpeville near Johannesburg, South Africa. South African police opened fire on a crowd of native South Africans protesting against the pass laws, which required all blacks to carry pass books at all times. This action cultivated a great deal of anti-apartheid support throughout the world, and led to the November 6 resolution by the United Nations.

1999  -             Australia votes against becoming a republic in a national referendum.

Constitutional monarchy vs Republic: the debate has been continuing in Australia for many years. In an effort to settle the matter once and for all, a Constitutional Convention was held in Canberra in February 1998. During the two-week convention, a model for a republic was adopted, which was then presented to the public at a referendum on 6 November 1999. In the final count, the "no" votes led 54.87% to 45.13%. All six states voted against the proposal. Victoria held the narrowest margin of 50.16% to 49.84%. Prime Minister John Howard said the Australian people had clearly rejected the republic proposal. Despite the referendum, however, the debate has continued to dog Australian politics.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1861  -             The first Melbourne Cup is run.

The Melbourne Cup is the major annual thoroughbred horse race in Australia. Sometimes referred to as "the race that stops a nation", it is run at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne on the first Tuesday of November each year.

The first Melbourne Cup was run on 7 November 1861, and was attended by a crowd of around 4000. The race was won by Archer out of a field of 17 horses. Legend states that Archer had been walked from Nowra in NSW to the Cup in Melbourne, a distance of around 885 kilometres. However, shipping documents discovered many years later cast doubts upon that popular claim.

By the year 2000, attendance at the racing carnival was up to 120,000. Originally run over a distance of two miles, in 1972 the race was converted to 3200 metres, which is just short of two miles by 18.69 metres, or 61.30 feet.

1867  -             Polish scientist Marie Curie is born.

Marie Curie was born Maria Sklodowska on 7 November 1867, in Warsaw, Poland. She was unique for being one of the most celebrated scientists of all time, achieving her outstanding reputation at a time when her field was dominated almost exclusively by men. Working with her husband, Pierre Curie, her experiments on uranium minerals led to the discovery of two new elements, polonium and radium in 1898. In 1903 they shared the Nobel Prize for physics with Henri Becquerel. Curie became the first woman to teach at the Sorbonne University when she took over her husband's position as professor after his death in 1906.

Marie Curie was awarded a second Nobel prize in 1911, for chemistry, for her work on radium and its compounds. She was then offered the position of Director of the Laboratory of Radioactivity at the Curie Institute of Radium, established jointly by the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute, for research on radioactivity and for radium therapy. Marie Curie died in 1934, ironically from the effects of prolonged exposure to radioactivity.

1872  -             The 'Mary Celeste' sets sail, only to be mysteriously abandoned at sea, with no sign of its crew ever found.

The Mary Celeste was a ship found abandoned off the coast of Portugal in 1872. Originally named 'The Amazon' when it was first built in Nova Scotia in 1861, the 103-foot, 282-ton brigantine was renamed the 'Mary Celeste' in 1869 after changing hands several times.

On 7 November 1872, under the command of Captain Benjamin Briggs, the ship set sail from New York to Genoa, Italy. A month later, on December 4, it was found adrift and abandoned, yet its cargo of 1700 barrels of alcohol was intact. None of the Mary Celeste's crew or passengers was ever found. Theories have abounded as to what happened. The most logical was that the ship was hit by a seaquake, common in the Azores, where the ship would have been at that time. Evidence indicated that the quake had dislodged some of the alcohol barrels, dumping almost 500 gallons of raw alcohol into the bilge. The galley stove shook so violently that it was lifted up from its chocks, perhaps even sending sparks and embers flying. This, mixed with the alcohol fumes, possibly caused the crew and passengers to fear for their safety. They may have taken to the lifeboats, but were unable to catch up to the brig when the quaking subsided. Regardless of the theories, the mystery endures as to why the 'Mary Celeste' was abandoned.

1911  -  Australia's Federal Parliament selects the site for the Royal Australian Naval College.

From the time that Australia was first colonised in 1788, up until 1859, Australia's naval defence depended on detachments from the Royal Navy in Sydney. A separate British naval station was established in Australia in 1859, while a Royal Navy squadron, paid for and maintained by Australia, was maintained in Australian waters through to 1913.

In 1909, the decision was made to establish an Australian Fleet Unit. The first ships comprising this fleet arrived in Australian waters during November of 1910. These Commonwealth Naval Forces became the Royal Australian Navy on 10 July 1911, following the granting of this title by King George V.

On 7 November 1911, the Federal Parliament of Australia selected Captain's Point, Jervis Bay, as the site of the future Royal Australian Naval College. As the Australian Capital Territory was inland, it was determined that the national seat of government needed access to the ocean, so the Jervis Bay Territory was surrendered by New South Wales to the Commonwealth in 1915 under the "Jervis Bay Territory Acceptance Act 1915".

Cheers - John

Gday...

1824  -             Explorers Hume and Hovell become the first Europeans to sight the Australian Alps.

Hamilton Hume, born near Parramatta on 19 June 1797, was an Australian-born settler with excellent bush skills. He developed an interest in exploring when he was sent by Governor Macquarie in 1818 to find an overland route south from Sydney to Jervis Bay. On this occasion, accompanied by ex-convict James Meehan, Hume discovered the rich, fertile land of the Goulburn Plains.

As a grazier, Hume was interested in exploring south of the known Sydney area in order to open up new areas of land, but could not gain Government support for his proposed venture. William Hovell was an English immigrant with little bush experience, a former ship's captain who was keen to assist Hume's expedition financially, and accompany him. The expedition was set up, and Hume and Hovell departed Hume's father's farm at Appin, southwest of Sydney, in early October 1824.

Although the two men argued for most of their journey, and even for many years after their return, the expedition was successful in many ways. Hume and Hovell were the first to discover the "Hume River", though it was later renamed by Sturt as the Murray River. On 8 November 1824, they became the first known Europeans to see the Australian Alps. Excited by the sight of the beautiful mountains, Hume wrote in his journal "... a prospect came into view the most magnificent, this was an immence [sic] high Mountain Covered nearly one fourth of the way down with snow, and the Sun shining upon it gave it a most brilliant appearance."

1836  -             The printing press which is to print South Australia's proclamation as a British province arrives in the colony. 

Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, the only Australian state to have been founded by free settlers, remaining entirely free of convicts during its early history. Adelaide was surveyed and designed by Colonel William Light, first Surveyor-General of South Australia, who also named Holdfast Bay, the site for the earliest landings of pioneers to South Australia.

It was into this port that South Australia's first printing press arrived. On 8 November 1836, Colonial Secretary and Chief Magistrate Robert Gouger arrived aboard the ship 'The Africaine', and settled near the site now referred to as 'The Old Gum Tree' at Glenelg North. Also aboard the 'Africaine' was Robert Thomas, who had arranged transport of the printing press, a Stanhope Invenit No. 200. It was another two days before Thomas and his family disembarked from the 'Africaine', and their luggage, including the press, was offloaded south of the Patawalonga Creek mouth.

Although South Australia was officially proclaimed on 19 February 1836 in England, the proclamation was made on 28 December 1836. Governor Hindmarsh made the announcement at the Old Gum Tree, but the actual proclamation had not yet been printed. On 30 December, Thomas was given orders to prepare for the print run of the proclamation. On 14 January 1837, the first 3 Acts of the new Executive Council of Government were printed, and two days later, 150 sheets were printed - the official "Proclamation Establishment of Government in SA".

1920  -             The first 'Rupert Bear' cartoon appears in the "Daily Express".

Rupert Bear is the longest running cartoon character in the world. Created by artist Mary Tourtel, Rupert Bear, with his distinctive checked yellow scarf and slacks and bright red jumper, was developed in response to the rise of anthropomorphic characters appearing in other newspapers. Rupert made his debut in British newspaper the Daily Express on 8 November 1920 in a story entitled 'The Adventures of a Little Lost Bear'.

The little bear immediately appealed to readers, and Rupert Bear enjoyed increasing popularity through ensuing decades. The first collection of Rupert cartoons was published as an annual in 1935. By the 1950s, 1.7 million of the Rupert annuals were sold, and even today the Rupert Annual remains one of the top three Annual titles sold worldwide. Possibly Rupert's greatest achievement was when Beatle Paul McCartney developed the animated Rupert and the Frog Song, a production which won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award.

1922  -             Christiaan Barnard, the South African cardiac surgeon who performed the world's first open heart transplant, is born.

