Thanks for that John ..

Yep .. my forebears were part of that Lutheran migration .. My prussian ancestry was from the Posen Province of the day .. many settled primarily in the Riverlands where many descendants still reside these days .. I have a beautiful book (family tree) the even includes my 2 lads ..

Another good read again, so thanks for that John

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

Just another useless waste of human life, RIP

I well remember it unfold in the media, it was hard to comprehend how one man could have manipulated everyone
Perhaps the saying that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time, was in this case not quite true

Gday...

1493  -             Explorer Christopher Columbus lands on Puerto Rico for the first time.

Explorer Christopher Columbus was determined to pioneer a western sea route to China, India, and the fabled gold and spice islands of Asia. In 1492 he set sail from Palos, Spain, with three small ships, the Santa Marýa, the Pinta, and the Niña. During his journeys, Columbus explored the West Indies, South America, and Central America. He became the first explorer and trader to cross the Atlantic Ocean and sight the land of the Americas, on 12 October 1492, under the flag of Castile, a former kingdom of modern day Spain. It is most probable that the land he first sighted was Watling Island in the Bahamas.

Columbus returned to Spain laden with gold and new discoveries from his travels, including the previously unknown tobacco plant and the pineapple fruit. The success of his first expedition prompted his commissioning for a second voyage to the New World, and he set out from Cýdiz in September 1493. On 19 November 1493, he set foot on an island he had seen only the day before. He named it San Juan Bautista after St John the Baptist, and the town Puerto Rico, meaning "rich port". (The names were later swapped around, with Puerto Rico becoming the name of the island, and San Juan the capital city.) At the time Columbus arrived, the island held a population of around 50,000 Taino or Arawak Indians. The men who greeted him made the mistake of showing him the gold nuggets in the river, and invited him to take as much as he wanted.

Columbus explored Cuba, Jamaica, Puerto Rico and various smaller Caribbean islands, and further ensuing explorations yielded discoveries such as Venezuela. Through all this, Columbus believed that he was travelling to parts of Asia. He believed Hispaniola was Japan, and that the peaks of Cuba were the Himalayas of India. Columbus died on 20 May 1506, still believing that he had found the route to the Asian continent.

1703  -             The legendary 'Man in the Iron Mask' dies.

The Man in the Iron Mask has spawned many myths and legends over time. One of the more factual accounts of the unknown French prisoner comes from the journal of Lieutenant Etienne du Junca, an official of the Bastille from October 1690 until his death in September 1706. Du Junca recorded that when a new governor of the Bastille arrived on 18 September 1698, he brought with him a prisoner wearing a black velvet (not iron) mask, and whose name was not disclosed to anyone. The new governor, Bénigne d'Auvergne de Saint-Mars, had kept the masked man in custody since at least the beginning of his own governorship at Pignerol, from 1665.

The masked man was always treated well, and evinced no complaints. When the prisoner died on 19 November 1703, Saint-Mars had the name "Marchialy" inscribed in the parish register. However, spelling of the day being purely as the inscriber perceived it, there was no way to know what the man's name truly was. After his death, stories of the man in the mask became more and more exaggerated. By the time the writer Voltaire had developed the story in 1751, the mask was said to be riveted on, with a "movable, hinged lower jaw held in place by springs that made it possible to eat wearing it." There were even rumours that, after the storming of the Bastille in 1789, a skeleton was found with an iron mask still attached. Such stories have been found to be pure fabrication, and more scientific attempts have been used to try to determine the man's name and the reason for his imprisonment: to date, he remains shrouded in mystery.

1726  -             A young woman is reported to have given birth to over a dozen rabbits.

England's "Mist's Weekly Journal" reported a most unusual story on 19 November 1726.

Twenty-five year old married maidservant Mary Tofts from Godalmin, or Godalming, near Guildford, had suffered a miscarriage some months earlier, after chasing two rabbits while weeding in a field. The story Tofts told was that the incident of pursuing the rabbits created such a longing in her that she became obsessed with rabbits. She miscarried, and began dreaming of rabbits non-stop and craving roast rabbit. Some months later, over the course of two weeks, she "gave birth" to at least 16 rabbits, all of which were stillborn. Doctors of the time explained the rabbit births as being a result of "maternal impressions". They believed that a pregnant woman's experiences could be imprinted directly on the foetus at conception and cause birth defects.

Sir Richard Manningham, the most famous obstetrician in London, and one of the witnesses to the unusual births, later exposed the incident as an elaborate hoax. He found that Tofts had, in fact, inserted all the creatures into her own birth canal and waited for an opportune time to "deliver" them, over a series of days, in front of reputable witnesses. Tofts herself admitted to the hoax on 7 December 1726. The main victim of the scam was probably the medical profession, who suffered a great deal of ridicule for its gullibility.           

1834  -             Edward Henty establishes an illegal settlement at Portland Bay, Victoria.

Edward Henty is considered to be the founder of Victorian settlement. Born at West Tarring, Sussex, England, in 1809, he came to Van Diemen's Land with his father Thomas in 1832. On 19 November 1834, he landed at Portland Bay on the southwest coast of Victoria, to found a new settlement without official permission. Very few people knew about the settlement, as it was remote from major centres. The first recognition Henty received was when Major Thomas Mitchell, seeking a possible harbour, wandered into the area in 1836 after discovering the rich, fertile farming land of western Victoria. By this time, Henty and his brothers had been established for two years, and were importing sheep and cattle from Launceston.   

1946  -             Australian country music singer Slim Dusty records his first single.

David Gordon "Slim Dusty" Kirkpatrick was born on 13 June 1927 in Kempsey, New South Wales, Australia. The son of a cattle farmer, he was brought up on Nulla Nulla Creek dairy farm. He wrote his first song, entitled "The Way The Cowboy Dies" at age ten and took the name "Slim Dusty" when he was 11.

Slim Dusty wrote his first country music classic "When The Rain Tumbles Down In July" in 1945, when he was just 18, and the following year he signed his first recording contract with the Columbia Graphophone Co. for the Regal Zonophone label. On 19 November 1946, Slim Dusty made his first commercial recording of six songs, which included "When The Rain Tumbles Down In July".

Slim Dusty went on to become Australia's biggest selling recording artist in Australia. Although little-known outside Australia, his fame within his own country is widespread, especially following the 1957 release of his song "The Pub With no Beer". He made a point of singing about real Australians, of telling their stories and capturing the Australian spirit in a way that appealed across the generations. He was the first Australian to receive a Gold Record and the first Australian to have an international record hit. He was the first singer in the world to have his voice transmitted to earth from space when, in 1983, astronauts Bob Crippen and John Young played Slim singing Waltzing Matilda from the space shuttle "Columbia" as it passed over Australia.

Slim Dusty was also one of the first Australians inducted into the Country Music Roll of Renown. During his 60-year career, he was awarded 65 Golden Guitars, more Gold and Platinum Record Awards than any other Australian artist, ARIA (Australian Recording Industry) Awards and induction into the ARIA Hall of Fame, video sales Platinum and Gold Awards, an MBE and Order of Australia for his services to entertainment.

When Slim Dusty died on 19 September 2003, he had been working on his 106th album for EMI Records. The album was Columbia Lane - the Last Sessions. It debuted at number five in the Australian album charts and was number one on the country charts on 8 March 2004, going gold after being on sale for less than two weeks.

1959  -             Motor company Ford announces that it is discontinuing the Edsel.

The Ford Edsel was named after Edsel Ford, the only son of the company's founder, Henry Ford. It 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 amid considerable publicity on "E Day", 4 September 1957, 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 announced on 19 November 1959 that it was discontinuing the model. $350 million was lost by the company on the venture.

1997  -             The world's first septuplets to all survive are born.

The McCaughey septuplets are the world's first set of seven babies birthed who have all survived. They were born on 19 November 1997, to Bobbi and Kenny McCaughey of Carlisle, Iowa. The McCaugheys already had one child, Mikayla, who was conceived with help of the fertility drug, Metrodin. Hoping for a sibling for Mikayla, the McCaugheys again turned to Metrodin. Christian ethics prevented the parents from agreeing to the doctors' suggestions of selective reduction, which involves aborting some of the foetuses to allow the others more room to grow. The babies, born nine weeks prematurely, were named Kenneth, Alexis, Natalie, Kelsey, Brandon, Nathan and Joel. Medical problems have been surprisingly minimal although Alexis, the smallest, suffers from chronic lung disease, and Alexis and Nathan have cerebral palsy. To date, the children are all progressing well.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1821  -             A whale attacks and sinks the whaling ship 'Essex', ultimately resulting in the deaths of 13 crewmen.

The 'Essex' was a whaling ship that left Nantucket, Massachusetts, on 12 August 1819, on a voyage to the South Pacific to hunt sperm whales. It was initially fitted out with four smaller whaleboats, but one was lost when hit by the tail fluke of a sperm whale on 16 November 1821. Four days later, on 20 November 1821, the crew of the Essex spotted a pod of whales and the three remaining whaleboats set off in pursuit. Another boat was holed by a whale and returned to the Essex for repairs. During this episode, a larger sperm whale, estimated to have been about 27 metres in length, charged the Essex. The impact knocked some of the crewmen off their feet. The whale charged a second time, putting a hole in the Essex below the water line. The crew of eight which had remained aboard were able to escape in the repaired whaleboat before the Essex capsized.

Some supplies were plundered from the sinking whaling ship. Twenty-one men were then left adrift in three whaleboats. During the long voyage to reach land, three men opted to remain on a small island rather than continue in the boat, and men began to die from dehydration and starvation. Soon, the men found it necessary to resort to cannibalism. By the time they were rescued, only eight men remained out of the original crew. It was this story which inspired author Herman Melville to write "Moby Dick".

1860  -             Burke and Wills first reach Cooper Creek.

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

Because of the size of the exploration party, it was split at Menindee so that Burke could push ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller party. The smaller group went on ahead to establish the depot which would serve to offer the necessary provisions for when the men returned from the Gulf. On 20 November 1860, Burke and Wills first reached Cooper Creek. From here, they made several shorter trips to the north, but were forced back each time by waterless country and extreme temperatures. It was not until December 16 that Burke decided to push on ahead to the Gulf, regardless of the risks.

1925  -             Robert Kennedy, younger brother of assassinated President John F Kennedy, and who would himself be assassinated, is born.

