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, 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. 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.

By 1917, 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.

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 aquittal 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

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 1933, 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

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

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 the 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 south to north transcontinental flight across Australia occurs.

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

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 innaugural 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.

he 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 malapportionment which had been introduced by the Labor Party in 1949 to imrpove 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.

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 Hobart 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

Gday...

1797  -             Bass departs Sydney to determine whether Van Diemen's Land is an island or part of the Australian continent.

The island of Tasmania, originally "Van Diemen's Land", was discovered by Dutch explorer Abel Tasman in 1642. It was thought to be part of the Australian mainland, though some seamen had their suspicions that it might be an island. Among them were George Bass and Matthew Flinders who, in 1796, together explored and charted the coastline south of Sydney.

The following year, Bass sought sponsorship from Governor Hunter to determine whether a navigable strait existed between Van Diemen's Land and the Australian continent. Bass departed Sydney on 3 December 1797, with six naval volunteers and an 8.5m long whaleboat. It was on this journey that Bass discovered the strait that is now named after him.

1800  -             James Grant discovers and names Mount Gambier in South Australia.

Mount Gambier, around which the city of the same name is built, is the remnant of an extinct volcano, located midway between the major capital cities of Melbourne (Victoria) and Adelaide (South Australia). Ancient volcanic activity is evident in the landscape of volcanic craters, lakes, caves and underground aquifers.

James Grant was a young lieutenant sent out on a survey voyage of the southern coast. Grant was given orders to take possession in the King's name of any large rivers and good pastureland, as long as such possession was done with the consent of any native inhabitants who might be present. On 3 December 1800, Grant discovered Cape Northumberland, naming it after the Duke who was British Commander-in-Chief. Beyond Cape Northumberland, he sighted Mount Gambier, naming it after Admiral Lord James Gambier, who had commanded the fleet at the Battle of Copenhagen.

1824  -             Hume and Hovell discover the Goulburn River, naming it the "Hovell River".

The Goulburn River is a significant river in the Australian state of Victoria. It begins near the western end of Mount Buller in the Victorian Alps, also known as the "High Country", and joins the Murray River near the town of Echuca. Discovered by the exploration party of Hume and Hovell on 3 December 1824, the Goulburn River was originally named the "Hovell", after William Hovell, who accompanied Hamilton Hume on the expedition to find an overland route from Sydney to Port Phillip.

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

Although the two men argued for most of their journey, and even for many years after their return, the expedition was successful in many ways. Hume and Hovell discovered many other rivers besides the Goulburn, including the "Hume River", which was later renamed by Sturt as the Murray River. The "Hovell River" was later renamed the Goulburn River after English statesman Henry Goulburn.

1854  -             The Battle of the Eureka Stockade is held near Ballarat, Victoria.

The Eureka Stockade was the rebellion initiated by the diggers on the Ballarat, Victoria goldfields in 1854. Conditions on the Australian goldfields were particularly harsh. The main source of discontent was the expensive miner's licence. It cost 30 shillings every month and permitted the holder to work a 3.6 metre square "claim". Licences had to be paid regardless of whether a digger's claim resulted in the finding of any gold. Frequent licence hunts, during which the miners were ordered to produce proof of their licences, added to the increasing unrest. Previous delegations for miners' rights had met with inaction from the Victorian government, so on 29 November 1854, the miners burned their licences in a mass display of resistance against the laws which controlled the miners. Following a massive licence hunt on November 30, Irish immigrant Peter Lalor was elected to lead the rebellion.

On December 1, the miners began to construct a wooden barricade, a stockade from which they planned to defend themselves against further licence arrests or other incursions by the authorities. At 3:00am on Sunday, 3 December 1854, 276 police and military personnel and several civilians stormed the stockade. It remains unclear which side fired first, but in the ensuing battle, 22 diggers and 5 troopers died.

Although the rebellion itself failed in its objective, it gained the attention of the Government. A Commission of Enquiry was conducted and changes were implemented. These included abolition of monthly gold licences, replaced by an affordable annual miner's licence. The numbers of troopers were reduced significantly, and Legislative Council was expanded to allow representation to the major goldfields. Peter Lalor and another representative, John Basson Humffray, were elected for Ballarat. Later, Lalor was elected Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Victoria. For these reasons, the Eureka Stockade is regarded by many as the birthplace of Australian Democracy.