Christiaan Barnard was born on 8 November 1922, in Beaufort West, South Africa. After studying and practising medicine in South Africa for a number of years, in 1956 he travelled to America to study surgery at the University of Minnesota. It was there that he chose to specialise in cardiology. Upon returning to South Africa, he was appointed cardiothoracic surgeon at the Groote Schuur Hospital in 1958. He also lectured at the University of Cape Town, and in 1961 he was made head of cardiothoracic surgery at the university.

Barnard performed the world's first open heart transplant surgery on 3 December 1967. 55-year-old diabetic and chronic heart disease patient, Louis Washkansky, had his diseased heart replaced with a healthy heart from Denise Darvall, a young woman with the same blood type, who had died in hospital after a car accident. The patient survived the operation, living for eighteen days before succumbing to double pneumonia brought on by the immuno-suppressive drugs he was taking.

Barnard went on to pioneer new techniques, including double transplants, artificial valves and using animal hearts for emergency treatment. Rheumatoid arthritis forced him to retire from surgery in 1983. He died from an acute asthma attack on 2 September 2001.

1939  -             Nazi leader Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt.

Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Austria. In 1921, shortly after Germany's humiliating defeat in World War 1, he became leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party. He then became chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and dictator, or Führer, of Nazi Germany between 1934 and 1945. Hitler was notorious for his heinous massacres of Jews, Romanys and other non-Aryan groups during World War II: these massacres became known as the Holocaust.

Over fifteen attempts were made to assassinate German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler between 1939 and 1945. The attempt on 8 November 1939 was made by George Elser, a swiss carpenter and watch maker who resented the Nazi control over labour unions. Elser placed a time bomb in a pillar behind the podium where Hitler was to give a speech in the Burgerbrau Beer Cellar. It was due to detonate at 9:20am. Hitler, however, ended his speech at 9:12 and departed suddenly. Eight others were killed and 65 wounded when the bomb exploded, but Hitler was nowhere in sight.

Elser was arrested and detained in Sachsenhausen concentration camp for the duration of the war. He was executed on 16 April 1945, shortly before WWII ended.

1987  -             An IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing thirteen.

Enniskillen is the county town of Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, close to the border with the Irish Republic. On 8 November 1987, a bomb exploded during a Remembrance Day service in the town, killing 11 and injuring 63. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declaimed the bombing as "utterly barbaric". Following the attack, the IRA lost much support its cause may have once engendered.

One of those killed was nurse Marie Wilson: her father Gordon Wilson, who was also injured in the attack, went on to become a leading campaigner for an end to violence in Northern Ireland. However, the tone of his campaign was one of forgiveness for the perpetrators of the tragedy. Ten years later, on Remembrance Day 1997, Gerry Adams, the leader of the IRA's political wing Sinn Féin, formally apologised for the bombing.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1848  -             After a gruelling five-month journey through thick rainforest, Edmund Kennedy finally reaches Weymouth Bay in North Queensland.

Edmund Kennedy was born in 1818 on Guernsey, one of the Channel Islands of the English channel. As a surveyor, he arrived in Sydney in 1840 where he joined the Surveyor-General's Department as assistant to Sir Thomas Mitchell. In 1845, he accompanied Mitchell on an expedition into the interior of Queensland (then still part of New South Wales), and two years later led another expedition through central Queensland, tracing the course of the Victoria River, later renamed the Barcoo.

In 1848 Kennedy left Rockingham Bay, north of Townsville, with 12 other men to travel to Cape York, intending to map the eastern coast of north Queensland. Dense rainforest and the barrier of the Great Dividing Range made the journey extremely difficult. By the time Kennedy's party reached Weymouth Bay on 9 November 1848, they were starving and exhausted. Kennedy left eight sick men and two horses at Weymouth Bay before continuing on with three white men and a loyal Aborigine named Jacky-Jacky.

1960  -             The Red and Green Kangaroo Paw is proclaimed the floral emblem of Western Australia.

The Kangaroo Paw is a type of low-growing shrub native to Western Australia. This unusual plant gained its name by the apparent resemblance of its cluster of unopened flowers to a kangaroo's paw, being long and slender, like the forepaw of a kangaroo.

There are just twelve species of the genus 'Anigozanthos' to which the Kangaroo Paw belongs. Preferring sandy soil, in their native state they are found throughout southwest Western Australia, in the north around Geraldton and on the Swan Coastal Plain near Perth.

The Kangaroo Paw was first collected and described by French botanist Jacques-Julian Houton de Labillardiere near Esperance in 1792. On 9 November 1960, the Red and Green Kangaroo Paw, also known as Mangles' kangaroo paw, was proclaimed as the floral emblem of Western Australia. The announcement was made by Lieutenant Governor of Western Australia, His Excellency The Honourable Sir John Dwyer.

1960  -             John F Kennedy becomes the youngest elected president of the United States.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was born in Brookline, Massachusetts, on 29 May 1917. After completing his schooling, and prior to enrolling in Princeton University, he attended the London School of Economics for a year, where he studied political economy. Illness forced him to leave Princeton, after which he enrolled in Harvard University. He graduated from Harvard with a degree in international affairs in June 1940, then joined the US Navy, only entering politics after WWII.

After declaring his intent to run for President of the United States, Kennedy was nominated by the Democratic Party on 13 July 1960, as its candidate for president. He beat Vice-President Richard Nixon by a close margin in the general election on 9 November 1960, to become the youngest elected president in US history and the first Roman Catholic.

Kennedy's presidential term was cut tragically short when he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, 22 November 1963 while on a political trip through Texas.

1965  -             Northeast America suffers a blackout which affects thirty million people.

Between 5:15 and 5:30pm on 9 November 1965, northeast America suffered a massive power outage. A faulty relay at the Sir Adam Beck Station No. 2 in Niagara Falls in Ontario, Canada, affected the electricity supply to the northeastern states of the USA and large parts of Canada. The blackout covered 207,000 square kilometres and lasted more than 13 hours. The faulty relay was catalyst to a domino effect as a number of escalating line overloads hit the main trunk lines of the grid, separating major generation sources from load centres, and weakening the entire system as each separated. Power stations in the New York City area automatically shut themselves off to prevent the surges coming through the grid from overloading their turbines.

The 1965 power outage was largely peaceful, with people assisting each other. Subsequent major outages have resulted in looting and riots.

1989  -             The Berlin Wall is opened for the first time since 1961.

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, as it was subsidising East Germany's economy.

Overnight on 13 August 1961 the Eastern 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 its fall. On 9 November 1989, an international press conference began in East Berlin. Huge demonstrations against political repression had been continuing for months. At the conclusion of the peace conference, greater freedom of travel was announced for people of the German Democratic Republic. At midnight, the East German government allowed gates along the Wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points. In the ensuing weeks, many people then took to the wall with hammers and chisels, dismantling it piece by piece.

Cheers - John

Jules,  I'm not too worried that like you I also lived through those events what will really worry me is when I can't remember them happening...

Gday...

1483  -             Martin Luther, German theologian and catalyst to the Protestant Reformation, is born.

Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483, in Eisleben, Germany. At age 17 he enrolled in the University of Erfurt, gaining a Bachelor's degree in 1502 and a Master's degree in 1505. According to his father's wishes, Luther then enrolled in the law school of that university. A terrifying near-encounter with a lightning bolt in 1505 led Luther to abandon his law studies and enter a monastery, dedicated to serving God.

Luther struggled with the Roman Catholic church's demands that one could only earn favour with God through good works. Through his in-depth study of the Scriptures, he reached the realisation that salvation is a gift of God's grace, received by faith alone and by trust in Christ's death on the cross as the only means to that salvation.

It was this that led him to openly question the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, in particular, the nature of penance, the authority of the pope and the usefulness of indulgences. The Reformation of the church began on 31 October 1517, with Luther's act of posting his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials.

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

1791  -             The whaling industry in Australia, in which whales in Australian waters would be nearly hunted to extinction, begins.

The whaling industry in Australia began on 10 November 1791, just three years after the First Fleet arrived on Australian shores. Samuel Enderby Jnr, born in 1756 in England, was the son of Samuel Enderby, who established the whaling and sealing firm of Samuel Enderby & Sons. In 1791, Enderby Jnr arranged for whalers to carry convicts to Port Jackson in the Third Fleet, following reports from earlier captains of masses of whales in the southern oceans. Thus began the whaling industry which hunted the southern right whale virtually to extinction within just fifty years. One hundred and fifty years later, the humpback whale suffered the same fate.

It is only in more recent years that animal protection laws have allowed the whale numbers to increase. However, whales in southern waters are once again at risk from Japanese whalers who continue to flout the resolutions of the International Whaling Commission.

1871  -             Henry Morton Stanley greets missing missionary and explorer David Livingstone in Africa with the immortal words, "Dr Livingstone, I presume?"