Robert Francis "Bobby" Kennedy was born on 20 November 1925 in Brookline, Massachusetts. He was the younger brother of assassinated American President John F Kennedy, and ran JFK's successful Presidential campaign. As Attorney General of the United States under his brother's Presidency, Robert Kennedy played a key advisory role, especially through such crises as the Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba in 1961, the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, the escalation of military action in Vietnam and the widening spread of the Civil Rights Movement and its retaliatory violence. He began a nationwide campaign against organised crime, mob violence and labour rackets, but was also heavily involved in civil rights, namely the integration of the University of Mississippi in Oxford, Mississippi, and his support of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Soon after President John F Kennedy's assassination, Robert Kennedy left the Cabinet to run for a seat in the United States Senate representing New York. His campaign was successful and he represented New York from 1965 until 1968. In March of 1968 he declared his candidacy for US President in the Democrats. He won the Indiana and Nebraska Democratic primaries, and early in June, he scored a major victory in his drive toward the Democratic presidential nomination when he won primaries in South Dakota and in California. Following his victory celebration at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles, California, in the early hours of 5 June 1968, Kennedy was shot in the head at close range as he left the ballroom through a service area to greet supporters working in the hotel's kitchen.

The assassin was 24 year old Palestinian immigrant Sirhan B Sirhan, now a resident of Los Angeles. Kennedy never regained consciousness and died in the early morning hours of 6 June 1968, at the age of 42. Sirhan confessed to the shooting, claiming he acted against Kennedy because of his support for Israel in the June 1967 Six-Day War. He was convicted of murder and sentenced to death in 1969, but the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment, which he is still serving. To this day he claims he has absolutely no memory of shooting at Kennedy, but his numerous applications for parole have been denied. It is generally believed that Sirhan fired the shots that hit Kennedy. As with his elder brother John's death, however, many have suggested the official account of Robert Kennedy's murder is inconsistent or incomplete, and that his death was the result of a conspiracy.

1926  -             The 1926 Imperial Conference accords Australia the status of self-governing Dominion, of equal status to Great Britain.

Whilst the Constitution of the Commonwealth of Australia came into effect on 1 January 1901, this did not mean that Australia had achieved independence from Britain. Under colonial federation approved by the United Kingdom, the six self-governing states of Australia merely allocated some functions to a federal authority. Australia was given the status of a Dominion, remaining a self-governing colony within the British Empire, with the Head of State being the British monarch. The Governor-General and State Governors were appointed by the British government, and answered completely to the British government.

At the Imperial Conference of 1926, it was decreed that all Dominions within the British Empire were "equal in status, in no way subordinate one to another in any aspect of their domestic or external affairs, though united by a common allegiance to the Crown, and freely associated as members of the British Commonwealth of Nations." Australia and other Dominions such as South Africa, New Zealand and Canada could now conduct treaties and agreements with foreign powers, and manage their own military strategies. Ultimately, the British monarch could only act on the advice of the Australian Government, and the Governor-General was no longer appointed by and answerable to the British monarch.

1947  -             Princess Elizabeth, who became Elizabeth II, is married to Philip Mountbatten.

Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on 21 April 1926. She was proclaimed queen on 6 February 1952, following the death of her father, George VI. She ascended the throne the following year, on 2 June 1953. Princess Elizabeth was married in Westminster Abbey on 20 November 1947 to Prince Philip, who came from Greece's royal family. Prince Philip is Queen Elizabeth's third cousin, as they share Queen Victoria as a great-great-grandmother. He had renounced his claim to the Greek throne and was known simply as Lieutenant Philip Mountbatten before being created Duke of Edinburgh before their marriage.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1789  -             Convict James Ruse is provisionally granted land at Parramatta to establish a working farm.

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

Governor Phillip was aware of the need to build a working, farming colony as soon as possible. Thus, on 21 November 1789, Phillip selected Ruse to go to Rose Hill (now Parramatta), west of Sydney Town, and establish "Experiment Farm", the colony's first working farm. Ruse was allocated one and a half acres of already cleared ground and assisted in clearing a further five acres. He was given two sows and six hens and a deal was made for him to be fed and clothed from the public store for 15 months. Within a year, Ruse had successfully farmed the site, proving that it was possible for new settlers to become self-sufficient, and to feed a family with relatively little assistance to begin with.

As a result of the success of Ruse's venture, he was granted another 30 acres in March 1791, in the colony's first official, permanent land grant. This was in addition to the area he was already occupying.

1877  -             Thomas Edison announces his invention of a 'talking machine', which preceded the phonograph.

Thomas Alva Edison was born on 11 February 1847, in Milan, Ohio, USA. Although probably best known for developing the light bulb and the phonograph, Edison was a prolific inventor, registering 1093 patents by the time he died in 1931. On 21 November 1877, Edison announced his invention of a "talking machine", the precursor to the phonograph, which provided a way to record and play back sound.

Edison came upon the invention by accident, whilst trying to find a way to improve the efficiency of a telegraph transmitter. He noticed that the needle could prick paper tape to record a message but the paper did not last for many recordings. This led him to experiment with trying a stylus on a tinfoil cylinder. He then moved on to experimenting with silverfoil which, while more expensive, was smoother and recorded better. Edison experimented with cylinder as well as disc tinfoil phonographs, and in 1878 developed a clockwork motor disc phonograph.

1927  -             The Columbine Mine massacre occurs in Colorado, USA.

Throughout history, coal mining towns have suffered the worst of conditions while coal mines themselves have seen some of the lowest safety standards. The situation was no different in North America.

For five decades, tensions on the Colorado coal fields had been high. The mines were marked by frequent strikes and confrontations between miners and mine owners, and the state police. Thirteen years prior to the Columbine Mine massacre, Colorado had been shocked when seventeen workers and family members had been killed by state militia during the Ludlow strike. However, the awareness this raised and the improvement in conditions, were not enough to combat the unrest and subsequent violence that occurred at the Columbine Mine in 1927.

Since the Ludlow incident, the neglect of basic safety measures had resulted in the deaths of over 170 more workers in mines scattered throughout northern Colorado. Action by around 8,700 striking miners had shut down all the coal mines in the region except for the Columbine mine, which was located in a small town called Serene, just north of Denver. The mine had been kept running by 'scab' labour, while militant members of the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) Union who had been arrested were constantly moved from jail to jail to prevent IWW lawyers from accessing them. This did not stop the leaders from organising protests and rallies.

On the morning of 21 November 1927, some 500 miners and their families marched to the north gate of Serene, where they were met by plainclothed but heavily armed state militia who blocked the entrance to the gate, backed up by mine guards inside the town who were also armed. When one of the strike leaders, Adam Bell, approached the gate, he was struck on the head. Supporters rushed to his aid, and chaos broke out. Police attempts to use tear gas were to no avail, and the workers and family members scaled the gate, where they were met with clubs, rifle fire and even machine guns. In all, six strikers were killed, and dozens were injured.

This was not the end of the tensions. Further confrontations occurred for many years afterwards, as the work of the IWW was severely compromised, and no militia or policemen were ever held accountable for the massacre.

1936  -             Victor Chang, Australian heart surgeon and one of the pioneers of modern heart transplantation, is born.

Victor Peter Chang Yam Him was born in Shanghai, China, on 21 November 1936. Chang's mother died of cancer when he was just twelve years old, and this was a deciding factor in his choice to become a doctor. He came to Australia to complete his secondary schooling in 1953, then studied medicine at the University of Sydney, graduating with a Bachelor of Medical Science with first class honours in 1960, and a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery in 1962. After further study in England, and becoming a Fellow of both the Royal College of Surgeons and American College of Surgeons, he joined the cardiothoracic team at St Vincent's Hospital in 1972.

Chang was instrumental in raising funds to establish a heart transplant programme at St Vincent's. The first successful transplant under the programme was performed on a 39 year old shearer from Armidale in February 1984, who survived several months longer than he would have otherwise. Arguably, Chang's best-known success was when he operated on Fiona Coote, a 14-year-old schoolgirl, on 7-8 April 1984. Over the next six years, the unit at St Vincent's performed over 197 heart transplants and 14 heart-lung transplants, achieving a 90% success rate for recipients in the first year. To compensate for the lack of heart donors, Chang developed an artificial heart valve and also worked on designing an artificial heart.

Victor Chang was murdered on 4 July 1991, after an extortion attempt on his family. The murder was related to transplant waiting lists. Within less than two weeks, Chiew Seng Liew was charged with the murder, and Jimmy Tan was charged as an accessory. The Victor Chang Cardiac Research Institute, to enable research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of heart muscle diseases, was launched in honour of Victor Chang on 15 February 1994.

1953  -             Piltdown Man, the so-called missing link between ape and man, is declared to be a fraud.

On 18 December 1912, fragments of a fossil skull and jawbone were unveiled at a meeting of the Geological Society in London. These bone fragments, estimated to be almost a million years old, were considered to be evidence of early man. The skull became known as Piltdown Man, and was recognised as the "missing link" between ape and man. The remains, officially named Eoanthropus dawsoni, were supposedly discovered in Piltdown Quarry near Uckfield in Sussex, England, by Charles Dawson, a solicitor and an amateur palaeontologist.

Forty years later, on 21 November 1953, a team of English scientists exposed Piltdown Man as a deliberate fraud. The skull fragments were a mixture of bone parts: the skull belonged to a medieval human, the jaw was determined to be that of an orang-utan, from approximately 500 years ago, and the teeth came from a chimpanzee. It has never been determined whether Dawson himself was the perpetrator of the fraud, as he died in 1916. However, further research on his "discoveries" has determined several dozen of them to be frauds.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1718  -             Notorious pirate Blackbeard is killed.

The notorious English pirate, Blackbeard, was born either Edward Teach or Edward Thatch sometime in 1680. Little is known about his early life. He first went to sea at a young age, serving on a British ship in the War of the Spanish Succession. Following Britain's withdrawal from the war in 1713, with little other recourse for a career, he became Blackbeard the pirate.

Blackbeard was notorious for boarding merchant ships, plundering them of valuables, food, liquor, and weapons. He earned a reputation for being a vicious torturer, but no actual records exist of him having killed anyone. It is possible he gained his reputation through mere rumour alone. However, he became famous following his blockade of Charleston, South Carolina, in May-June 1718. With a fleet of five vessels, he plundered freighters, took a number of hostages, and prevented other ships from entering the harbour. The hostages were eventually released in exchange for crates of medicines.

After grounding two of his own vessels at Topsail Inlet, now known as Beaufort Inlet, Blackbeard took the treasure for himself, marooned his own crew, and went to Bath in North Carolina, where he was given a pardon under the royal Act of Grace. He did not renounce his piracy, and was targeted by Governor Alexander Spotswood of Virginia, despite being outside Spotswood's jurisdiction. Spotswood commissioned Lieutenant Robert Maynard to hunt down Blackbeard and eliminate him. Maynard found the pirates anchored in a North Carolina inlet on the inner side of Ocracoke Island, on the evening of 21 November 1718. Following a pursuit, Blackbeard was hunted down and killed on 22 November 1718, ending Blackbeard's infamous reign.