1971  -             Pakistan invades India as a result of the Bangladeshi struggle for freedom.

The British Empire once stretched into almost every continent on Earth. In 1947, Britain dismantled its Indian empire and partitioned the sub-continent, resulting in an eruption of tensions between India and Pakistan. Pakistan itself was divided by civil war after its 1970 election saw the East Pakistani Awami League party win 167 of 169 seats in East Pakistan and 313 in total, claiming the right to form the Government. However, the Pakistan People's Party, representing West Pakistan, refused to give premiership of Pakistan to the East Pakistan party, and called in the military, which was made up largely of West Pakistanis. Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, openly supported the Bangladeshi (East Pakistan) struggle for freedom, and opened the Bangladesh-India border to allow safe refuge to the Bengalis in India.

On 3 December 1971, the border battles escalated into full scale war as Pakistan launched air raids on India. The raids were not successful, and the Indian Air Force launched a counter-attack, quickly achieving the military upper hand. The Indian Army, together with exiled Bangladeshi fighters, launched a massive coordinated air, sea, and land attack on Pakistan, gaining ground quickly, and forcing the Pakistani Army to retreat. On December 6, India became the first nation to recognise the new Bangladeshi government. On December 16 the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered, and agreed to a unilateral ceasefire.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1619  -             The first Thanksgiving is celebrated in America, before the Pilgrims ever arrived.

Thanksgiving in North America is a day of feasting and celebration, and has been a tradition for hundreds of years. It is generally associated with the arrival of the Pilgrims, who had escaped religious persecution in England. During the late 1500s and early 1600s, religion in England was strictly dictated by the government. Anyone who did not conform to severe religious restrictions was subject to being punished by jailing, torture and even execution. Seeking escape from religious suppression, a group known as the Pilgrims left England on the ship Mayflower.

The Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock in southeastern Massachusetts in December 1620, but due to hostility from the local Indians, moved to Cape Cod. The indians of this region, the Wampanoag, were friendly, assisting the colonists to survive in a strange land. The Wampanoag taught them optimum growing techniques, which differed from what they had experienced in England, and they also taught them how to hunt and fish. The following year, the colonists celebrated a successful harvest and their freedom with a huge feast, in what became known as Thanksgiving. The Wampanoag were invited along to this feast, and are believed to have supplied much of the food themselves, including venison.

However, the very first Thanksgiving actually occurred among a group unconnected with the Pilgrims. This festival was completely religious in nature, and no feasting was involved. On 4 December 1619, a group of settlers from England arrived at Berkeley Plantation on the James River, now known as Charles City, Virginia. In their charter, this group dedicated the day of their arrival as a Day of Thanksgiving to God. This was the first known Thanksgiving in North America.

1872  -             The 'Mary Celeste' is found abandoned, with its cargo intact, but no sign of its crew or passengers.

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

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

1942  -             Polish Christians risk their own lives for Polish Jews.

The Holocaust of World War II involved the mass slaughter of European Jews and others by the German-led Nazis. After Germany invaded Poland in 1939, Jews were forced into ghettos, transported to concentration and labour camps, or murdered in extermination camps. Jews were stripped of their basic human rights as homes and shops were confiscated and synagogues burned to the ground. The plight of the Jews were left largely ignored by the rest of the world, concentrating as it was on defeating the Germans and the Japanese on opposite sides of the Earth. Non-Jewish Poles could see the atrocities occurring within their own neighbourhoods but, with fewer rights under Nazi rule, many feared for their own safety and thus remained silent.

On 4 December 1942, two Christian women, Zofia Kossak and Wanda Filipowicz, put their own lives at risk when they set up the Council for the Assistance of the Jews. The fate of these two women, and the other Christians who joined them in their support of the Jews, is unknown. But their willingness to sacrifice their own safety, and probably their lives, is an enduring reminder that human courage and Christian ethics will prevail.

1953  -             Oil is discovered in Exmouth Gulf off the coast of Western Australia.