Scottish-born David Livingstone spent over 30 years as a missionary in Africa, extensively exploring the continent's interior. Livingstone was popular among native tribes in Africa because he quickly learned African languages and had a keen understanding and sympathy for native people and their cultures. In 1855, he discovered and named the spectacular Victoria Falls on the Zambezi River.

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

1885  -             Gottlieb Daimler invents the first gas-engined motorcycle.

The first motorcycle was actually a two-cylinder steam-powered creation, invented by American Sylvester Howard Roper in 1867. The predecessor to the motorcycle, however, was invented by German engine manufacturer Gottlieb Daimler on 10 November 1885. Daimler used the gas-powered four-stroke internal combustion engine invented by engineer Nicolaus August Otto in 1876, and attached it to a wooden bike. The new vehicle had one wheel in the front and one in the back, and a smaller spring-loaded outrigger wheel on each side. Each wheel was an iron-banded wooden-spoked wagon-type.

Daimler later teamed up with Karl Benz to form the Daimler-Benz Corporation, going on to build automobiles, rather than developing the motorcycle further.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1860  -             Explorers Burke and Wills first reach Cooper Creek on their expedition to cross Australia 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, and to win for Victoria the right to build the overland telegraph line. With a huge party of men, horses, camel and equipment, they departed from Melbourne on 20 August 1860, farewelled by around 15,000 people. The cost of the expedition was almost 5,000 pounds, a phenomenal amount for the time.

After reaching Menindee, Burke decided the split the party, leaving one group to wait for more supplies to arrive at Menindee. Burke then pushed on with a smaller party to Cooper Creek. At this time, Cooper Creek represented the farthest point in Australia where any exploration had reached. This permanent water supply had been visited by Captain Charles Sturt in 1845 and Augustus Charles Gregory in 1858, and was an ideal point to establish a depot.

The Burke and Wills party arrived at Cooper Creek on 11 November 1860. They initially formed a depôt at Camp LXIII (Camp 63) while they conducted reconnaissance to the north. However, A plague of rats meant the party needed to move camp downstream, where they established another depôt, at Bullah Bullah Waterhole, which was dominated by a large coolibah tree, now infamously known as the "Dig Tree". This was Camp LXV (Camp 65) and here they built a stockade, naming it Fort Wills. It was from this point that the expedition to the Gulf of Carpentaria departed.

1880  -             Bushranger Ned Kelly is hanged in Melbourne.

Ned Kelly, Australia's most famous bushranger, was born in December 1854 in Victoria, Australia. Kelly was twelve when his father died, and he was subsequently required to leave school to take on the new position as head of the family. Shortly after this, the Kellys moved to Glenrowan. As a teenager, Ned became involved in petty crimes, regularly targeting the wealthy landowners. He gradually progressed to crimes of increasing seriousness and violence, including bank robbery and murder, soon becoming a hunted man.

Many of Ned Kelly's peers held him in high regard for his stand of usually only ambushing wealthy landowners, and helped to keep his whereabouts from the police, despite the high reward posted for his capture. However, he was betrayed to the police whilst holding dozens of people hostage in the Glenrowan Inn in June, 1880. Wearing their famous armour, the Kelly brothers held a shootout with police. Gang members Dan Kelly, Steve Hart and Joe Byrne were killed, and Ned was shot twenty-eight times in the legs, which were unprotected by the armour. He survived to stand trial, and was sentenced to death by hanging, by Judge Redmond Barry on 29 October 1880. Ned Kelly was hanged in Melbourne on 11 November 1880.

1880  -             The term 'boycott' is created when British landowner Charles Boycott is ostracised by his tenants.

Charles Cunningham Boycott was born in Norfolk in 1823. He came to Ireland to work as a land agent for Lord Erne, the local landowner in the Lough Mask area. The Irish National Land League, seeking to protect tenants from exploitation and demanding fairer rent, withdrew the local labour required to save the harvest on Lord Erne's estate. Captain Boycott refused the tenants' demands for rent relief, and was subsequently shunned by the community. The campaign against Boycott commenced on 11 November 1880. No-one, whether neighbours, shopkeepers or fellow worshippers in church, spoke to Captain Boycott. Before he left Ireland, his name had become synonymous with ostracisation, leading to the development of the term 'to boycott'.

1918  -             Today is Remembrance Day, marking the end of World War 1, in 1918.

The first World War began in August 1914 and lasted for four years. At 5am on the morning of 11 November 1918, Germany, lacking manpower, weaponry and supplies, and facing imminent invasion, signed an armistice agreement with the Allies. This marked the end of World War 1, also known as the Great War. November 11 has come to be known as Remembrance Day or Armistice Day. Traditionally, British, Canadian, South African, Australian and New Zealand citizens observe the day with two minutes' silence at the 11th hour on the 11th day of the 11th month, which is the time that the armistice became effective.

The red poppy has come to be recognised as the symbol for Remembrance Day. It was chosen because of the poppies that bloomed across some of the worst battlefields of Flanders, an area in western Europe now spanned by Belgium, France and the Netherlands.

1958  -             Victoria becomes the first Australian state to give official recognition to a floral emblem.

Common Heath is a delicate shrub which grows to between 30 centimetres and 1 metre high. It has narrow, tapered leaves and fine, star-shaped flowers which range in colour from white through a variety of pinks to red. Bearing the scientific name of Epacris impressa Labill, the shrub was first found in Tasmania in 1793 by French biologist and explorer Jacques Labillardiere. Common Heath grows primarily in southern Victoria, through the damp country of the range foothills, coastal heath lands, the Grampians in the west and the Little Desert scrub. Besides Victoria and Tasmania, it is also found in parts of New South Wales and South Australia.

On 18 September 1951, representatives from a range of Victorian government departments, societies and individuals met and unanimously agreed that Common Heath should be adopted as the State floral emblem. Subsequently, on 11 November 1958, the pink form of Common Heath, Epacris impressa, was proclaimed the floral emblem of Victoria, making the southernmost mainland state the first in Australia to officially recognise a floral emblem.

1975  -             Australia's Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, dismisses Gough Whitlam as Prime Minister.

Edward Gough Whitlam, born on 11 July 1916, became the 21st Prime Minister of Australia on 2 December 1972. It was the first ALP electoral victory since 1946. The Whitlam government embarked on a massive legislative social reform program which was forward-thinking and progressive in many ways. Whilst initially popular, the fast pace of reform engendered caution amongst the electorate, and the economy was beset by high inflation combined with economic stagnation.

These conditions were the catalyst to the Australian constitutional crisis of 1975. The opposition Liberal-National Country Party coalition held a majority in the Senate, the upper house of Parliament. In an unprecedented move, the Senate deferred voting on bills that appropriated funds for government expenditure, attempting to force the Prime Minister to dissolve the House of Representatives and call an election. The Whitlam government ignored the warnings, and sought alternative means of appropriating the funds it needed to repay huge debts. With Whitlam unable to secure the necessary funds, the Governor-General, Sir John Kerr, dismissed Whitlam as Prime Minister on 11 November 1975, and appointed Liberal opposition leader Malcolm Fraser as caretaker Prime Minister. This was done on the condition that Fraser would seek a dissolution of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, thus precipitating a general election.

Cheers - John

1880....Ned Kelly, I saw on the news the other day that they are turning the 'Old Melbourne Jail' into a motel and the cells will be turned into rooms. I wonder what the noose will be for? Personally, I think they should leave it as it is. It was sad to see Pentridge turned into residental area. I went on a tour of the place just before they pulled most of it down, very very interesting.

1975...and what a day in history that was. Gough never did get his wish of "God save the Governor General"


Always good reads Rocky, just don't have anything to say all the time.

Back in 2003 while doing some work in Dinkirk France my wife and I decided to drive down to the Amiens area on the weekend as I had heard the name in discussions about Australia and their WW1 campaigns. While touring around on some small back roads we came across a little village called Villiers Bretonneux. We stopped near the town hall and while discussing what we were going to do next we were approached by an old guy (the mayor) who asked in English if we were Aussies. When we said yes he advised us to go to the Victoria School just down the road and have a look at the Anzac museum. He then crossed the road and  spoke to a shopkeeper who immediately closed up his shop and went to the school to unlock the museum for us . Before going upstairs to look at the museum we were taken into a classroom where small children were sitting on the floor having a story read to them by their teacher and we were introduced as Australians the whole class then stood up and applauded us. Through the window around a quadrangle was a sign that read "We Will Never Forget Australia". That experience and the subsequent visits to the nearby Australian War Cemetery and remembrance park overlooking the little village of Hamel are something that I will never forget. I feel quite emotional each year when I watch the Anzac Day ceremony being broadcast live from that war cemetery just outside of Villiers Bretonneux. In that part of France the sacrifices that the Aussie diggers made for them has never been forgotten even now almost 100 years later.