1898  -             Wiley Post, who was the first pilot to fly solo around the world, is born.

Wiley Hardeman Post was born on 22 November 1898, in Van Zandt County, Texas. Always keen to fly, Post became a parachutist for the flying circus "Burrell Tibbs and His Texas Topnotch Fliers" when he was 26 years old. Undaunted by an oil field accident which cost him his left eye in 1926, Post became the personal pilot of wealthy Oklahoma oilmen Powell Briscoe and F C Hall. In 1930, Hall bought a single-engine Lockheed Vega and nicknamed it Winnie Mae, after his daughter. Post's first claim to fame was flying the Winnie Mae to win the National Air Race Derby, from Los Angeles to Chicago.

On 23 June 1931, Post and navigator Harold Gatty left Long Island, New York in the Winnie Mae to fly around the world. They made fourteen stops along the way, including Newfoundland, England, Germany, the Soviet Union, Alaska, Alberta, Canada and Cleveland, Ohio before returning to Roosevelt Field on Long Island. They arrived back on July 1 after travelling nearly 25,000 kilometres in the record time of 8 days, 15 hours and 51 minutes.        

1952  -             Lang Han**** claims to have discovered the iron ore deposits which change Australia from being an importer of iron ore to an exporter.

Langley George Han****, or "Lang" Han****, was born on 10 June 1909 in Perth, Western Australia. A member of one of Western Australia's oldest landowning families, he became a politician and iron ore magnate.

The story goes that, on 22 November 1952, Han**** was piloting a light aircraft that was forced by bad weather to fly at a very low altitude over the Turner River gorges in Western Australia. Han**** noticed the large bands of deep ochre rock within the gorge and realised they might be iron ore. The discovery led to the development of Western Australia's major iron ore industry in the Pilbara region, and changed Australia from being an importer of iron ore to an exporter. Following this discovery, Han**** initiated and perfected a technique which led to the further discovery in the Pilbara of more than 500 other deposits of iron ore, and which earned him the nickname of "The Flying Prospector".

However, the veracity of this story has been questioned. There is evidence to suggest that a 25 year old Englishman by the name of Harry Page Woodward, who had come to South Australia in 1883 to take up the post of assistant state geologist, was the one who discovered the Pilbara's iron ore deposits. Woodward relocated to Western Australia as the new government geologist, and undertook extensive ground surveys of the state, mapping some 175,000 square kilometres of the state. Woodward recognised the iron-bearing potential of the northwest of the state, and recorded that "There is enough to supply the whole world should the present sources be worked out." The iron ore fields of the Pilbara were already mapped by Western Australia's Mining Department in the 1920s.

1956  -             The opening ceremony for the Melbourne Olympics is held.

Melbourne was announced as the host city for the Games of the XVI Olympiad on 28 April 1949, beating bids from Buenos Aires, Mexico City and six other American cities by a single vote. The Olympic Games commenced with an opening ceremony on 22 November 1956. Because Melbourne is located in the southern hemisphere, the Olympics were held later in the year than those held in the northern hemisphere. Strict quarantine laws prevented Melbourne from hosting the equestrian events, and they were instead held in Stockholm on June 10, five months before the rest of the Olympic games began.

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

1963  -             US President, John F Kennedy, is assassinated.

John Fitzgerald 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. He was sworn in as the 35th President of the United States on 20 January 1961.

Kennedy's presidential term was cut tragically short when he was assassinated while riding in a presidential motorcade within Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, 22 November 1963. Three shots were fired at his open-topped car, hitting him in the head and throat. He was taken to Parkland Hospital, but died thirty-five minutes after being shot. Kennedy was the fourth US President to be assassinated, and the eighth to die while in office.

Within an hour of the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and later charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. Oswald never went to trial as, two days later, he was shot dead by nightclub owner Jack Ruby. Both shootings have spawned conspiracy theories about who really shot JFK, and whether Oswald was merely the scapegoat in the assassination.

Cheers - John

Another good read John, so thanks for that

Re November 21
1936 - Victor Chang, Australian heart surgeon and one of the pioneers of modern heart transplantation, is born.

I could not understand (then and now), why someone killed Victor Chang

He was a person whose goal was towards the betterment of society

Gday...

1923  -             Australia's first public wireless broadcast begins.

The development of the wireless telegraphy system, which came to be known as "radio" is attributed to Guglielmo Marconi. Marconi first demonstrated the transmission and reception of Morse Code based radio signals over a distance of 2 or more kilometres in England in 1896, and from this point began the development and expansion of radio technology around the world.

At 8:00pm on 23 November 1923, Radio 2SB in Sydney went to air for the first time from a studio located in the Smith's Weekly building in Phillip Street. 2SB, Sydney Broadcasters Ltd, had been in competition with Farmer and Company, 2FC, since it had announced its intention to begin transmission in August of that year. 2SB originally set its first transmission date as November 15, but setbacks caused the broadcast to be postponed until the 23rd of the month. The broadcast was a performance of 'Le Cygne', from 'Carnaval des Animaux' by Camille Saint-Saens.

2FC first aired two weeks later, on 5 December 1923, and the similarities of the stations' names confused listeners. 2SB was changed to 2BL, for Broadcasters Limited, three months after its inaugural broadcast.

1955  -             The Cocos (Keeling) Islands are transferred to Australian control.

The Territory of Cocos (Keeling) Islands is located in the Indian Ocean, approximately halfway between Australia and Sri Lanka. The territory lies about 2750 kilometres northwest of Perth, Western Australia. It comprises two atolls and 27 coral islands totalling around 14 km². With a coastline of 26 kilometres and its highest elevation at 5m above sea level, its sole cash crop is coconuts. The population of around 630 is split between the ethnic Europeans on West Island and the ethnic Malays on Home Island.

The islands were discovered in 1609 by Captain William Keeling, but remained uninhabited until 1826, when the first settlement was established on the main atoll by English settler Alexander Hare. Scottish seaman John Clunies-Ross established a second settlement soon afterwards for the purpose of exploiting the coconut palm crop.

On 23 November 1955, the islands were transferred to Australian control under the Cocos (Keeling) Islands Act 1955. Together with nearby Christmas Island, the Cocos (Keeling) Islands are called Australia's Indian Ocean Territories (IOTs) and since 1997 share a single Administrator resident on Christmas Island.

1961  -             Sturt's Desert pea is adopted as the floral emblem of South Australia.

Sturt's Desert Pea is a hardy plant of the Australian desert. It is characterised by deep red pea-shaped flowers contrasting sharply with grey-green foliage. The indigenous Koori people call it the "flower of blood", and tell a story of a young woman who avoided marriage to an older man of the tribe by eloping with her younger lover. The old man and his friends tracked the couple down, killing them both, along with the people with whom they had sheltered. Months later, the old man returned to where the lovers had been slain and found the ground covered with the scarlet flowers now known as the Sturt's Desert pea.

Sturt's Desert Pea was first discovered by English pirate and explorer William Dampier when he anchored off the northwestern coast of Australia in 1688 and again in 1699. Explorer Charles Sturt noted it growing in abundance in the arid areas between Adelaide and Central Australia during his forays into the desert in 1844, and commented on its exceptional beauty when in flower. It was then formally named after Charles Sturt in honour of his explorations of inland Australia, although it bears several Latin names: Swainsona formosa and Willdampia formosa (after William Dampier).

Sturt's Desert Pea is a protected species in South Australia. It was adopted as the floral emblem of South Australia on 23 November 1961, under its then-Latin name Clianthus formosus.  

1963  -             TV series 'Doctor Who' first airs on BBC television.

'Doctor Who' is a British science fiction television series produced by the BBC about a time-travelling adventurer known only as "The Doctor". It aired for the first time on 23 November 1963, on British television. The initial broadcast was interrupted by the breaking news of the November 22 assassination of US President John F Kennedy. The show has developed a cult following amongst science-fiction fans, and is well known for its innovative use of low-budget special effects.

Declining ratings and a less prominent transmission slot saw 'Doctor Who' suspended as an ongoing series in 1989 by Jonathan Powell, Controller of BBC One. A Doctor Who movie was broadcast on the Fox Network in 1996, co-produced between Fox, Universal Pictures, the BBC, and BBC Worldwide. While it was relatively successful in Britain, its lack of popularity in the United States meant that a new series was not pursued. However, a new series was planned nonetheless, and eventually aired on BBC One on 26 March 2005, and in Australia on 21 May 2005. The USA has not taken up the new series.

1996  -             125 people die as a hijacked airliner runs out of fuel and crashes into the sea.

On 23 November 1996, an Ethiopian Airlines Boeing 767 flying from Addis Ababa to Nairobi was hijacked by three men who demanded the pilot fly to Australia. Four hours later, it ran out of fuel and pitched into the Indian Ocean, 500 metres from a holiday beach on the Comoro Islands. The impact caused the plane to break up, and killed 125 of the 175 people aboard. Within minutes, locals and tourists, including a group of about twenty French doctors, reached the plane, managing to rescue about fifty people. The hijackers were later identified as Ethiopians who were seeking political asylum in Australia.

2009  -             Lucky, the world's oldest sheep on record, dies.

The average life-expectancy of sheep ranges between ten and twenty years. Not so for Lucky, the world's oldest sheep, who died at the age of 23.

Lucky was a hand-reared sheep who lived on a farm at Lake Bolac, west of Ballarat, Victoria. She had been abandoned by her mother at birth, and rescued by farmer Delrae Westgarth who found her out in the paddock. Westgarth and her husband Frank cared for the lamb, feeding her in their house and then moving her to the shed until she was old enough to join the flock. Lucky produced 35 lambs of her own in the following decades.

In late Spring of 2009, exceptionally hot weather weakened her and caused her health to deteriorate. Although her owners brought her back to the shed, cooling her down with air conditioners, she died on Monday 23 November 2009, aged 23 years, six months and 28 days. This was a Guinness-certified world record age for a sheep. Lucky was buried under her favourite nectarine tree.

Cheers - John

Always a good read John, so thanks for that

Re 1996 - 125 people die as a hijacked airliner runs out of fuel and crashes into the sea.

I completely missed this piece of news, and this is the first I have heard about it

It make you wonder, why the pilots did not point to the fuel gauge, and explain the range they could safely fly

Gday...

1642  -             Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovers Tasmania, naming it Van Diemen's Land.

Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer and explorer born in 1603 in the village of Lutjegast, Netherlands. In 1634 Tasman joined the Dutch East India Company and, after gaining further experience and promotions, was ordered to explore the south-east waters in order to find a new sea trade route to Chile in South America.