The first exploration drilling for oil in Western Australia was carried out in 1902 at Warren River in the southwest of the state. Traces of oil were located at various sites throughout Western Australia in the ensuing years. In 1953, WAPET (West Australian Petroleum Pty Ltd) acquired the use of some remaining defence buildings after the US Navy established a submarine and navy base in 1942 during WWII. From this point, WAPET commenced its oil exploration. On 4 December 1953, the discovery of a flow of oil in WAPETs Rough Range No. 1 well at Exmouth Gulf stimulated the growth of the state's oil industry.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1901  -             American animator and film producer, Walt Disney, is born.

Walter Elias Disney was born in Chicago, Illinois, USA, on 5 December 1901. After serving with the Red Cross Ambulance Corps during World War I, he worked first as a commercial artist, then established his own studio, producing animated cartoons. After the company failed to turn a profit, Disney gained animation experience with the Kansas City Film Ad Corporation, working on primitive animated advertisements for local movie houses. He then established Laugh-O-Grams, Inc, which produced short cartoons based on popular fairy tales and childrens stories. When the company went bankrupt, Disney was invited to join his brother Roy in Hollywood, where they started the Disney Brothers Studio. The Disney Brothers Studio became the Walt Disney Studio in 1926, and then Walt Disney Productions in 1928.

Disney is best known for creating Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, and for establishing the first theme park, Disneyland, in the USA. Disney currently holds the record for career Academy Award nominations, having gained 64 nominations. Among Disney's better known animated characters are Winnie the Pooh, Pinocchio and Ariel the Mermaid. Disney died from lung cancer on 15 December 1966.

1933  -             Prohibition in the United States ends.

Prohibition generally refers to the time between 1920 and 1933 during which the Eighteenth Amendment was in place. The Eighteenth Amendment, forbidding the "manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors for beverage purposes," was passed by Congress and ratified on 16 January 1919. The ensuing Volstead Act, which made provisions for the enforcement of the Eighteenth Amendment, was passed on 28 October 1919.

Prohibition failed to enforce sobriety, and the federal and state governments lost billions in tax revenue. In 1933, the 21st Amendment to the Constitution was passed and on 5 December 1933, Utah became the 36th state to ratify the amendment, achieving the required three-quarters majority of states' approval. Whilst this ended national Prohibition, some individual states continued to uphold their own temperance laws. Mississippi, for example, was the last state to end Prohibition, doing so only in 1966.

1952  -             The Great Smog of London starts, lasting until March of 1953.

London has long been known as a city of fog and pollution, a combination which turned deadly on 5 December 1952. November 1952 had been considerably colder than average, with heavy falls of snow in southern England. Londoners had already been burning more coal than usual for heating. Being the end of Autumn, the city was also converting from using electric trams to diesel-burning public transport. The formation of an atmospheric inversion meant that the layer of cold fog filled with dirty particles was trapped by warmer air above. The smog was so thick that it reduced visibility for drivers, and Heathrow Airport was closed. The smog entered indoors as well, causing the cancellation of concerts, theatrical performances and even films, as the audience could not see the stage or screen.

Around 4,000 people died during the first week, mostly the very young, elderly and those already suffering from respiratory problems. However, as the weeks dragged on and the smog hung around, the death toll continued, with another 8,000 dying before the smog finally lifted the following Spring, in March 1953. The Great Fog altered perceptions regarding the dangers of London's "pea-souper" fogs. Whereas Londoners had always been complacent about their smog, new regulations were put in place restricting the use of dirty fuels in industry and banning black smoke. These included the Clean Air Acts of 1956 and of 1968, and the City of London (Various Powers) Act of 1954.

Cheers - John

Gday...

343  -   Today is the Feast Day of St Nicholas, or modern-day Santa Claus.

St Nicholas was born in Greece (now part of southern Turkey) during the third century. Brought up in a devout Christian family, Nicholas's parents taught him values of generosity and selflessness, practices to which he adhered throughout his life. He was known in particular for his generosity to people in need (he had a reputation for secretly giving to the poor), his love for children, and his concern for sailors who often worked under some difficult conditions.

Nicholas was persecuted for his faith under the Roman Emperor Diocletian, and died on 6 December 343. A legend began which stated that, after his death, manna (the nutritious substance God miraculously provided for sustenance for the Israelites during their 40 year desert sojourn) formed upon his grave. This manna was said to have healing properties, spawning a new era of pious devotion to Nicholas. The anniversary of his death became a day of celebration, and of course came to be known as St Nicholas Day.