Lest we forget

Gday...

1873  -             Colonel Warburton's exploration party is reduced to subsisting only on camel meat.

Peter Warburton was an ex-navy Colonel who had served in India. After his retirement, he came to Australia, and was appointed to command the Police Forces of the Colony of South Australia. It was during this time that he developed his love of exploring. Warburton's goal was to complete the first crossing of the central Australian continent from east to west. In 1872, he was selected by Sir Thomas Elder, a Member of the Legislative Council to lead an expedition in an attempt to find a route from central Australia to Perth, and to report on what sort of country lay in between. His exploration party departed Alice Springs on 15 April 1873.

Warburton's expedition was the first in Australia to use only camels. Travelling through the desert was hard-going, and scarcity of water was huge problem. Warburton was notorious for capturing Aboriginal women with the intent of forcing them to reveal where native wells were located. The party suffered from lack of water and a steadily decreasing food supply. His despair was recorded in his journal entry of 12 November 1873, in which he wrote, "We have tried to do our duty, and have been disappointed in all our expectations. The country is terrible. I do not believe men ever traversed so vast an extent of continuous desert." By this date, the expedition party had used the last of its flour, sugar and tea, and was reduced to subsisting only on camel meat. Warburton included in his journal recipes for cooking and eating every part of a camel, including the head, tail, bones, tough hide, guts and feet.

1799  -             A large red pillar of fire is seen in the sky above Hereford, England.

On 12 November 1799, vivid electrical flashes lit up the sky above Hereford, England, at half-hour intervals commencing at 5:45am. Bright lights appeared, initially stationary, until they appeared to explode loudly, then continued across the sky, trailed by luminous, fiery streams. Something similar to a large pillar of fire then passed from north to south over Hereford.

On the same day across north and south America and western Europe, the Leonid meteor shower illuminated the sky with thousands of shooting stars for many hours. The Leonid meteor shower is an event which happens annually, in varying degrees of visibility and brightness, usually from November 12-17. In some years, the display is brighter than in others: a particularly brilliant display from the Leonid meteor shower was witnessed across north and central America on 12 November 1833. The Leonid shower that occurs every November is caused by the Earth passing through an especially dusty area of space, caused by the orbit of the Temple-Tuttle comet which passes near Earth's orbit every 33 years and leaves behind a dusty trail.

1894  -             Australian inventor Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates that it is possible for man to fly.

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

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

1912  -             The bodies of Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his exploration companions are found in Antarctica.

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

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

The bodies of the remaining three members of Scott's party were found in their camp on 12 November 1912, just twenty kilometres from a substantial depot of supplies. With them were their diaries detailing their journey and their demise. A large cairn made of ice was constructed over the men's bodies, and topped with a cross made from skis. It was not until February of the following year that the rest of the world heard the news.

1943  -             The last of the World War II Japanese bombings raids against Australia occurs.

Darwin, capital city of Australia's Northern Territory, was a strategically-placed naval port and airbase during World War II. On 19 February 1942, the city was attacked in a bombing raid by the Japanese, who launched two waves of planes comprising 242 bombers and fighters. At least 243 civilians and military personnel were killed, not counting the indigenous Australians whose deaths were not counted. Although it was a less significant target, a greater number of bombs were dropped than in the attack on Pearl Harbor. These attacks were the first of an estimated 64 air raids against Darwin during 1942-43.

Following the February raid, other parts of Australia including Darwin, northwest Western Australia and even regions of far north Queensland were subject to over one hundred more raids. Airport base areas attacked included Townsville, Katherine, Wyndham, Derby and Port Hedland, while Milingimbi, Exmouth Gulf and Horn Island were also targeted. 63 more Japanese raids occurred against Darwin and its immediate surroundings. The final attack occurred on 12 November 1943. There was only minor damage around the town of Darwin, and no casualties.

1980  -             Saturn's rings are photographed in high resolution for the first time.

The rings of Saturn were first observed by Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei in 1610, using a primitive telescope. Ever since then, scientists have sought to unravel the mystery of what formed the rings and why they are there. The first "close-up" photographs of Saturn and its rings were taken by the USA Jupiter/Saturn Flyby & Interstellar Probe, Pioneer 11, in 1979. The pictures were low resolution, but an improvement on previous photographs taken via telescopes.

The unmanned Voyager 1 spacecraft was launched in September 1977. On 12 November 1980, it passed within 124,000 km of the clouds surrounding Saturn, and took vivid photographs which showed bands of yellow and orange clouds circling the planet at hundreds of kilometres an hour. The high resolution photographs enabled scientists to count over 100 separate rings, instead of the six broad bands visible from Earth.

After photographing both Jupiter and Saturn, Voyager 1 continued towards deep space. In 1998 it became the most distant man-made object in the universe, and in 2003 reached the edge of the Solar System. Its ultimate mission is to reach the heliopause, the boundary where the sun's influence ends as its solar wind is stopped by the interstellar medium (ISM). The ISM is the matter and energy content that exists between the stars within a galaxy. Voyager 1 is expected to reach the heliopause in 2013.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1850  -             Novelist and poet, Robert Louis Stevenson, is born.

Robert Louis Stevenson was born on 13 November 1850, in Edinburgh, Scotland. Originally studying law, he never practised and instead devoted himself to writing. One of the most well-read adventure writers of the eighteenth century, he is best known for novels such as 'Kidnapped', 'Treasure Island' and 'The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde'. He was also a poet, and published 'A Child's Garden of Verses' in 1885.

Stevenson suffered from tuberculosis for much of his life. Seeking a climate more favourable to his health, he and his family settled in Western Samoa in 1889. The natives regarded him with affection, and called him Tusitala, meaning "teller of tales". Stevenson died in Samoa on 3 December 1894.

1862  -             Lewis Carroll begins writing 'Alice's Adventures in Wonderland'.

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is a work of children's fiction by British mathematician and author Reverend Charles Lutwidge Dodgson under the pseudonym Lewis Carroll. The story of a bored girl named Alice, who had amazing adventures after she fell through a rabbit-hole, was made up by Carroll as he rowed up the Thames River with three young girls, Lorina, Alice and Edith Liddell. Alice, aged 10, asked Carroll to write down the story: Carroll began writing down the story on 13 November 1862, entitling it "Alice's Adventures Under Ground".

A longer version of the story was later published under the title of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. A sequel was published in 1871 as "Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There". In 1886 a facsimile of Alice's Adventures under Ground, the original manuscript Dogdson gave Alice, was also published.

1970  -             Half a million people are killed as a devastating cyclone hits East Pakistan.

The area once known as East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) lies in the Ganges Delta, a densely populated, low-lying region of the Indian sub-continent. Typically experiencing a humid, warm rainy monsoon from June to October, the area is often hit by tropical cyclones that form in the warm waters of the Bay of Bengal.

On the night of 12 November 1970, a tropical cyclone in the Bay of Bengal approached the coast of East Pakistan. In the early hours of November 13, winds exceeding 190 km/h, combined with an exceptionally high tide of 5 to 6 metres, drove a tidal surge into the region, carrying ocean water many kilometres inland. Widespread flooding drowned many people in their homes before they even knew the cyclone had hit. The official death toll was posted at 150,000, with 100,000 people missing, but later estimates put the figure closer to 500,000. Some researchers have reason to believe the death toll was nearly one million. The West Pakistani government failed to respond quickly to the crisis: this proved the catalyst to political turmoil which resulted in independence for Bangladesh in 1971.

1985  -             23,000 are killed after a volcanic eruption in Colombia.

Nevado del Ruiz is the northernmost historically active volcano in South America. With an elevation of 5,321m, the volcano is capped by snow and ice. Around mid-year of 1985, rumblings began in the volcano, increasing in intensity, but residents of Armero, lying in a valley beneath the shadow of the volcano some 90km from Colombia's capital city of Bogota, were told there was no danger. During the afternoon of 13 November 1985, the volcano emitted a burst of ash. Residents of Armero were ordered to evacuate, but the order was abandoned when the volcano quietened down again early in the evening.

At around 9pm local time, Nevado del Ruiz erupted. Pyroclastic flows consisting of hot gas, ash and rock melted ice and snow at the summit, forming lahars up to 50m thick that rushed down several river valleys at speeds of up to 50km per hour. Some of these lahars, which are mixtures of rock, mud, water and other debris, travelled more than 100 kilometres. Armero was buried under at least 8 metres of ash, mud and debris. Around 23,000 people in the city were killed. Armero has not been excavated. After the 1985 eruption, the government declared the site of the buried city to be "holy ground".