On 24 November 1642, Tasman discovered a previously unknown island on his voyage past the Great South Land, or New Holland, as the Dutch called Australia. In his ships' log, he recorded: "In the afternoon, about 4 o'clock...we saw...the first land we have met with in the South Sea...very high...and not known to any European nation". Tasman named this land Antony Van Diemen's Land in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia. Although he saw none of the indigenous people, he noted the presence of smoke in several locations, while his crew heard human voices.

It is believed that this first sighting was made at what is now Cape Sorell, on the western coast of Tasmania. The island's name was changed to Tasmania in 1855, over sixty years after British colonists settled the Australian continent.

1815  -             Grace Darling, the English lighthouse keeper's daughter who rescued survivors from a shipwreck, is born.

Grace Darling was born on 24 November 1815, in Bamburgh, Northumberland, and grew up in the various lighthouses of which her father was keeper. Grace gained heroine status early in the morning of 7 September 1838, when the steamship Forfarshire ran ashore and broke in two on the rocks by the lighthouse situated in the North Sea. Grace urged her father to row out with her in difficult, stormy conditions to the stricken steamship: her actions saved the lives of nine people - four crew and five passengers. Tragically, forty other people died in the accident.

Grace Darling never married. She died of tuberculosis in 1842, and a memorial in her honour can be seen in the parish church at Bamburgh.

1859  -             Charles Darwin publishes his controversial "Origin of the Species".

British naturalist Charles Robert Darwin was born on 12 February 1809 in Shrewsbury, England. Darwin's claim to fame is his publication of "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life". The book put forth Darwin's theory of evolutionary selection, which expounded that survival or extinction of populations of organisms is determined by the process of natural selection, achieved through that population's ability to adapt to its environment. Ultimately, by following Darwin's theory of evolution to its conclusion, the book suggested that man evolved from apes. "The Origin of the Species" was first published on 24 November 1859.

Although Darwin is given the credit for the theory of evolution, he developed the theory out of the writings of his grandfather Erasmus. Large sections from Erasmuss major work, Zoonomia or the Laws of Organic Life are repeated in Darwins Origin of Species. There is evidence to suggest that many of the other ideas Charles proposed, such as the concept of modern biological evolution, including natural selection, were borrowed from ideas that had already been published by other scientists. Charles De Secondat Montesquieu (16891755), Benoit de Maillet (16561738), Pierre-Louis Maupertuis (16981759), Denis Diderot (17131784) and George Louis Buffon are just some whose ideas are believed by historians to have been plagiarised by Darwin, without due credit.

1876  -             Walter Burley Griffin, the architect who designed Canberra, Australia's capital city, is born.

Australia's two largest cities, Sydney and Melbourne, had been rivals since before the goldrush days. It was therefore decided that the nation's capital should be situated between the two cities. A location was chosen which was 248km from Sydney and 483km from Melbourne, and the name selected was a derivation of the Aboriginal word for 'meeting place'. It was then necessary to select someone who could design a truly unique capital city. The competition to design Australia's new capital city, Canberra, was won in 1911 by Walter Burley Griffin.

Walter Burley Griffin was born on 24 November 1876, in Chicago, USA. After obtaining his degree in architecture in 1899, Griffin worked for Frank Lloyd Wright in Oak Park, Illinois, designing many houses in the Chicago area. After winning the competition to design Australia's national capital, he and his wife moved to Australia, where Griffin was appointed as the Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction. Difficulties with Federal government bureaucrats forced Griffin's resignation from the project in 1920 when a conflict of interest threatened Griffin's work. Griffin remained in Australia, later designing the Sydney suburb of Castlecrag and the Melbourne suburb of Eaglemont. Griffin also helped design the New South Wales towns of Leeton, Griffith and Culburra Beach.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1789  -             Bennelong, the Aborigine, is captured, to be used as an intermediary between the Aboriginal and white cultures.

The Aborigine Bennelong was a senior man of the Eora, a Koori, people of the Port Jackson area, when the First Fleet arrived in Australia, in 1788. He was captured on 25 November 1789, for the purpose of being used as a mediary between the white and Aboriginal cultures. The Governor of New South Wales, Captain Arthur Phillip, wished to learn about the language and customs of the indigenous people. Bennelong willingly liaised between the cultures, and adopted European dress and other ways. His intervention was crucial when Phillip was speared by local Aborigines as, by persuading the Governor that the attack was caused by a misunderstanding, further violence was avoided.

While Governor Phillip's intentions were honourable, the Aborigines were not people to be captured and used for white purposes. Bennelong travelled with Phillip to England in 1792, and returned to Australia in 1795. Ultimately, he suffered ostracism from the Aborigines when he found it too difficult to integrate into the European culture, and sought to return to his own people. He died on 3 January 1813.

1844  -             Karl Benz, German engineer and inventor of the petrol-driven automobile, is born.

Karl Friedrich Benz was born on 25 November 1844, in Baden Muehlburg, Germany, now part of Karlsruhe. The son of an engine driver, Benz went to school at the Karlsruhe grammar school and Karlsruhe Polytechnic. Benz started Benz & Company in 1883 in Mannheim to produce industrial engines. It was there that he invented and patented the two-stroke engine. He was later influenced by Gottlieb Daimler, who inspired Benz to develop a four-stroke engine suitable for powering a four-wheeled horseless carriage. He demonstrated the first gasoline car powered by an internal-combustion engine in Mannheim, Germany, on 3 July 1886 after patenting it on 29 January 1886. The vehicle had three wheels, an electric ignition, differential gears and was water-cooled. It reached a top speed of 10 kilometres per hour.

By 1900, Benz & Company, the company started by Benz, was the world's largest manufacturer of automobiles. In 1926, the Benz and Daimler firms merged to form Daimler-Benz, which produces the Mercedes-Benz vehicles. Benz died in 1929.

1880  -             Reverend John Flynn, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, is born.

Australia's Flying Doctor Service began with the vision of Reverend John Flynn. John Flynn was born on 25 November 1880, in the gold rush town of Moliagul, about 202 kilometres north-west of Melbourne, Victoria. Flynn's first posting as a Presbyterian minister was to Beltana, a tiny, remote settlement 500 kilometres north of Adelaide. After writing a report for his church superiors on the difficulties of ministering to such a widely scattered population, he was appointed as the first Superintendent of the Australian Inland Mission, the bush department of the Presbyterian Church, in 1912. Flynn served in the AIM at a time when only two doctors served an area of 300,000 sq kms in Western Australia and 1,500,000 sq kms in the Northern Territory. Realising the need for better medical care for the people of the outback, he established numerous bush hospitals and hostels.

Flynn's attention was caught by the story of a young stockman, Jim Darcy, who had been seriously injured while mustering stock on a cattle station near Halls Creek, in the remote north of Western Australia. Darcy had been operated on by the Halls Creek Postmaster who had to follow instructions given via telegraph by a Perth doctor. Although the postmaster's crude operation was successful, Darcy had died almost two months later of complications, before a doctor could attend. The story gave urgency to Flynn's vision of delivering essential medical services to remote areas.

Following this tragedy, Flynn envisaged that new technology such as radio and the aeroplane could assist in providing a more effective medical service. His speculations attracted the attention of an Australian pilot serving in World War I, Clifford Peel, who wrote to Flynn, outlining the capabilities and costs of then-available planes. Flynn turned his considerable fund-raising talents to the task of establishing a flying medical service. On 15 May 1928, the Aerial Medical Service was established at Cloncurry, in western Queensland.

In order to facilitate communication with such a service, Flynn collaborated with Alfred Traeger, who developed the pedal radio, a lighter, more compact radio for communication, readily available to more residents of the outback for its size and cost. The pedal radio eliminated the need for electricity, which was available in very few areas of the outback in the 1920s. In this way, Flynn married the advantages of both radio and aeroplanes to provide a "Mantle of Safety" for the outback. Initially conceived as a one-year experiment, Flynn's vision has continued successfully through the years, providing a valuable medical service to people in remote areas.

[When you are next in Cloncurry, call into here. It is a morning or afternoon well spent - http://www.johnflynnplace.com.au/ ]

1973  -             US President Nixon calls for a Sunday ban on gasoline sales.

In October of 1973, an oil crisis sparked a number of legislation changes in the US. The crisis occurred when, in response to US support of Israel in the Yom Kippur war, Arab oil producers cut back supply of oil to the US, and increased oil prices fourfold overnight. Practical legislation to help improve fuel economy was enacted: this included imposing a highway speed limit of 55mph, and allowing motorists to turn right on a red light to minimise unnecessary idling. On 25 November 1973, Nixon also called for a ban on gasoline sales on Sundays, a ban which lasted until the crisis was resolved in March 1974.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1703  -             Over 8,000 people die in Britain's worst storm on record.

The United Kingdom is the Worlds most hurricane-prone nation. Friday, 26 November 1703, saw England's worst storm on record rip across East Anglia. Gales of up to 80mph were reported, with windmill blades spinning so ferociously that the friction caused them to catch fire, while 4,000 grand oak trees in the New Forest were felled. Hundreds of vessels of the British fleet were lost, including four Royal Navy men-of-war, and an estimated 8,000 sailors lost their lives. It was reported that a ship at Whitstable in Kent was lifted from the sea and dropped over 200 metres inland. Civilian casualties on land were in the hundreds, but no accurate records exist to give true number of the lives lost that day.

1838  -             A second trial finds some of the perpetrators of the Myall Creek massacre of Aborigines guilty.

On 10 June 1838, a gang of stockmen, heavily armed, rounded up between 40 and 50 Aboriginal women, children and elderly men at Henry Dangar's Myall Creek Station, not far from Inverell in New South Wales. 28 Aborigines were murdered. These were the relatives of the Aboriginal men who were working with the station manager, William Hobbs. 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 November 15 that year, twelve Europeans were charged with murder but acquitted. Following uproar from some colonists at the acquittal of the men, another trial was held on 26 November 1838. Following the retrial, 7 men were charged with murder and sentenced to be hung in December, under the authority of Governor George Gipps.

1855  -             The colony of Van Diemen's Land becomes known as Tasmania.

On 24 November 1642, Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovered a previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named it Van Diemen's Land after the governor of Batavia. The Dutch, however, did not settle New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. The First Fleet, which arrived in Port Jackson, New South Wales, in 1788 comprised eleven British ships carrying officers and convicts from England.

Fears that the French would colonise Van Diemen's Land caused the British to establish a small settlement on the Derwent River in 1803. 33 of the 49 people in the group were convicts, and the settlement continued to receive convicts re-shipped from New South Wales or Norfolk Island up until 1812. Regular shipments of convicts directly from Britain began in 1818. A second penal colony was established at Macquarie Harbour on the west coast of Van Diemen's Land in 1822, and three years later, the British Government separated Van Dieman's Land from New South Wales. Macquarie Harbour was eventually closed down, to be replaced by Port Arthur. Transportation of convicts to Van Diemen's Land ended in 1853. On 26 November 1855, the colony officially became known as Tasmania and elections for parliament were held the following year.