St Nicholas was never actually officially canonised, as this was not a common practice in the early church. It was common custom in those days for his devoted followers to simply spread word of his generosity and righteousness, thereby creating a larger following. By the Middle Ages, he came to be venerated as "people's saint", and churches and villages were named after him. Thus, his "evolution" into sainthood occurred over a period of hundreds of years.

1784  -             Transportation of convicts from England to Australia is first authorised.

Conditions in England in the 18th century were tough: the industrial revolution had removed many people's opportunities to earn an honest wage as simpler tasks were replaced by machine labour. As unemployment rose, so did crime, especially the theft of basic necessities such as food and clothing. The British prison system was soon full to overflowing, and a new place had to be found to ship the prison inmates. The American colonies were no longer viable, following the American war of Independence. Following Captain Cook's voyage to the South Pacific, the previously uncharted continent of New Holland proved to be suitable.

The plan to send a colony of convicts and officers to New South Wales was first authorised on 6 December 1784. Within two years, the formal decision was made to send a colonisation party of convicts, military and civilian personnel specifically to Botany Bay, New South Wales, under the command of Captain Arthur Phillip, who was appointed Governor-designate. The First Fleet consisted of 775 convicts on board six transport ships, accompanied by officials, crew, marines and their families who together totalled 645. As well as the convict transports, there were two naval escorts and three storeships.

Transportation of convicts to Australia began when the first ship departed Portsmouth, England, in May 1787, and ended when the last convict ship left Britain in 1867 and arrived in Australia on 10 January 1868.

1797  -             George Bass discovers the Kiama blowhole, on the New South Wales coast.

Kiama is an attractive town and Local Government Area 120 km south of Sydney on the south coast of New South Wales, Australia. The name "Kiama" is derived from the Aboriginal word Kiarama, which means "place where the sea makes a noise". This is in reference to the famous Kiama Blowhole, a natural cavern at Blowhole Point. The ideal conditions in which to view the blowhole are when the seas are running southeast: at these times, the blowhole can erupt in a spray of water up to 60m in height.

Kiama was discovered by explorer George Bass on 6 December 1797 after he anchored his whaleboat in the bay which is now Kiama Harbour. Bass noted the evidence of volcanic activity in the distant past, and of the blowhole itself, he wrote: "The earth for a considerable distance round in the form approaching a circle seemed to have given way; it was now a green slope ... Towards the centre was a deep ragged hole of about 25 to 30 feet in diameter and on one side of it the sea washed in through a subterraneous passage ... with a most tremendous noise ..."

1813  -             George Evans discovers and names the fertile Macquarie Plains and the Macquarie River.

In May, 1813, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth had crossed the Blue Mountains, finding rich farming land in the Hartley region. However, further exploration was needed so the colony could expand beyond the Great Dividing Range. George Evans was the Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, and keen to progress beyond the discoveries made by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth.

Leaving Sydney with a party of five men on 19 November 1813, Evans soon reached a mountain which he named Mt Blaxland, which was the termination of Blaxland, Lawson & Wentworth's explorations. He then headed southward into hilly country, and found a waterway which he called the Fish River, being abundantly full of fish. Following the Fish River west to its junction with the Campbell River on 6 December 1813, he named the large river formed by the union of the two smaller streams the Macquarie River, after Governor Macquarie. The plains surrounding the river were rich with lush vegetation, indicating fertile soil, and he named them the Macquarie Plains.

1907  -             361 miners are killed in the US's worst coal mining disaster.

West Virginia, USA, once had the reputation for the highest mine death rate of any of the states. Large scale coal operations began in Marion County, WV, in the 1880s. Between 1890 and 1912, regulation of mining conditions in West Virginia was poor, and the state's mining industry saw numerous deadly coal mining accidents. The nation's worst coal disaster occurred on 6 December 1907. 361 workers were killed when an explosion occurred at an underground mine owned by the Fairmont Coal Company in Monongah, Marion County. The accident was the catalyst to much of the movement that created the Federal Bureau of Mines, the first concerted effort to bring safer working conditions to coal mines.