Nevado del Ruiz remained active for several more years, erupting again in 1991 and 1992.

2003  -             Queensland adopts maroon as its official state colour.

The colour "maroon" has long been associated with the state of Queensland because of its connection to sport in Queensland. In particular, maroon, together with gold, represent rugby league club the Brisbane Broncos.

On 13 November 2003, Queensland formally adopted the colour maroon as its official state colour. The announcement was made by the Governor in Council, and a specific shade of maroon was selected. The colour can be viewed on the Queensland Government's website, under "Flags, Emblems and Icons".

Cheers - John

Gday...

1650  -             King William III of England, also known as William of Orange, is born.

William III of England was born on 14 November 1650, in The Hague, Netherlands. He became the Sovereign Prince of Orange at his birth because his father died of smallpox eight days before he was born. Known by many titles including William III of England, William II of Scotland and William of Orange, he was King of England and Ireland from 13 February 1689, and King of Scotland from 11 April 1689. As a Protestant, William participated in many wars against the powerful Roman Catholic King of France, Louis XIV.

After James II of England ascended the throne in 1685, the English feared that the kings policies were directed too much towards restoring the power of the Roman Catholic church. In June 1688, a group of political figures known as the "Immortal Seven" secretly invited William to bring an army of liberation to England. William and a force of about 15,000 men landed at southwest England on 5 November 1688. James, his support base dissolved, was allowed to escape to France, and William had no wish to make him a martyr for Roman Catholicism. Whilst the Scottish parliament accepted the new rulers, Ireland, being mostly Catholic, remained loyal to the deposed king and had to be taken by force. In 1690 William led the army that defeated James and his Irish partisans at the Battle of the Boyne, and members of Parliament accepted him in order to restore their own power.

1868  -             Steele Rudd, Australian journalist and author of "On Our Selection", is born.

Steele Rudd was born Arthur Hoey Davis at Drayton near Toowoomba, Queensland, on 14 November 1868, the eighth child of a family that eventually had thirteen children. When he was six years old, his father moved the entire family into a small slab hut on their new selection at Emu Creek, acquired under the Land Settlement Act. The experiences of the young Arthur growing up in the slab hut formed the basis for his stories of the pioneering life which featured in much of his writing. His pseudonym came from a combination of his interest in writing and rowing: 'Steele" came from the name of an English essayist, and "Rudd" was a shortening of the word 'rudder', which allowed him to incorporate his love of rowing into his name.

Steele Rudd wrote 24 books and 6 plays. Specialising in short stories of country life, Rudd is best known for his short stories satirising life "On Our Selection". These stories feature Dad and Dave in a humorous account of life on a plot of land 'selected' in the late 1800s in Australia. "On Our Selection", published in 1899, sold over 250,000 copies in its day, and the stories were later incorporated into radio serials and movies.

1902  -             The incident with Theodore Roosevelt that spurred the creation of the teddy bear occurs.

Theodore (Teddy) Roosevelt was the 26th president of the United States. He was respected for his activities as a writer, explorer and soldier, and he was known for both his energy and his compassion.

Stories vary regarding the origin of the teddy bear, but they all have a common theme. Late in 1902, Roosevelt was working to solve a border dispute between Mississippi and Louisiana. He took time out to join in a hunting expedition in Mississippi. The President was unsuccessful in shooting any game so, on 14 November 1902, the hunting party brought a bear cub to the camp so the president could shoot it. Roosevelt refused, because the animal did not have a chance to defend itself. In a different version of the story, Roosevelt came upon an older bear that was already wounded. He refused to shoot it for sport, but did order that it be put out of its misery in a mercy killing. In yet another version, the party hunted down an old bear to the point of exhaustion, and set their dogs upon it before tying it to a tree so the President could shoot the bear. Regardless of the actual sequence of events, the outcome remained the same - Roosevelt would not shoot a defenceless bear.

The story was picked up by political cartoonist Clifford Berryman, who depicted the President refusing to shoot the defenceless creature. Interestingly, the original illustration differs from the version which appeared in the newspapers. The redrawn version showed a much smaller bear, fearful and decidedly "cuter" than the original fierce beast. This doctored version, where the president refused to shoot a young cub, became the story preferred by the people.

Following the appearance of the story in the newspapers, New York shopkeeper Morris Michtom displayed in his shop window two toy bears his wife had made, and sought permission from the president to call them "Teddy's bears". Michtom then started mass-producing the bears, and within a year had established his own company called the Ideal Novelty and Toy Company. This is considered to be the birth of the Teddy bear, although again, versions vary. The bear considered to be the original 1903 teddy bear was given to the Smithsonian institute by Teddy Roosevelt's grandson, and now resides in the National Museum of American History.

1939  -             The world's oldest dog on record, a Blue Heeler named 'Bluey', dies, aged 29 years.

The Blue Heeler is a hardy breed of dog developed in Australia. Also known as the Australian Cattle dog, the Blue Heeler was developed by colonists in the 1800s by crossing Dingo-blue merle Collies to Dalmatians and black and tan Kelpies. This produced an excellent working dog, capable of driving large herds of cattle through the harsh conditions of the outback.

According to Guinness World Records, the world's oldest known dog was a Blue Heeler, appropriately named "Bluey", owned by Les Hall of Rochester in the Australian state of Victoria. Born on 7 June 1910, Bluey died on 14 November 1939 at the age of twenty-nine years, five months, and seven days.

1954  -             The Santa Gertrudis cattle breed in Australia is consolidated as a viable industry with the first auction of animals.

Santa Gertrudis is a breed of cattle which originated in the United States of America. It was produced by the crossing of Shorthorns with Brahmans, in an attempt to find a balance of cattle which produced high-quality meat, yet could thrive in southern Texas's semi-tropical climate. The fact that it could survive humid, tropical climates proved to be an attraction for Australian cattle breeders.

The breed was first introduced in Australia in 1952 by King Ranch Australia, an off-shoot of King Ranch in the United States which established the Santa Gertrudis breed. 75 bulls and 200 heifers were initially imported. After setting up headquarters at Warwick, in southern Queensland, King Ranch held its first auction of 12 Santa Gertrudis bulls on 14 November 1954. The average price of a stud bull was 1100 guineas, the equivalent of about $38,000 in 2009 values.

Further beasts were imported also in 1954, and from this small population, the breed spread to all other states and territories in Australia. An embargo was placed on the importation of any further cattle up until the Cocos Island Quarantine Station was established in 1981. This was to prevent the possible introduction of Blue-Tongue Disease.

The Santa Gertrudis is now one of Australia's leading breeds of cattle. It is highly prized for its meat quality and hardiness in Australian conditions.

1963  -             The island of Surtsey, off Iceland, is created by a volcanic explosion.

Surtsey, meaning Surtur's island in Icelandic, is a volcanic island off the southern coast of Iceland. Prior to 1963, the island did not exist. It was formed in a volcanic eruption which began 130 metres below sea level, and reached the surface on 14 November 1963. Initial volcanic rumblings started a few days earlier, as evidenced when a seismograph in Reykjavík recorded weak tremors. After emerging through to the surface on November 14, the volcanic explosions continued. After a few days the new island, formed mainly of scoria, an igneous rock containing many gas bubbles, measured over 500 metres in length and had reached a height of 45 metres.

The eruptions continued through to June 1967, at which point the island reached its maximum size of 2.7 km². At this stage, the island's highest point was 174 metres above sea level. Erosion from wind and the ocean has gradually diminished the size of the island, and in 2005, it was only 1.4 km² in size. The first signs of life on the island appeared as insects moved in during 1964, and mosses and lichens began to grow in 1965. Since then, as bird colonies have moved in, more plant species have also been established. The island is now a protected nature reserve, with limited numbers of scientists permitted to land there. Tourists and visitors are not allowed.

1990  -             The New Zealand Aramoana Massacre ends with the death of the gunman.

Aramoana is a small seaside township not far from Dunedin on New Zealand's South Island. Its name comes from the Maori language and means "pathway to the sea". The town is positioned at the mouth of Otago Harbour, where the main channel is kept clear by an artificial breakwater known as the Aramoana Mole. A monument now stands among the sand-dunes near the Aramoana Mole - a monument to the victims of a massacre.