1917  -             A raid on the Queensland Government Printing Office is carried out, under the orders of Prime Minister Billy Hughes.

Conscription, or compulsory military service, has always been a highly controversial issue in Australia. At the outbreak of World War I, Australians were keen to go to war. Many sought to serve their newly federated country as patriotic Australians, while others hoped to serve on behalf of "Mother England".

Prime Minister William 'Billy' Hughes was Australia's second wartime Prime Minister, being appointed after the resignation of Andrew Fisher in October 1915. Hughes sought to introduce conscription during World War I via a referendum. The 1916 referendum failed when 51% voted against the introduction of conscription. Although Hughes won a clear majority at the Federal election in 1917, he did not bring in legislation for compulsory overseas service, but sought a second referendum in December 1917. To that end, he tried to direct public opinion in favour of conscription, and this included the removal of dissenting material which might sway public opinion against the introduction of conscription.

On 26 November 1917, Hughes ordered Jeremiah Joseph Stable, an officer with the Australian Field Artillery, to conduct a raid on the Queensland Government Printing Office. Stable, along with Federal Police, was instructed to enter the printing office and seize all copies of no. 37 Queensland Parliamentary Debates, as they contained an anti-conscription speech by Premier T J Ryan. Stable had already previously censored parts of the speech from the press, but the printing office held the original copies of the parliamentary debates, and Hughes feared the speech might be circulated.

1922  -             The creator of Snoopy and the 'Peanuts' comic strip, Charles M Schulz, is born.

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

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

Cheers - John

Another good read John, thanks for that

Re November 25 1880 - Reverend John Flynn, founder of the Royal Flying Doctor Service, is born.

It is not only beyond the black stump areas which rely on the RFDS
In the late 1960,s the Southern Cross area welcomed the fortnightly visit, as the town had no permanent doctor


Re November 26 1703 - Over 8,000 people die in Britain's worst storm on record.

First I heard of this tragedy, 8,000 people would have been a large number of the population, back in those days

Gday...

1880  -             Sir Ralph Freeman, designer of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, is born.

Ralph Freeman was born on 27 November 1880 in London, England. After studying civil engineering at the City and Guilds of London Institute, he joined Douglas Fox & Partners, a firm of consulting engineers specialising in the design of steel bridges. He rose to become senior partner and in 1938 the firm changed its name to Freeman Fox & Partners. Freeman's most famous design work can be seen on the Victoria Falls Bridge, completed in 1905, and the Sydney Harbour Bridge, completed in 1932.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge connects the Sydney CBD with the North Shore commercial and residential areas on Sydney Harbour. Pictures of the Harbour bridge, usually with the sails of the Sydney Opera House in the foreground, provide the image of Australia that tourists expect to see. The Sydney Harbour Bridge remains an enduring testimony to the talent of its designer, Sir Ralph Freeman.

1895  -             Alfred Nobel draws up his last will and testament, pledging his enormous wealth toward the betterment of humanity.

Alfred Bernhard Nobel, born in Stockholm in 21 October 1833, was a Swedish chemist, engineer armaments manufacturer and the inventor of dynamite. Although a dramatist and poet, he became famous for his advances in chemistry and physics, and by the time he died on 10 December 1896, he held over 350 patents and controlled factories and laboratories in 20 countries.

On 13 April 1888, Nobel opened the newspaper to discover an obituary to himself. Although it was his brother Ludwig who had actually died, the obituary described Alfred Nobel's own achievements, believing it was he who had died. The obituary condemned Nobel for inventing dynamite, an explosive which caused the deaths of so many. It is said that this experience led Nobel to choose to leave a better legacy to the world after his death. On 27 November 1895 at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Nobel signed his last will and testament and set aside the bulk of his enormously wealthy estate to establish the Nobel Prizes, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality. Nobel died of a cerebral haemorrhage on 10 December 1896.

The Nobel Prize is considered one of the most prestigious awards in the world and includes a cash prize of nearly one million dollars. The fields for which the awards can be given are physics, chemistry, physiology or medicine, literature and toward the promotion of international peace. In 1968 the prize field was extended to include economic science.

1978  -             Mayor of San Francisco, George Moscone, is assassinated by former city supervisor Dan White.

George Richard Moscone, born on 24 November 1929, was the mayor of San Francisco, California, from January 1976 until he was assassinated on 27 November 1978. His assassin, Dan White, was the former city supervisor of San Francisco; White also assassinated new Supervisor Harvey Milk.

White's motive remains unknown, but shortly before the assassinations, he resigned the office of city supervisor following the defeat of California's Briggs Initiative, which would have required schools to fire teachers that were homosexual. White strongly opposed the Bill, and it is conjectured that he saw Mayor Moscone and the openly-gay activist Milk as the ones responsible for heading up the historic gay rights ordinance. He had also sought to be reinstated following his resignation, and was reportedly angry about Moscone's decision not to reappoint him to the city board. 

1998  -             United States nuclear weapons begin being tested for possible year 2000 problems.

As the world neared the end of its second recorded millennium, there was a growing awareness of the possibility that computers could strike a problem. The year 2000 problem, or millennium bug, was a flaw in computer program design that caused some date-related processing to operate incorrectly for dates and times on and after January 1, 2000. Due to lack of foresight by computer programmers in the preceding decades, many commands depending on date were written with a two-digit year (eg 98 for 1998) instead of a four-digit year. It was conceived as a possibility that computers might interpret 00 as 1900 instead of 2000. It was feared that critical industries such as electricity, for example, and government functions would stop working at 12:00am on 1 January 2000.

On 27 November 1998, officials from the Pentagon in the USA stated that US nuclear weapons were being tested for potential Year 2000 problems, after it was recently discovered that up to a quarter of existing nuclear weapons systems had not been tested for year 2000 (Y2K) compliance. In the end, there were no major disasters as a result of the millennium bug, and the entire turnover was seen a non-event.

Cheers - John

Another good read John, so thanks for that

Re 1895 - Alfred Nobel draws up his last will and testament, pledging his enormous wealth toward the betterment of humanity.

When Alfred invented Dynamite, in one respect back in that day, it was good
It enabled men to safely blast rock from the ground
Prior to Dynamite coming onto the scene, many people were killed and injured, handling the old type of explosives

Knowing how powerful his Dynamite was, he predicted that no General in any Army, would ever go to war again, as they would be afraid of the damage the enemy would do to him, or words to that effect

Perhaps that was the day, the Generals decided to lead from the rear

Gday...

Yep Tony, incredible how and why Alfred Nobel chose to have his wealth dispersed after his death.

This is some further background -

Nobel Prizes
In 1888 Alfred's brother Ludvig died while visiting Cannes and a French newspaper erroneously published Alfred's obituary. It condemned him for his invention of dynamite and is said to have brought about his decision to leave a better legacy after his death. The obituary stated, Le marchand de la mort est mort ("The merchant of death is dead") and went on to say, "Dr. Alfred Nobel, who became rich by finding ways to kill more people faster than ever before, died yesterday." Alfred (who never had a wife or children) was disappointed with what he read and concerned with how he would be remembered.

On 27 November 1895, at the Swedish-Norwegian Club in Paris, Nobel signed his last will and testament and set aside the bulk of his estate to establish the Nobel Prizes, to be awarded annually without distinction of nationality.

Cheers - John

Thanks John always interesting reading - the Y2K bug made programming experts lots of money and probably cost businesses around the world billions of $. I often wondered during all the hype leading up to the millennium why there were people in the world smart enough to put a person on the moon but there was no one smart enough to simulate a date in a computer to see what would happen. I know it was probably a lot more complicated than that but it tends to lead to conspiracy theories about companies who had an interest in selling big businesses their expertise in programming to fix the so called bug..

Gday...

1660  -             The founding meeting is held prior to the formation of the Royal Society.

The Royal Society is also known as Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge. A voluntary organisation devoted to the advancement of Science, fellowship to the society is by peer election, and is considered a great honour.

The founding meeting for the Royal Society was held on 28 November 1660, at Gresham College in Bishopsgate. It followed a lecture by Sir Christopher Wren, who was Gresham's Professor of Astronomy. Those present included theologian, natural philosopher, chemist, physicist and inventor Robert Boyle, and English clergyman and author John Wilkins. All subsequent meetings, and the concept and design of the society, received endorsement from the restored monarchy of King Charles II.

The Royal Society of London was formally created after the passing of the Great Seal on 15 July 1662. Lord Brouncker was the first President, while Robert Hooke was appointed as Curator of Experiments in November 1662. A second Royal Charter was sealed on 23 April 1663, naming the King as Founder and changing the name to "The Royal Society of London for the Improvement of Natural Knowledge". Her Majesty The Queen is the current patron, and, since the foundation of the Royal Society, the reigning monarch has always been the patron.

1829  -             Captain Charles Sturt crosses the Murrumbidgee River on his way to solve the mystery of the inland 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. On 28 November 1829, Sturt and his party crossed the Murrumbidgee near the present site of the town of Gundagai. Following the river in a whaleboat, Sturt discovered that the Murrumbidgee River flowed into the Murray (previously named the Hume), as did the Darling, and that the Murray River flowed to the ocean, emptying out at Lake Alexandrina on the southern coast.

1932  -             The 'Dog on the Tuckerbox' statue at Gundagai is unveiled.

The "Dog on the Tuckerbox" is an historical monument situated in southern New South Wales, Australia. Celebrated in Australian folklore, poetry, and song as being either five or nine miles from Gundagai, the Dog on the Tuckerbox sits approximately 5 miles, or eight kilometres, from Gundagai. Gundagai's Dog on the Tuckerbox originated out of an incident from the mid-1800s, when some travellers' bullock carts became stuck in the mud near Gundagai. The bullockies were unable to free their carts, and everything ended up coated in mud. The romanticised version of the story goes that the bullocky departed for help, and the dog stayed to faithfully guard his master's tuckerbox (food box). However, the reality is that the dog was in fact relieving itself directly above the tuckerbox, which was the only thing not submerged by the mud.

The story was originally captured by an unknown poet writing under the pseudonym of Bowyang Yorke and published in the Gundagai Times in the 1880s. A later version was written by Gundagai journalist and poet Jack Moses. The tale was then popularised in 1937 in the song "Where the Dog Sits on the Tuckerbox" by Australian songwriter Jack O'Hagan who also wrote "Along the Road to Gundagai" and "When a Boy from Alabama Meets a Girl from Gundagai". Ironically, O'Hagan never visited Gundagai himself.