1917  -             Over 1,800 are killed when the Mont Blanc, a French munitions ship, explodes after colliding with another vessel.

The port city of Halifax lies in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. On 6 December 1917 it was the site of the largest man-made explosion until the first atomic bomb test explosion in 1945. The French ammunition ship 'Mont Blanc' was waiting to be let into the harbour, awaiting the removal of submarine nets that preventing enemy u-boats from entering the harbour. The Mont Blanc was carrying 2,300 tons of picric acid, 200 tons of TNT, 35 tons of high-octane gasoline, and 10 tons of gun cotton. A Norwegian cargo ship, the 'Imo', was waiting to depart the harbour via the Right Channel. As a ship was blocking its path, it moved into the Left channel, where the Mont Blanc was travelling. The Imo stopped as the Mont Blanc passed in the centre of the channel, but the backward action of the propellers brought the Imo to the centre, and the two vessels collided.

The collision set the picric acid alight. Twenty minutes later, a massive explosion occurred, completely destroying the Mont Blanc, and sending blazing metal projectiles into residential and industrial sectors of the city, destroying much of northern Halifax and leaving some 1,500 homeless. Many spectators who had ventured out to watch the fire were killed in the explosion, or in the tsunami generated by the blast, washing up as high as 18 metres above the harbour's high water mark. Approximately 1,000 people were killed immediately, and the total death toll was estimated to be over 1,800. Another 9,000 were injured, and of these, around 200 were blinded.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1800  -             James Grant discovers and names Portland Bay and Cape Otway on the southern coast.

James Grant was a young lieutenant sent out on a survey voyage of the southern coast of Australia. Grant was given orders to take possession in the King's name of any large rivers and good pastureland, as long as such possession was done with the consent of any native inhabitants who might be present. On 7 December 1800, Grant discovered Portland Bay, describing it as "picturesque and beautiful", and naming it after the Duke of Portland. He was unable to land, however, due to the windy conditions and strong surf. Sailing further east on the 7th, Grant sighted and named Cape Albany Ottway, after his friend Captain William Albany Ottway. The Cape, and later the nearby Ranges, were renamed Otway.

1846  -             Leichhardt departs Jimbour Station on his second but unsuccessful expedition.

Ludwig Leichhardt was born in Prussia and studied in Germany. He was a passionate botanist who had an interest in exploration, although he lacked necessary bush survival skills. In October 1844, he left from Jimbour Station on the Darling Downs on an expedition to find a new route to Port Essington, near Darwin. The trip took 14 months and covered over 4,800km.

On 7 December 1846, Leichhardt departed from Jimbour Station on his second expedition. His intention was to cross Australia from east to west. However, the expedition was beset with sickness, paper-wasp bites, and discontent among his men after travelling only 800km. The wet weather season set in with a vengeance, forcing the party to wade through deep mud. Six months later Leichhardt returned to Jimbour Station, achieving nothing of his aim. It was nearly another year before Leichhardt attempted the crossing again, this time disappearing with his entire party somewhere in the centre of Australia.

1872  -             A flying haystack, accompanied by fire and smoke, is reported in Banbury, England.

Through the ages there have been many reports of unusual flying objects, dubbed UFOs, or Unidentified Flying Objects. Many times, the incidents can be explained as weather balloons, military exercises and even natural phenomena.

On 7 December 1872, an unusual UFO was reported in Banbury, England. A haystack was seen flying through the air on an irregular course, emitting fire and dense smoke. Witnesses stated that at least 17 trees were uprooted and another 36 damaged, a long stone wall was felled as it flew past, whilst a shack was also disassembled.

Prior to the appearance of the fiery flying haystack, the skies were heavily overcast, leading to a sudden downpour. Lightning flashed, whereupon appeared the flying haystack, making a noise rather like a whistling steam train, travelling irregularly, sometimes high and sometimes low. A strong "sulphurous" smell was noted, which is often connected to ozone and nitrogen oxides, created by the effect of electricity on air. The object appeared to continue for around a mile and a half, when it suddenly disappeared.

Meteorologist, Mr Thomas Beesley of Banbury, visited the area and concluded that the haystack fireball was due to a tornado that swept through the area. It was believed that the appearance of fire came from the friction of tree branches as they were propelled through the air at a terrific speed.