David Gray was a 33-year-old unemployed gun collector who, without warning, went on a killing rampage with an assault rifle. He began with his neighbour Garry Holden, with whom he'd had a long-standing conflict over a variety of issues. After wounding one of Holden's daughters, Gray set the house on fire, then continued to shoot indiscriminately at passing vehicles and people, both adults and innocent children. He entered houses, shooting randomly, and shot dead officer Sergeant Stewart Guthrie who had attempted to subdue Gray. When Gray finally challenged the police to shoot him, they complied, ending the two-day shooting rampage on 14 November 1990.

In the aftermath, it was found that Holden's daughter and the daughter of his girlfriend had died in the house fire. The total number of victims was 13. Although later investigations showed that Gray's mental condition had deteriorated in the months prior to the killings, no specific catalyst to the massacre was ever identified.

Cheers - John

Interesting read again John, so thanks for that

Re November 12
1894 - Australian inventor Lawrence Hargrave demonstrates that it is possible for man to fly.

Vaguely remembered something about Hargrave, but did not know that he was the first

Gday...

1769  -             James Cook takes formal possession of New Zealand.

In 1769, Lieutenant James Cook was appointed to chart the transit of Venus. After completing his scientific mission of observing the transit of Venus from the islands of Tahiti, James Cook then was under secret orders to search for Terra Australis Incognita, the great continent which some believed to extend round the pole. Shortly after observing the transit of Venus, Cook came across New Zealand, which had already been discovered by Abel Tasman in 1642. Early in October 1769, a 12-year-old cabin boy named Nicholas Young first sighted New Zealand, and two days later the 'Endeavour' anchored in Poverty Bay, which Cook originally named as Endeavour Bay. Cook and two botanists, Joseph Banks and Daniel Solander, went ashore at the future site of Gisborne on 9 October.

Cook went on to spend some months in New Zealand, charting the coastline. On 15 November 1769, James Cook took formal possession of New Zealand, raising the British flag at Mercury Bay, on the east coast of the Coromandel Peninsula.

1791  -             Australia's first successful grape vine is planted.

When the first Fleet landed in New South Wales in 1788, the members of the colony were poorly equipped for the Australian conditions. The colony needed to be self-supporting, but the seeds which had been brought from England had either gone mouldy on the long sea voyage, damaged by the salt and humidity, or simply could not survive in the harsh Australian soil and climate. English tools were also unable to stand up to the rocky soil, and broke easily, while the convicts themselves were unwilling workers.

In April 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip explored beyond Port Jackson. He travelled as far as he could by boat up Sydney Harbour, tracing the Parramatta River to the point where Parramatta itself was established six months later, as Rose Hill. Here, grape vines were planted. Grape vines had been planted in Sydney from the colony's earliest days, but were unable to survive. On 15 November 1791, the first grape vine to survive in Australia was planted at Parramatta - the beginning of a later thriving industry.

1838  -             The perpetrators of the Myall Creek Massacre in New South Wales are acquitted.

On 10 June 1838, a gang of stockmen, heavily armed, rounded up between 40 and 50 Aboriginal women, children and elderly men at Myall Creek Station, not far from Inverell in New South Wales. 28 Aborigines were murdered. It was believed that the massacre was payback for the killing of several colonists in the area, yet most of those massacred were women and children.

At a trial held on 15 November 1838, twelve Europeans were charged with murder but acquitted. Another trial was held on November 26, during which the twelve men were charged with the murder of just one Aboriginal child. They were found guilty, and seven of the men were hanged in December under the authority of Governor George Gipps.

1940  -             During the Blitz, the German air-force bombs the city of Coventry, almost completely destroying it.

The Blitz was an intense bombing campaign in England in World War II by the German airforce, the Luftwaffe. The Blitz took its name from the German word Blitzkrieg, meaning 'Lightning War'. Hundreds of civilians were killed, and many more injured, in the initial attack on London which took place on 7 September 1940. The first raids were concentrated on the heavily populated East End, as about 300 bomber planes attacked the city over a 90 minute period.

On 15 November 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed the city of Coventry in a raid which lasted more than 10 hours. Between 380 and 554 people were killed and several hundred injured. The city's 14th century cathedral was virtually destroyed, along with over 4300 homes and three-quarters of the city's factories. A new cathedral has since been built, standing alongside the ruins of the old cathedral as a monument to courage and sacrifice.

Prior to the attacks on England, the German airforce had spent a month attempting to decimate the British airforce. Failure to achieve this objective had resulted in the Blitz, designed to crush the morale of the British people. The Blitz lasted for over 8 months, killed about 43,000 civilians and destroyed over one million homes. During the Blitz, the Luftwaffe lost most of its experienced aircrew and hundreds of aircraft. By drawing the focus away from the British air force, it gave the RAF time to regroup and rebuild. Despite the Luftwaffe's best attempts, the British people never lost their morale or their fighting spirit.

2001  -             A stowaway cat nicknamed "Colin's" accidentally begins an epic journey from Port Taranaki in New Zealand to South Korea.

A stray cat nicknamed "Colin's" made international fame when she accidentally stowed away on a tanker at Port Taranaki, in New Plymouth, New Zealand, bound for South Korea, 9,600km away. Named after the manager of the Port Taranaki tanker terminal in New Plymouth, New Zealand, who originally owned her, Colin's Cat had lived at Westgate Port's tanker terminal, Port Taranaki, after her owner moved on nine years earlier, and soon became popular with the employees.

On 15 November 2001, a South Korean sailor took Colin's on board the tanker "Tomiwaka" to feed her, and both employee and cat fell asleep: when they woke, the tanker was already sailing. The Port staff quickly missed their mascot moggy, checking immediately with all tankers that had visited the port to see whether the cat was on board. After she was located, a concerted effort was organised to reunite Colin's with her numerous owners. The tanker captain, Chang Seong-mo, emailed photos of her back to the port to reassure staff that she was alive and had even found her "sea-legs".

The Whiskas pet food company played a crucial role in reuniting Colin's with the Port staff, organising flights for Westgate's duty superintendent Gordon MacPherson to collect the cat in Korea and fly her back to New Zealand. On 4 December 2001, Colin's arrived in Yeosu, South Korea; quarantine officers in South Korea and New Zealand allowed the cat to return home immediately.

For many years, Colin's cat enjoyed a peaceful retirement at the port, guaranteed a lifetime supply of pet food from Whiskas, and yearly veterinary checks funded by the pet food company. She died at the age of 16 on 15 May 2007, and was buried in the garden close to the entrance to the watch house, which was her favourite spot. A plaque commemorates the unusual story of Colin's.

2008  -             Today is Steve Irwin Day.

Stephen Robert "Steve" Irwin was born on 22 February 1962 in Essendon, Melbourne, Victoria. He moved to Queensland when he was still a child, where his parents developed and ran the Queensland Reptile and Fauna Park. In 1991, Irwin took over the running of the park, which was later renamed "Australia Zoo".

As a passionate environmentalist, Irwin became known for the television program "The Crocodile Hunter", an unconventional wildlife documentary series which he hosted with his wife Terri Irwin. Irwin's outgoing personality, energetic vitality and outrageous antics in the series made him an international celebrity. He also starred in Animal Planet documentaries, including The Croc Files, The Crocodile Hunter Diaries, and New Breed Vets.

Australia lost one of its most popular icons and ambassadors in the early afternoon of 4 September 2006. Steve Irwin was filming an underwater documentary off the Great Barrier Reef, when he was fatally pierced in the heart by a stingray barb. He is survived by his wife Terri, daughter Bindi, born in 1998 and son Robert (Bob), born in 2004.

Many have sought to commemorate Steve Irwin's unique and powerful influence as an environmentalist. As of 2008, November 15 was designated Steve Irwin Day, an annual celebration of Irwin's remarkable life and personality.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1824  -             Hume and Hovell become the first white men to sight the Murray River.

Hamilton Hume was an Australian-born settler with excellent bush skills. He was interested in exploring south of the known Sydney area in order to open up new areas of land, but could not gain Government support for his proposed venture. William Hovell was an English immigrant with little bush experience, a former ship's captain who was keen to assist Hume's expedition financially and accompany him. The expedition was set up, and Hume and Hovell departed Hume's father's farm at Appin, southwest of Sydney, on 3 October 1824.

Although the two men argued for most of their journey, and even for many years after their return, the expedition was successful in many ways. On 16 November 1824, Hume and Hovell became the first white men to sight and name the "Hume River", though it was later renamed by Sturt as the Murray River. Hovell recorded in his journal that they arrived suddenly "at a very fine river -at least 200 feet wide, apparently deep... on both sides the land is low and level of a fine alluvial soil, with grass up to our middle. This I named Humes River, he being the first that saw it. In the solid wood of a healthy tree, I carved my name." That river redgum still stands on the banks of the mighty Murray, at Albury in New South Wales.