The statue of the Dog on the Tuckerbox was created by Gundagai stonemason Frank Rusconi, and unveiled on 28 November 1932, by Joseph Lyons, then Prime Minister of Australia. The unveiling occurred on the 103rd anniversary of explorer Charles Sturt's crossing of the Murrumbidgee River at the place where Gundagai now stands.

1964  -             Mariner 4, the first spacecraft to transmit close range images of Mars, is launched.

Mariner 4 was the first spacecraft to obtain and transmit close range images of Mars. It was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida, on 28 November 1964. The probe passed within 9844 kilometres of Mars on July 14, 1965, obtaining the first ever close-up photographs of the Mars surface. The images revealed that Mars had a vast, barren wasteland of craters scattered throughout a rust-coloured surface of sand, with some indications that liquid water had once etched waterways through the surface. Mariner 4 had various field and particle sensors and detectors, and a television camera which took 22 television pictures, each 48 seconds apart, covering about 1% of the planet.

1979  -             257 people are killed when an Air New Zealand sightseeing flight crashes into Mount Erebus, Antarctica.

Mount Erebus, located on Ross Shelf, Antarctica is the southernmost active volcano on Earth. Discovered on 27 January 1841 by explorer Sir James Clark Ross, the volcano rises 3,795 metres above sea level.

Sightseeing flights frequently include Mount Erebus on their tours. On 28 November 1979, Air New Zealand Flight 901 crashed into Mount Erebus, killing all 237 passengers and 20 crew members. The flight departed from Auckland International Airport with guide Peter Mulgrew standing in for Sir Edmund Hillary, who had acted as a guide on previous flights but had to cancel on this occasion. At the time of the crash, the altitude of the aircraft was 445m.

Following an inquest, the crash was attributed to pilot error. The pilot descended below the customary minimum altitude level, continuing at that height even though the crew was unsure of the plane's position. However, the New Zealand Government called for another inquiry in response to public demand. The Royal Commission of Inquiry, headed by highly respected judge Justice Peter Mahon, blamed Air New Zealand for altering the flight plan waypoint coordinates in the ground navigation computer without advising the crew. The new flight plan took the aircraft directly at the mountain, rather than along its flank.

Although all the bodies were recovered, the wreckage of the aircraft still remains on the slopes of Mount Erebus, buried by snow and ice. A wooden cross was raised above Scott Base to commemorate the accident, and was replaced in 1986 with an aluminium cross after the original was eroded by low temperatures, wind and moisture.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1314  -             King Philip IV, who orders the suppression of the Knights Templar, dies in a hunting accident.

King Philip IV, also known as Philip the Fair, was born sometime during the year 1268. His nickname referred to his fair hair and blue eyes, and generally pleasing appearance, rather than any sense of justice. On the contrary, Philip had ambitions for France to be the major power in the empire, and to that end, he sought the resources owned by others. This included the Jews, whom he expelled from France after taking their properties, the Italian bankers (Lombards) and the wealthy Knights Templar.

On 13 October 1307, Philip IV ordered the arrest of the entire order of Knights Templar in France, and had their possessions confiscated. The knights were put on trial and were tortured to extract confessions of sacrilegious practices, including heresy and witchcraft. Many were burnt and tortured, and under duress, admitted to a variety of heresies, admissions which were later retracted as being forced admissions.

Philip IV died on 29 November 1314, whilst out on a hunting expedition. It is believed he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke, possibly as a result of a fall from his horse.

1823  -             Oxley anchors off Pumicestone Channel to explore western Moreton Bay.

On 23 October 1823, Surveyor-General John Oxley set sail from Sydney to travel north along the coastline. His aim was to find a suitable settlement for convicts who had not been reformed, but continued to re-offend. Reaching Port Curtis (Gladstone), Oxley rejected the harbour as unsuitable, due to its many shoals and mangrove swamps. Oxley returned south and entered Moreton Bay, where he anchored off Pumicestone Channel, now Pumistone Passage, on 29 November 1823.

From here, Oxley set out in a smaller boat to chart the western shores of Moreton Bay. On 2 December 1823, he came across the entrance to the Brisbane River, which ticket-of-leave convict timber-getters, Parsons, Pamphlett and Finnegan had already discovered by accident.

1847  -             Missionary physician Marcus Whitman and thirteen others are killed by Native Americans in Washington state.

Marcus Whitman was an American physician and missionary in Oregon, born in 1802. As a young man, Whitman was interested in becoming a minister, but studied medicine instead. In 1835 he travelled with missionary Samuel Parker to present-day north-western Montana and northern Idaho, to minister to the Native American bands of the Flathead and Nez Percé. Two years later he returned to live with the Indians, after marrying Narcissa Prentiss, a teacher of physics and chemistry. Whitman and Narcissa established several missions along their journey and their own settlement, Waiilatpu, near the present day city of Walla Walla, Washington. The settlement was in the territory of both the Cayuse and the Nez Percé tribes of Native Americans. Marcus farmed the land and utilised his medical skills, while Narcissa set up a school for the Native American children.

In 1843, Whitman organised the first large caravan of wagon trains along the Oregon Trail, opening it up to more settlers. The influx of white settlers brought to the region diseases to which the Indians had not developed immunity: in 1847, measles killed a large number of them. Whitman was unsuccessful in treating many of them, and his attempts to administer the measles vaccine resulted in more deaths. The recovery of many white patients resulted in the belief among the Native Americans that Whitman was causing the death of his Indian patients. To avenge the deaths, Cayuse tribal members murdered Marcus and Narcissa Whitman in their home on 29 November 1847, along with twelve other white settlers in the community.

1876  -             The Queensland flag is officially adopted.

Queensland began as the colony of the Moreton Bay District. It was founded in 1824 when explorer John Oxley arrived at Redcliffe with a crew and 29 convicts to begin a settlement on the Redcliffe Peninsula. This settlement, which was later dubbed Humpybong by the indigenous people for its dead huts, was abandoned less than a year later when the main settlement was moved 30km away, to the Brisbane River. The new settlement was given the name of Brisbane, after the Brisbane River which Oxley had explored earlier.

In 1859, Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent declaring that Queensland was now a separate colony. Queensland was the last of the states to be separated from New South Wales. In 1869, Queen Victoria proposed that each of the colonies in Australia adopt a flag, which should consist of a Union flag with the state badge in the centre. Queensland had no badge at that time, so one needed to be designed. William Hemmant, then Queensland Colonial Secretary and Treasurer designed the badge, which is officially described as "On a Roundel Argent a Maltese Cross Azure surmounted with a Royal Crown".

The flag of Queensland, with the new badge, was introduced on 29 November 1876. As well as the badge, the flag featured the Imperial Crown, also known as the Tudor Crown, an emblem that changes in accordance with the ruling Monarch. Queen Victoria used the Imperial Crown, as did Edward VII and George VI, whilst George V and Elizabeth II used the St Edward's Crown. If the next ruling Monarch were to revert to the Imperial Crown when he ascends the throne, then the Queensland flag would change again.

1898  -             C S Lewis, author of the 'Narnia' series of books, is born.

C S Lewis was born Clive Staples Lewis on 29 November 1898, in Belfast, Ireland. As a young teenager, he abandoned the Christian faith with which he was raised, but returned to it when he was in his thirties. Lewis taught as a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, and later became the first Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.

After embracing Christianity, Lewis's first novel was "Pilgrim's Regress", an unorthodox take on John Bunyan's "Pilgrim's Progress", but which was based on his own experiences with his departure from and return to Christianity. Following this, Lewis penned the science-fiction "Space" trilogy, comprising "Out of the Silent Planet", "Perelandra" - also known as "Voyage to Venus" - and "That Hideous Strength". Other Christian fiction followed, including "The Screwtape Letters", in which an elderly demon, Screwtape, instructs his nephew, Wormwood, via a series of letters on the best ways to secure the damnation of a particular human. Lewis also wrote numerous theological works on Christianity. Although he became an Anglican upon his return to Christianity, he was greatly influenced by his Roman Catholic friend J R R Tolkien, writer of "Lord of the Rings".

Among Lewis's best-known works are the Narnia Chronicles, a series of seven fantasy novels for children, which describe the adventures of children who visit a magical land called Narnia. The novels effectively incorporate some elements of Christian theological concepts in ways that are easily understood by children and adults alike. Although C S Lewis died on 22 November 1963, the Narnia Chronicles remain as popular as ever still today.

1948  -             Australian Prime minister Ben Chifley launches the first mass-produced Australian car, the Holden FX.

"Made in Australia, For Australia".

These are the words spoken by Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley when he launched the Holden FX on 29 November 1948. The real name of the Holden FX is 48/215. '48 was the year it started production, and 215 indicated a Standard Sedan. The name "FX" originated as an unofficial designation within Holden after 1953, and was a reference to the updated suspension of that year.

The Holden company began as 'J.A. Holden & Co', a saddlery business in 1856, and moved into car production in 1908. By 1926, Holden had an assembly plant in each of Australia's mainland states, but due to the repercussions of the great Depression, production fell dramatically, from 34,000 units annually in 1930 to just 1,651 units in 1931. In that year, it became a subsidiary of the US-based General Motors (GM).

Post-World War II Australia was a time when only one in eight people owned an automobile, and many of these were American styled cars. Prior to the close of World War II, the Australian Government put into place initiatives to encourage an Australian automotive industry. Both GM and Ford responded to the government, making proposals for the production of the first Australian designed car. Although Ford's outline was preferred by the government, the Holden proposal required less financial assistance. Holden's managing director, Laurence Hartnett, wished to develop a local design, but GM wanted an American design. Compromises were made, and the final design was based on a previously rejected post-war proposed Chevrolet. Thus, in 1948, the Holden was launched - the first mass-produced Australian car.

Although the automobile's official designation was the 48/215, it was marketed as the "Holden". This was to honour Sir Edward Holden, the company's first chairman and grandson of J.A. Holden, who established the original Holden saddlery. Other names that were considered included the 'Austral', 'Woomerah', 'Boomerang', 'Melba', 'GeM', 'Emu' and even the 'Canbra', a name derived from Australia's capital city. The original retail price was AU£760.

1970  -             Recreated goldfields town, Sovereign Hill in Victoria, is officially opened.

In August 1851, the Australian state of Victoria had its first gold strike at Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, in the same month it gained its independence from the NSW colony. While the Ballarat goldfields were rich and promising, the real goldrush began when gold was discovered at Mt Alexander, 60km northeast of Ballarat, and close to the town of Bendigo.