1941  -             Japanese fighters bomb the US navy base at Pearl Harbor, precipitating America's entry into WWII.

During the early stages of World War II, the United States willingly assisted Britain as one of its allies, but did not declare war on any of the countries involved. This changed on the morning of 7 December 1941, when the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii.

Tensions had been rising between the United States and Japan since Japan invaded Manchuria in 1931 and had continued to encroach on Chinese territory. Earlier in 1941, the USA and the UK reacted to continued Japanese military action in China by imposing boycotts on several industries critical to Japan, freezing assets and closing the Panama Canal to Japanese shipping. Peace negotiations between the US and Japan were unsuccessful, and Japan launched a pre-emptive strike against the US, hoping to gain the upper hand.

Six aircraft carriers launched approximately 360 Japanese warplanes, with the first attack wave occurring at 7:55am, local time. A second wave attacked an hour later. Further attacks by battleships, cruisers, and destroyers ensued. 2,403 Americans were killed, including 68 civilians, and a further 1,178 were wounded. Eighteen ships were sunk, including five battleships. Ultimately, the Japanese were successful in their aim of crippling the US navy. However, the attack pushed the US into WWII, and provided the catalyst and the motivation for the development of the bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

1967  -             Otis Redding records an unfinished "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay", three days before his death in a plane crash.

Otis Redding was an American "soul" singer. Born in Dawson, Georgia on 9 September 1941, his singing career began in the Macon church choir. He was a devoted fan of singer Little Richard, by whose music he was largely inspired, even though Redding moved more into "soul" later on.

Redding had an immensely successful career, and was a prolific songwriter. While touring with his backup band, the Bar-Kays in August 1967, he wrote the first verse of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" under the shortened title "Dock of the Bay". Further lines and additions were jotted onto hotel napkins and paper over the next few months. The first version of "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was recorded on 22 November 1967, with overdubbing completed on 7 December 1967. One verse was whistled, as Redding intended to write more lyrics and complete the recording later.

On 9 December, Redding and the Bar-Kays appeared on the local "Upbeat" television show in Cleveland, Ohio. The next day, his chartered Beechcraft 18 airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, killing Redding, his manager, the pilot, and four members of The Bar-Kays. The cause of the crash was never determined.

"(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was released posthumously on Stax Records' Volt label in 1968. It became Redding's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and was the first posthumous single in US chart history.

Cheers - John

Gday...

I agree. It remain one of my favourite songs for sure. 

Cheers - John

Gday...

1542  -             Mary, Queen of Scots, is born.

Mary, Queen of Scots, also known as Mary Stuart, was born on 8 December 1542, daughter of Mary de Guise of France and James V of Scotland. When her father died on December 14, the baby Mary became Queen of Scotland but James Hamilton, Duke of Arran, served as regent for Mary. Mary's mother wished to cement an alliance with France, so arranged a betrothal for the young Mary to France's dauphin, Francois. At age 6, Mary was then sent to France to be groomed for her future role as Queen of France, which she took up in 1559.

As the granddaughter of Margaret Tudor, the older sister of Henry VIII of England, Mary Stuart was considered to be the rightful heir to the English throne. This was over Elizabeth, daughter of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn, whose marriage was not recognised by many Catholics in England because Henry had unlawfully divorced Catherine of Aragon. Mary Stuart, in their eyes, was the rightful heir of Mary I of England, Henry VIII's daughter by his first wife.

Francois died on 5 December 1560, and Mary's mother-in-law, Catherine de Medici, became regent for his brother Charles IX. Mary Stuart then returned to Scotland to rule as Queen, but did not recognise Elizabeth's right to rule in England. Years of plotting and controversy followed as Mary tried to assert her right to the throne, with many conspirators on either side of Mary or Elizabeth being killed as they obstructed the way of the other. Ultimately, the attempt to place Mary on the Scottish throne resulted in her trial, which commenced on 11 October 1586. Mary Queen of Scots was executed on 8 February 1587, on suspicion of having been involved in a plot to murder Elizabeth.

1590  -             Sunspots are noted by sailor James Welsh in one of the few pre-Galileo observances.