1840  -             New Zealand becomes a separate colony, no longer administered by New South Wales.

The first known European to sight the islands of New Zealand was Dutch trader and explorer Abel Tasman, who did so in 1642. The next explorer to venture through New Zealand waters was James Cook, who claimed New Zealand for Great Britain. This signalled the start of British occupation of the islands previously occupied only by the Maori.

In June 1839, letters patent were issued in London extending the boundaries of New South Wales to include any territory which is or may be acquired in sovereignty by Her Majesty ... within that group of Islands in the Pacific Ocean, commonly called New Zealand. In 1839, the British government appointed William Hobson as consul to New Zealand and, prior to Hobson leaving Sydney for New Zealand, the Governor of New South Wales issued a proclamation declaring that the boundaries of New South Wales were extended to include "such territory in New Zealand as might be acquired in sovereignty". New Zealand officially became a dependency of New South Wales when the Legislative Council passed an Act extending to New Zealand the laws of New South Wales, on 16 June 1840. The purpose of this was to ensure New Zealand was administered by the British while the issue of sovereignty over the islands was being asserted.

Five months later, on 16 November 1940, New Zealand officially became a separate colony of the United Kingdom, severing its link to New South Wales, with the Charter for erecting the Colony of New Zealand.

1855  -             Missionary and explorer David Livingstone becomes the first non-African to sight Victoria Falls in Africa.

David Livingstone was born on 19 March 1813, in Blantyre, Scotland. Initially he studied medicine and theology at the University of Glasgow, but when he was 27 years old, he sailed from Scotland to South Africa as a Christian missionary. Whilst there he spent some time exploring the African interior, becoming one of the first Westerners to make a transcontinental journey across Africa. Livingstone was popular among native tribes in Africa because he quickly learned African languages and had a keen understanding and sympathy for native people and their cultures.

On 16 November 1855, Livingstone first sighted the spectacular Victoria Falls. Upon reaching them, he named them after the reigning monarch, Queen Victoria. Known locally as Mosi-oa-Tunya, the "smoke that thunders", the falls are situated on the Zambezi River, on the border between Zambia and Zimbabwe, and are approximately 1.6 kilometres wide and 128 metres high.

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

1919  -             The first south to north transcontinental flight across Australia occurs.

The first Australian to demonstrate that man could fly was Lawrence Hargrave, who was born in England in 1850, but emigrated to Australia in 1865. Hargrave invented the box kite in 1893, and used it to further his aerodynamic studies. In November 1894, Hargrave linked four of his kites together, added a sling seat, and flew about five metres in the air on a beach near Wollongong, New South Wales. In doing so, he demonstrated that it was possible for man to build, and be transported in, a safe and stable flying machine. His radical design for a wing that could support far more than its own weight opened up opportunities for other inventors to develop the design for commercial purposes.

The first domestic airmail service in Australia commenced in Melbourne in July 1914. Five years later, technology had developed to the point where the first south to north transcontinental flight was made possible. The flight was undertaken by Captain Henry N Wrigley and Sergeant Arthur William Murphy, flying a B.E.2E aircraft. The purpose of the flight was to survey the route for competitors in the first England to Australia air race. Wrigley and Murphy departed Point Cook, Victoria on 16 November 1919 and reached Darwin, Northern Territory on 12 December. It took the pair 46 flying hours to cover the 2,500 miles (4023 km).

1920  -             Colin Thiele, Australian writer and author of 'Storm Boy', is born.

Colin Thiele was born on 16 November 1920, in Eudunda, a small town north of the Barossa Valley in South Australia. After graduating from the University of Adelaide, he served in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II. He then became a high school teacher, college lecturer, and principal. Thiele's novels for both children and adults were heavily influenced by his own German-Australian upbringing. A number of his stories won literary awards, and several were made into films or TV series. Among his better-known children's works are "Storm Boy", "Blue Fin", "Sun on the Stubble" and "Magpie Island". In 1977 Thiele was made a Companion of the Order of Australia, the highest level of the award, for his services to literature and education.

After retiring from teaching and writing, Colin Thiele lived in Dayboro, Queensland, until his death on 4 September 2006. The Thiele Library at the Magill campus of the University of South Australia is named after him, an honour which predated his death by many years.

1920  -             Australian airline Qantas is founded.

In 1919, Australia's Federal Government offered a £10,000 prize for the first Australians to fly from England to Australia within 30 days. Two men who sought to take up the challenge were W Hudson Fysh and Paul McGinness, former Australian Flying Corps officers who had served together at Gallipoli. The venture required substantial funding, and the men's plans were thwarted when a wealthy would-be sponsor died and the money was not released from his estate. However, the setback directed Fysh and McGinness toward another undertaking - that of a regular air service to remote settlements in the outback.

Fysh and McGinness were contracted by the Federal Defence Department to survey part of the original race route by motor car. The arduous journey of almost 2200km from Longreach in northwestern Queensland to Katherine in the Northern Territory in a Model T Ford highlighted the need for transport services for remote communities. After securing financing from another wealthy grazier, Fergus McMaster, the 'Queensland and Northern Territory Aerial Services', or Qantas, was born. McMaster stated that Qantas was founded in Winton, western Queensland, as that was the location of the only meeting the directors - McMasters, Fysh, McGinness and mechanic, former flight sergeant Arthur Baird - ever had. Papers formally establishing the service were signed in the Gresham Hotel in Brisbane on 16 November 1920. The company, which soon moved its operations to the more central town of Longreach, operated air mail services subsidised by the Australian government from 1922, linking railheads in western Queensland. In 1934, QANTAS Limited and Britain's Imperial Airways, forerunner of British Airways, formed a new company, Qantas Empire Airways Limited. QEA commenced services between Brisbane and Singapore using deHavilland DH-86 Commonwealth Airliners. In 1935 the first overseas passenger flight from Brisbane to Singapore was operated in a journey which took four days.

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

1938  -             The Waterside Workers' Strike, which earns Robert Menzies the nicknam e of 'Pig-Iron Bob', begins.

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

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

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

1959  -             The original Broadway production of The Sound of Music opens.

The Sound of Music is a musical with music composed by Richard Rodgers and lyrics written by Oscar Hammerstein II. It is based on the book The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, a memoir written by Maria Augusta von Trapp, published in 1949. Details were changed for the stage Musical: the real Maria von Trapp married Georg von Trapp in 1927 and the family departed Austria by train to Italy before continuing on to London and the US. However, the fictionalised account of the von Trapps marriage amid the Anschluss the annexing of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938 and their escape on foot over the mountains to Switzerland proved popular in the Musical version.

The Sound of Music was the last musical ever written by Rodgers and Hammerstein as Oscar Hammerstein died of cancer less than a year after the Broadway premiere on 16 November 1959. The original production starred Mary Martin and Theodore Bikel. The London production opened at the Palace Theatre on 18 May 1961. The film version, which popularised songs such as Edelweiss, Do-Re-Mi and My Favorite Things, was produced in 1965 and starred Julie Andrews and Christopher Plummer.

Both the stage Musical and the film were award-winning. The Broadway production received nine nominations and won five Tony Awards, including Best Musical, whilst the film version won five Academy Awards. Since then, the stage production has been revived and adapted in various forms, performed in dozens of countries.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1840  -             Eyre replenishes his supplies at Fowler's Bay, South Australia, as he prepares to cross the continent to the west.

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

Following this fruitless attempt, Eyre regrouped at Streaky Bay, on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. He then travelled to past where Ceduna is today, reaching Fowler's Bay on 17 November 1840. Here, he replenished his food and water supplies from the government cutter 'Waterwitch'. He had to choose between attempting another northward trek, or heading west, which had never before been attempted. Eyre chose to go west, finally reaching Albany in an epic journey of courage and determination.

1869  -             The Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean and Red seas, is formally opened to shipping traffic.

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

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

1970  -             The first computer mouse is patented by Douglas Engelbart.

Douglas C Engelbart, born on 30 January 1925, was an American inventor. In collaboration with William English, he invented the computer mouse. The first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface, in 1964. Engelbart's computer mouse was patented on 17 November 1970, under the name "X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System". Calling it a mouse because of its tail-like cable, it was simply a hollowed-out wooden block with two metal wheels and a single push button on top. It was designed to select text and manipulate it, such as moving it around. Engelbart's invention was revolutionary for changing the way computers worked, from specialised machinery that only trained scientists could use, to user-friendly tools that almost anyone could use.

2002  -             The most recent spectacular show of the Leonids meteor shower is observed.