Nowadays, Sovereign Hill offers a re-creation of life on the goldfields and in a goldmining town. Officially opened on 29 November 1970, Sovereign Hill is an interactive outdoor museum which covers some 25 hectares on the southern outskirts of Ballarat. The town has been recreated with historic authenticity, complete with antiques, confectionery and foods, machinery, books, documents, livestock and other animals, carriages and other transport, all appropriate to the 1850s goldrush era. Visitors to the site can pan for alluvial gold, which can still be found in Sovereign Hill's Red Hill Gully Creek.

1990  -             The United Nations Security Council passes 'Resolution 678', authorising military intervention if Iraq does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait by 15 January 1991.

In the early hours of 2 August 1990, 100,000 Iraqi troops backed by 300 tanks invaded Kuwait in the Persian Gulf. US economic aid to Iraq had inadvertently allowed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to amass weaponry which was then deployed for the invasion. The United Nations acted immediately to implement economic sanctions against Iraq. Over the ensuing months, a series of UN Security Council and Arab League resolutions were passed regarding the conflict. One of these was Resolution 678, passed on 29 November 1990. This ordered Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait by 15 January 1991, and authorised the use of force via military intervention if Iraq did not comply.

Iraq had not complied by January of the following year, so a coalition force of armies from 34 nations, led by the United States, set out to free Kuwait. The Gulf War lasted around 6 weeks, and resulted in a decisive victory for the coalition forces.

Cheers - John

Another good read John, so once again thanks for that

Re 1314 - King Philip IV, who orders the suppression of the Knights Templar, dies in a hunting accident.

It looks like the good King was having two bob each way, to ensure a good financial outcome, below is a quote from the net

Many of the Templar's were tortured into confessing their crimes and then killed. Others were killed for refusing to confess.

I was certainly unaware that this King expelled the Jews, and the Italian bankers, as well as the Knight Templar's, purely for financial gain

Gday...

1831  -             Sir Thomas Mitchell sets out to investigate rumours of a vast river allegedly flowing north from New South Wales.

Major Thomas Mitchell was born in Craigend, Scotland, in 1792. He came to Australia after serving in the Army during the Napoleonic Wars, and took up the position of Surveyor-General of New South Wales. He undertook four expeditions into the NSW interior. Mitchell's first expedition was to investigate rumours of a north-flowing river situated in northern New South Wales. An escaped convict by the nickname of Clarke the Barber was spawning reports of a great river, which he named the Kindur. Setting off from the Hunter River on 30 November 1831, Mitchell came across numerous rivers, but they all flowed in a westerly direction, rather than north. After several months it became apparent that Clarke had fabricated the story, hoping for leniency upon his recapture.

1835  -             American author and satirist, Mark Twain, is born.

American writer Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on 30 November 1835, in Florida, Missouri. His birth was marked by the appearance of Halley's Comet, a phenomenon which reappeared at the time of his death, some 75 years later. Clemens grew up in Hannibal, Missouri, and later worked as a licensed Mississippi river-boat pilot.

Writing from a mixture of experience and imagination, the pseudonym 'Mark Twain' was spawned in 1861 when he signed a humorous travel account with that name. He acquired this name as a result of his time as a boat pilot, when a boatman's call would announce "Mark twain", meaning that the river was only two fathoms deep, the minimum depth for safe navigation.

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

1854  -             Peter Lalor is elected to lead the gold-diggers in the movement that would become the Eureka Stockade.

The Eureka Stockade was the 1854 miners' uprising on the goldfields of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia. Peter Lalor was an Irish immigrant, born on 5 February 1827, who initially worked on the construction of the Melbourne - Geelong railway line, but soon joined the gold rush and began mining in the Ovens Valley, and then in Ballarat.

Conditions on the Australian goldfields were already harsh, with many people squeezed into over-crowded dustbowls on the fields, and competition was rife for the best diggings. Over-priced goods and equipment from traders, coupled with the excessively high cost of mining licences, exacerbated discontent and unrest, particularly when miners were subjected to frequent, surprise checks of their licences. Previous delegations for miners' rights had met with resistance from the Victorian government, so on 30 November 1854, Lalor was elected as a more militant leader. The result was the Eureka Stockade.

1874  -             Winston Churchill, British Prime Minister during WWII, is born.

Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill was born on 30 November 1874, at Blenheim Palace in Oxfordshire, England. He served with the British Army in India and Sudan, and became nationally known through his writings when, as a journalist, he was captured in South Africa during the Boer War. Churchill became a member of Parliament in 1900, remaining an MP for over 64 years.

Churchill served as Prime Minister of Britain from 1940-45, during WWII. His powerful oratory and refusal to make peace with Hitler were instrumental in rallying and maintaining British resistance to Germany. This was particularly so during the first two years of the war and the onslaught of the Blitz by the German Luftwaffe, which was aimed at crushing British morale. Initially, Britain stood alone against Nazi Germany, but Churchill promised his country and the world that the British people would "never surrender". His government was defeated shortly after the war ended, but he was re-elected in 1951. In 1953 Churchill was knighted, and awarded the 1953 Nobel Prize in Literature for his four-volume work, "A History of the English-speaking Peoples". He retired as Prime Minister in 1955 but remained in Parliament until 1964. A year later, on 24 January 1965, Churchill died and was laid to rest in the Oxfordshire parish churchyard of Bladon.

1878  -             Advance Australia Fair, the song that would become Australia's National Anthem over a century later, is performed for the first time in public.

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

This is the well-known opening line of Australia's national anthem, 'Advance Australia Fair'. The song was composed by Scottish-born composer Peter Dodds McCormick, who arrived in Sydney in 1855, taking up a position as a public school teacher in New South Wales. McCormick was heavily involved in the community as well as the Scottish Presbyterian church, and he developed a reputation for both his singing voice and his compositions. He composed around 30 patriotic songs, one of which was 'Advance Australia Fair'. 'Advance Australia Fair' was first performed in public on 30 November 1878. The occasion was the St Andrew's Day concert of the Highland Society. Initially, the song was published under the pseudonym of "Amicus", which is Latin for 'friend'.

In line with its nationalistic flavour, 'Advance Australia Fair' was performed by a 10,000-voice choir at the inauguration Federation ceremony for the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia, on 1 January 1901. McCormick was subsequently paid one hundred pounds for his composition in 1907, and he registered it for copyright in 1915. Early in the twentieth century, the song was proposed as a possible national anthem for Australia, to replace te Royal anthem 'God Save the King' (later 'Queen'), but no official decision was made.

The first of many competitions to find a new national anthem was held in 1840, with subsequent quests and competitions in ensuing years, including the lead-up to the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Another Australia-wide national anthem quest was held in 1972-3. Following this, in 1977, the government held a referendum and attached a national plebiscite to choose a new anthem. 'Advance Australia Fair' won with 43% against Banjo Paterson's 'Waltzing Matilda' with 28% and Carl Linger's 'Song of Australia' with 10%. In favour of keeping 'God Save the Queen were 19%. In 1984, the Australian government made the final decision to change the national anthem as it sought to reinforce its independence from England. 'Advance Australia Fair' was adopted as the National anthem of Australia on 19 April 1984.

1920  -             The first east to west 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.

In 1919, the first south to north transcontinental flight was undertaken in Australia. Captain Henry Wrigley and Sergeant Arthur Murphy flew a B.E.2E aircraft from Point Cook, Victoria to Darwin in the Northern Territory. It took the pair 46 flying hours to cover the 2,500 miles (4023 km).

A year later, the first east to west transcontinental flight in Australia was made. On 30 November 1920, a converted World War I bomber, an Airco DH.4, piloted by Captain Francis S Briggs and J Howard departed Melbourne. On board was also the aircraft's owner, Clement John de Garis, who wished to inspect a property he had purchased at Kendenup in Western Australia. The flight took 18 hours, and arrived in Perth on 2 December.

1928  -             Australian cricket icon Donald Bradman makes his Test debut.

Donald George Bradman was born on 27 August 1908 in Cootamundra, New South Wales, Australia. One of Australia's most popular sporting heroes, he is often regarded as the greatest batsman of all time. The Bradman Museum and Bradman Oval are located in the New South Wales town of Bowral, where Bradman grew up, spending many an hour practising his cricket using a stump and a golf ball. Bradman developed his legendary split-second speed and accuracy by practising hitting into a water tank on a brick stand behind the Bradman home: when hit into the curved brick stand, the ball would rebound at high speed and varying angles. Bradman's batting average of 99.94 from his 52 Tests was nearly double the average of any other player before or since.

Bradman was drafted in grade cricket in Sydney at the age of 18. Within a year he was representing New South Wales. On 30 November 1928, Bradman made his Test debut, when he scored 18 runs and 1 run against England. Less than two years later, in the English summer of 1930, he scored 974 runs over the course of the five Ashes tests, the highest individual total in any test series. Even at almost forty years of age - most players today are retired by their mid-thirties - Bradman returned to play cricket after World War II. On 12 June 1948, he scored 138 in the First Test Cricket at Trent Bridge. In his farewell 1948 tour of England the team he led, dubbed "The Invincibles", went undefeated throughout the tour, a feat unmatched to date.

Bradman was awarded a knighthood in 1949 and a Companion of the Order of Australia, the country's highest civil honour, in 1979. In 1996, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame as one of the ten inaugural members. After his retirement, he remained heavily involved in cricket administration, serving as a selector for the national team for nearly 30 years. Sir Donald Bradman died on 25 February 2001.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1876  -             Aboriginal stockman Sam Isaacs and teenager Grace Bussell rescue about 40 people from a stricken steamship off Western Australia.

The SS Georgette was a steamship built in 1872, which was sold in England to Western Australia, and used as a coastal trading and passenger service between Fremantle, Albany and Champion Bay. On 1 December 1876, the Georgette sprang a leak 32km out to sea, whilst carrying fifty passengers and a cargo of jarrah wood. The pumps failed to work, and despite passengers and crew bailing water non-stop, by 6pm the water had risen to put out the steamship's fires, leaving the ship adrift. A boatload of passengers was lowered into the sea but the lifeboat was smashed against the ship's side and broken. Some of the survivors were rescued by a second lifeboat, but twelve were killed. Each lifeboat that was released was swamped or capsized in the storm-driven seas.

As the stricken Georgette drifted into Calgardup Bay, it was seen by the Bussell family's Aboriginal stockman, Sam Isaacs. He and sixteen-year-old Grace Bussell raced down to the surf on horseback, and Grace then rode her horse into the bay until it was alongside one of the swamped lifeboats. People clung to her and her horse as she returned to shore and landed them. One man was left on the boat, and Isaacs was sent to collect him. Bussell and Isaacs continued their rescuing efforts, taking over four hours to land all the passengers.

For their acts of bravery and heroism, Grace was awarded the Royal Humane Society's silver medal and Isaacs received a bronze. The wreck of the Georgette still lies about 90 metres off Calgardup Beach.