The Leonids meteor shower is a spectacular display of shooting stars that occurs annually between November 12 and 23, tending to peak on November 17 each year. They are associated with the comet Temple-Tuttle, and are presumed to be comprised of particles ejected by the comet as it passes by the sun each November. The meteor shower gained its name from the fact that it appears in or near the constellation of Leo. Roughly following a 33-year cycle in greatest visibility, some of the most spectacular displays have been seen in mid-November 1698, 1799, 1833, 1866, 1966 and, most recently, on 17 November 2002.

Cheers - John

Thanks John - and how far has the humble mouse evolved since then, my apple magic mouse no longer has a tail, separate buttons or wheels. It users laser for direction of movement and each different action is done by by the way that you move your finger. Although I prefer using a mouse if you have a touch screen you don't even need that.

Gday...

1838  -             The first group of German-Prussian Lutherans sponsored by wealthy Scottish businessman, George Fife Angas, arrives in South Australia.

In the 1800s, under King Friedrich Wilhelm III, German/Prussian Lutherans suffered religious persecution. Friedrich Wilhelm was an autocratic king who believed he had the right to create his own state church from the two main Protestant churches - the Lutheran church and the smaller Reformed church - in a united Prussian state church. This would effectively remove the right of Lutherans to worship in a way of their choosing. Penalties for non-adherence to the state religion were severe. Many Lutherans immigrated to Australia to escape the persecution.

Thanks to wealthy Scottish businessman and chairman of the South Australian Company, George Fife Angas, a deal was struck by Pastor August Kavel to start a new Lutheran settlement in South Australia. The first group of 21 Lutherans under Angas's sponsorship arrived on the ship 'Bengalee' on 18 November 1838, followed two days later by the main group on the 'Prince George'. They first settled at the town of Klemzig. Many more ships followed over the next three years.

1861  -             The words to the famous "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" are first penned.

"Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;"
This begins the "The Battle Hymn of the Republic", a well-known hymn which has become symbolic of patriotism in the USA. The hymn originated as a campfire spiritual, based on a melody written by William Steffe in 1856. The original lyrics were entitled "Canaan's Happy Shore" or "Brothers, Will You Meet Me?"

Shortly before Civil War broke out in the US, Thomas Bishop, who joined the Massachusetts militia, wrote new lyrics called "John Brown's Body", referring to the famous abolitionist, and the song became one of his unit's walking songs. After Bishop's battalion was sent to Washington DC at the outbreak of the war, Julia Ward Howe, accompanied by Reverend James Freeman Clarke, heard the song during a public review of the troops outside Washington on Upton Hill, Virginia. Clarke suggested Howe write new lyrics for the fighting men's song.

On the night of 18 November 1861, while staying in her hotel room in Washington, Howe awoke with the new lyrics already in her mind, and wrote them down immediately. They were first published on the front page of The Atlantic Monthly of February 1862.

1879  -             One of Australia's youngest bushrangers, a fifteen-year-old member of Captain Moonlite's gang, is shot and killed.

Augustus Wernicke was one of Australia's youngest bushrangers, and part of Captain Moonlite's gang. Captain Moonlite, aka Andrew George Scott, became a bushranger upon his release from gaol, eight years after robbing the bank at Mount Egerton, Victoria. He recruited several other gang members, among them 15-year-old Wernicke, and walked to New South Wales, hoping to find employment at Wantabadgery Station, well known for its hospitality.

Being in the grip of a severe drought, and also having changed hands, Wantabadgery could offer them nothing. In desperation, Moonlite took 35 people hostage. In the resultant shootout with police on 18 November 1879, gang members James Nesbitt and Augustus Wernicke, together with Constable Bowen, were all shot dead. Moonlite and the surviving gang members were tried and charged with the murder of Constable Bowen. Moonlite himself was hanged on 20 January 1880 at Darlinghurst Court.

1928  -             Cartoon character Mickey Mouse debuts in 'Steamboat Willie'.

Mickey Mouse is a cartoon character who has become a symbol for The Walt Disney Company. Walt Disney first created a cartoon character named Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, for Charles Mintz of Universal Studios. When Disney requested an increased budget to develop the character, he was fired, losing the rights to the cartoon creation which was owned by the company. Mickey Mouse was created to replace Oswald. Originally named Mortimer Mouse, Disney's wife suggested that the name was too pretentious, and Disney came up with Mickey Mouse instead.

During his development, Mickey Mouse appeared in a couple of other cartoons, including 'Plane Crazy' and 'The Gallopin' Gaucho'. The character was not popular as he was initially very similar in appearance and mannerisms to Oswald, so Disney sought to develop the mouse as an entirely separate personality which would distinguish him from Disney's previous work and that of his rivals. "Steamboat Willie", featuring the new and different Mickey Mouse, was first released on 18 November 1928. Although this was not the first Mickey cartoon made or released, it is still considered by some as Mickey Mouse's true debut. "Steamboat Willie" was the first sound-synchronised animated cartoon, and a complete success.

1978  -             Over 900 people mass suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, South America.

Jim Jones, born on 13 May 1931, was the American founder of the People's Temple, a cult which initially had its roots in San Francisco. After an investigation began into the church for tax evasion, Jones and most of the 1,000 members of the People's Temple moved to a camp deep in the jungle of Guyana, South America. The settlement was named Jonestown.

Relatives and people who had left the organisation told of brutal beatings, murders and a mass suicide plan but were not believed. Allegations of human rights abuses perpetrated by Jones caused US Congressman Leo Ryan to lead a fact-finding mission to Jonestown in November 1978. After spending a couple of days interviewing residents, Ryan and his crew left hurriedly on November 18 when an attempt was made on Ryan's life. As they reached the nearby airstrip to depart Jonestown with about twenty cult members who wished to escape, gunmen from the compound arrived and began firing on the planes. Five people were killed, including Ryan, three media representatives, and one of the former cult members. Shortly after this, 914 cult members, including 276 children, drank soft drink laced with cyanide and sedatives in order to commit mass suicide. Jones himself died from an apparently self-inflicted bullet wound to the head.

1985  -             Today is Calvin and Hobbes Day, marking the debut of the comic strip.

Calvin and Hobbes is a cartoon strip by cartoonist Bill Watterson. It features a six-year-old boy, Calvin, whose mischievous nature is the bane of everyone around him, and his stuffed tiger Hobbes, which only Calvin sees as real and alive. The characters are named after 16th-century French Reformation theologian John Calvin, and Thomas Hobbes, an English political philosopher from the 17th century. The cartoon's creator intended the naming to be "an inside job for poli-sci majors". Watterson graduated from Kenyon College in 1980 with a degree in political science, and became a political cartoonist for the Cincinnati Post, which then fired him after just three months.

Watterson continued drawing cartoons and experienced numerous rejections for his work. He was encouraged by some interest shown in one of his minor characters who was the younger brother of the main subject: this character became Calvin. The strip was picked up by Universal Press Syndicate, and first published on 18 November 1985.

Calvin and Hobbes enjoyed an immensely successful run, earning Watterson the Reuben Award from the National Cartoonists Society, in the Outstanding Cartoonist of the Year category, in both 1986 and 1988. He was also awarded the Humor Comic Strip Award for 1988. Despite his success, Watterson reached the point where he felt he could not develop the strip or the characters according to syndicate constraints any further and, fearing a stalemate, ended Calvin and Hobbes on a high, with the final cartoon being published on 31 December 1995. At this point, the cartoon was appearing in more than 2400 newspapers. Many newspapers around the world continue to run the strip as a weekly feature.

1987  -             31 people are killed when a fire breaks out in the London Underground.

The London Underground is a metropolitan railway system in London. With 12 lines and 275 stations, it is one of the largest urban rapid transit systems in the world.

On 18 November 1987, a fatal fire broke out in King's Cross St. Pancras, in the London Underground railway network. The fire was believed to have been caused when a discarded match from a smoking passenger ignited oil, grease and papers in a machine room beneath an old wooden escalator. Smoke was first noticed coming from the escalator at 7:32pm. The London Fire Brigade arrived on the scene at 7.42pm, and three minutes later the flames erupted in a fireball. Station Officer Colin Townsley, who remained in the ticketing hall at the top of the escalator shaft, was killed trying to help passengers escape. Another 30 people were killed in the blaze.

Later investigations uncovered the discarded match. They also revealed that numerous other fires had been ignited in the same way, around the wooden escalators, but had never progressed to the same degree. Other conditions exacerbated the quick ventilation and progression of the fire: among these were particular combination of draughts, caused by an eastbound train arriving at the station while a westbound train was leaving.

Cheers - John