1959  -             The Antarctic Treaty is signed, ensuring the protection of the world's most remote and inhospitable continent.

Antarctica is the driest and coldest continent on Earth. An inhospitable place, the continent itself does not support any animal life as just 2% of the Antarctic is free of ice, but the Antarctic waters and coastline are teeming with marine mammals, birds, fish and invertebrates. The continent is often referred to as the Last Frontier, being a remote and still relatively pristine wilderness.

During the twentieth century, improved technology meant increased exploration of the previously inaccessible Antarctica. Scientific research stations were established, and territorial claims were made, though these were not recognised by all countries. Disputes and even armed conflicts ensued, as was the case when, in 1948, Argentine military forces fired on British troops in territory claimed by both countries. As it became more apparent that the Soviet Union was also interested in laying claim to the frozen continent, the United States suggested that Antarctica be made a trustee of the United Nations. The proposal was refused by the nations which stood to lose their claims of sovereignty to an international organisation.

The treaty is comprised of fourteen articles which control activities on the continent, and which stipulate that Antarctica should be used exclusively for peaceful purposes such as scientific research. The Treaty established Antarctica as a military-free zone, forbidding military presence and all testing of weapons of any sort, although it permitted the use of military personnel or equipment for scientific research or for any other peaceful purposes. In addition, the treaty stipulated that previous territorial claims remain unaffected by the Treaty, but that no new claims can be made.

1987  -             Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen is forced to resign as Queensland's longest-serving Premier.

Johannes Bjelke-Petersen was born in Dannevirke, New Zealand on 13 January 1911. He was the son of Danish immigrants, and his father was a Lutheran Pastor. When young Johannes, or Joh, was two years old, the family migrated to Australia, taking up dairy farming at Kingaroy in south-eastern Queensland. An industrious lad, despite a lifelong limp which was the result of polio, Joh learned to clear land efficiently, explored other agricultural pursuits such as peanut farming, obtaining a pilot's licence and started aerial spraying and grass seeding. All of these successful pursuits showed the drive and initiative which would serve him well later in politics.

Bjelke-Petersen entered politics in 1963, as minister for works and housing under Country Party leader Frank Nicklin. Following Nicklin's retirement in January 1968, Jack Pizzey became Country Party leader and hence Premier, but died unexpectedly within seven months of taking office. Bjelke-Petersen won the election for leadership of the Country Party and subsequently became Premier of Queensland on 8 August 1968.

Bjelke-Petersen enjoyed a long and successful career as premier, largely thanks to the electoral mal-apportionment which had been introduced by the Labor Party in 1949 to improve and concentrate its base of rural voters in as many districts as possible. The system worked well for the Country Party and, assisted by further redistributions by Bjelke-Patersen in 1972, worked to further weaken the Labor Party in Queensland's country areas. Ironically, Bjelke-Petersen was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for "services to parliamentary democracy" in 1984. Nonetheless, the state of Queensland thrived under Bjekle-Petersen's leadership and saw enormous economic and population growth.

In his later years as Premier, Bjelke-Petersen's leadership was marred by controversy and allegations of corruption. The two-year-long Commission of Inquiry into "Possible Illegal Activities and Associated Police Misconduct", chaired by barrister Tony Fitzgerald and known as the Fitzgerald Inquiry, uncovered evidence of corruption which implicated the Police Commissioner as well as senior members and associates of the Bjelke-Petersen government. Increased party tension led Bjelke-Petersen to announce he would retire as premier in August 1988, the twentieth anniversary of him becoming Premier. However, he was deposed by caucus and, after an extended standoff, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen resigned as Premier on 1 December 1987, and retired from politics altogether.

1990  -             The final wall of rock is drilled out, to join the two halves of the Channel Tunnel and link Britain to France.

The Channel tunnel is a rail tunnel, 50 kilometres in length, beneath the English Channel at the Straits of Dover, connecting Cheriton in Kent, England and Coquelles near Calais in northern France. The concept of such a tunnel linking Britain and France had been under discussion for centuries, but it was only seriously realised in 1957 when le Tunnel sous la Manche Study Group was formed. Following the group's report in 1960, the project to construct the Tunnel was launched in 1973, but financial problems in 1975 halted progress beyond a 250m test tunnel.

In 1984, a joint United Kingdom and French government request for proposals to build a privately funded link brought forth four submissions, one of which closely resembled the 1973 route. The Fixed Link Treaty was signed by the British and French governments on 12 February 1986, and ratified in 1987. It took 15,000 workers over seven years to dig the tunnel, with tunnelling operations carried out simultaneously from both ends. On 1 December 1990, workers bored through the final wall of rock to join the two halves of the Channel Tunnel.

1997  -             Eight of the known planets in the solar system form a rare alignment from west to east.

On 1 December 1997, eight of the known planets of our solar system aligned from west to east. The alignment, which also included the Earth's moon, began with Pluto and continued with Mercury, Mars, Venus, Neptune, Uranus, Jupiter, and Saturn in that order. All but the farthest planets, Pluto, Uranus and Neptune, could be seen with the naked eye. Uranus and Neptune were visible with binoculars, but a telescope was needed to see Pluto. Another alignment occurred in May 2000, but the planets were too close to the sun to be visible from the Earth.

2004  -             Two years after being destroyed by bushfires, Mount Stromlo Observatory in the ACT becomes fully operational again.

In March 1973, the Geoscience Australia Lunar and Satellite Laser Ranging programme was established with the signing of a NASA-Division of National Mapping agreement under the USA-Australia Hornig Treaty for cooperation in Science. Australia has three Satellite Laser Ranging Stations and Observatories connected with this programme. They include Orroral Observatory, in the Namadgi National Park, New South Wales; the Moblas 5 (Yarragadee) SLR facility, 100 km south east of Geraldton, Western Australia; and Mount Stromlo, 18km southwest of Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory.

The Mount Stromlo Observatory was established in 1924 as the Commonwealth Solar Observatory. It serves as the headquarters of the Research School of Astronomy & Astrophysics of the Australian National University (ANU). The site currently holds the administrative centre; offices of the astronomers and students; the mechanical, electronic and optical workshops; and the computer laboratories. It also once held research telescopes, but this changed in January 2003, when the Mt Stromlo facility was destroyed by bushfires that swept through the ACT. The firestorm, ignited by lightning strikes in nearby national parks and fuelled by high temperatures and winds of up to 200 km per hour, destroyed five historically significant telescopes. Instrumentation and engineering workshops, the observatory's library and the main administration buildings were also consumed.

One of the first facilities to be constructed after the devastating bushfires was the Precision Engineering Centre, for the purpose of enabling ongoing manufacturing and engineering of instrumentation. Research telescopes were not reinstalled: the Observatory now uses telescopes located at Siding Springs, near Coonabarabran, in northern NSW. The newly rebuilt Mount Stromlo Observatory was officially opened on 1 April 2004. Following further testing and validating, it became operational on 1 December 2004.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1642  -             Members of Tasman's crew become the first Europeans to set foot on Van Diemen's Land (later renamed Tasmania).

Abel Janszoon Tasman was a Dutch seafarer and explorer who, as an employee of the Dutch East India Company, was ordered to explore the south-east waters in order to find a new sea trade route to Chile in South America. In November of 1642, he discovered a previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named it "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia. On 2 December 1642, several members of Tasman's crew became the first known Europeans to set foot on Van Diemen's Land (which later became known as Tasmania). The men collected green plants, including sea parsley, or wild celery, to help ward off scurvy among the sailors.

1804  -             Napoleon Bonaparte crowns himself Emperor of France.

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

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

1823  -             Oxley sights the entrance to the Brisbane River.

On 23 October 1823, Surveyor-General John Oxley set sail from Sydney to travel north along the coastline. His aim was to find a suitable settlement for convicts who had not been reformed, but continued to re-offend. Reaching Port Curtis (Gladstone), Oxley rejected the harbour as unsuitable, due to its many shoals and mangrove swamps. Oxley returned south and entered Moreton Bay, where he anchored off Pumicestone Channel, now Pumistone Passage, on 29 November 1823.

From here, Oxley set out in a smaller boat to chart the western shores of Moreton Bay. On 2 December 1823, he came across the entrance to the Brisbane River, which ticket-of-leave convict timber-getters, Parsons, Pamphlett and Finnegan had already discovered by accident. Naming it after New South Wales Governor, Sir Thomas Brisbane, Oxley surveyed the river for approximately eighty kilometres. Following his enthusiastic report on the river, a convict settlement was established at Moreton Bay in 1825.

1911  -             Douglas Mawson departs Hobart to commence his Antarctic exploration.

Australian Antarctic explorer, Douglas Mawson, was born on 5 May 1882, in Yorkshire, but his family emigrated to Australia in 1884. He studied geology at Sydney University, and was appointed geologist to an expedition to the New Hebrides in 1903. After this, he returned to Australia to become a lecturer in petrology and mineralogy at the University of Adelaide in 1905. In 1907, Mawson joined an expedition to Antarctica led by Ernest Shackleton, as a scientific officer, and was one of the first to ascend Mount Erebus and get close to the South magnetic pole. He was offered a place on Robert Scott's Terra Nova expedition but turned it down to lead the Australasian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914, sailing on the "Aurora".

On 2 December 1911, Mawson departed from Hobert on the "Aurora", bound for Macquarie Island, a sub-antarctic island 1500 kilometres south east of Tasmania and 1300 kilometres north of Antarctica.

Here, he established a base before leaving on December 23 to explore the Antarctic continent.

1970  -             The numbat is officially listed as endangered.

The numbat is a small, striped marsupial of Western Australia, and the faunal (animal) emblem of that state. Sometimes known as the banded anteater, it feeds almost exclusively on termites, and is Australia's only marsupial to do so. The numbat is unusual for several reasons; it is one of Australia's very few diurnal marsupials, and it does not have a full abdominal pouch, but rather an open pouch which lends little protection to the young which cling to the mother's underbelly while attached to the teat.

Numbats used to be widespread across the southern half of the continent, but numbers have declined severely since the beginning of European settlement in Australia. Numbats are now restricted to just a few areas of southwestern Western Australia. The introduction of predators such as cats, dogs and foxes have had a severe impact on numbat populations, as has land clearing for agriculture and changed fire regimes. Current figures estimate there are only about 1500 adult numbats remaining.

The numbat was officially listed as endangered on 2 December 1970. Since that time, the Department of Environment and Conservation of Western Australia has established a number of programmes to try and ensure the continued survival of this delicate and defenceless marsupial. In the 1980s, Perth Zoo also commenced a captive breeding programme for the purpose of releasing numbats back into protected wildlife reserves.

Cheers - John