Sunspots are areas on the Sun's photosphere, or surface, where the temperature is considerably lower than that of surrounding areas. The temperature difference causes these areas to appear as black spots which are sometimes visible without the aid of a telescope. The cooling effect is due to a strong magnetic field in a particular localised area which inhibits the transport of heat via convective motion in the sun.

Chinese astronomers have observed sunspots since 28 BC, but more modern viewings were few and far between. On 8 December 1590, sailor James Welsh of the ship "Richard of Arundel" observed a large black spot on the sun's surface, whilst sailing off the coast of Guinea. He noted that the spot was still visible the following morning.

The phenomenon remained largely unnoticed in ensuing years, until Galileo brought it to the population's attention in 1612, complete with likely explanation of how it occurred. It was not until the 1820s that the cyclic variation of the number of sunspots was first observed by Heinrich Schwabe. Later astronomers and scientists plotted the variations, leading to speculation on the effect of sunspots on weather patterns.

1801  -             Flinders explores and charts King George's Sound (later Albany) in Western Australia.

Matthew Flinders was born in Lincolnshire, England, in 1774. Flinders and George Bass did much sea exploration around Australia, adding to the knowledge of the coastline, and producing accurate maps. As well as being the first to circumnavigate Australia, Flinders, together with Bass, was the first to prove that Van Diemen's Land, or Tasmania, was an island and not connected to the mainland. Australia was previously known as New Holland, and after Captain Cook claimed the continent for England in 1770, the entire eastern half became known as New South Wales. Flinders was the one who first proposed the name "Terra Australis", which became "Australia", the name adopted in 1824.

Flinders charted the entire coastline of Australia between December 1801 and June 1803 in the ship 'Investigator'. On the evening of 8 December 1801, Flinders entered King George's Sound (later Albany) in Western Australia, to explore. He spent three weeks in the waterways, charting the coastline and determining what natural resources there could be used to facilitate settlement.

1980  -             Singer, songwriter and former member of "The Beatles", John Lennon, is murdered.

John Lennon was born John Winston Lennon on 9 October 1940. As his mother was unable to care for him after his father walked out, Lennon lived with his Aunt Mimi at Mendips throughout his childhood and adolescence. His mother taught him to play the banjo, retaining an interest in her son's life until she was killed in an accident in 1958. Lennon was a non-conformist who dropped out of school to devote his time to developing his musical talents. He joined up with Paul McCartney and George Harrison to form a band, taking the name "Johnny and the Moondogs", followed by "The Silver Beetles", which was later shortened to "The Beatles". Lennon is considered to be one of the most influential singer-songwriter-musicians of the 20th century, profoundly affecting the direction of rock 'n' roll music.

Lennon was assassinated by a deranged fan on 8 December 1980, as he and his wife Yoko Ono returned to their New York apartment after a recording session. The fan, Mark David Chapman, had earlier asked for, and received, Lennon's autograph on an album. It was the last autograph Lennon ever signed. Chapman later claimed he had heard voices in his head telling him to kill Lennon. Chapman has failed three times in his own bid for freedom, and remains serving a life sentence in Attica prison near New York.

1991  -             Leaders of Russia, Belarus, and the Ukraine meet to sign an agreement establishing the Commonwealth of Independent States, signalling the dissolution of the Soviet Union.

The Soviet Union, or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), was a socialist state founded in 1922, centered on Russia, and regarded as one of the world's two super-powers, with the USA being the other. A model for Communist nations, the socialist government and the political organisation of the country were defined by the only permitted political party, the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. However, the increasing push for independence among the states, together with the gradual crumbling of communism in the 1980s, led to the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, to be replaced by The Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).

On 8 December 1991, the leaders of Russia, Belarus, and Ukraine met in Belarus, and signed an agreement establishing the CIS. The CIS is a confederation now consisting of 11 former Soviet Republics: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Russia, Tajikistan, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan. Turkmenistan, originally included in the CIS, discontinued permanent membership on 26 August 2005, but remains an associate member. According to Russian leaders, the purpose of the CIS was to "allow a civilised divorce" between the Soviet Republics. Sceptics regard the CIS as a tool that would allow Russia to keep its influence over the post-Soviet states. Since its formation, the member-states of CIS have signed a large number of documents concerning integration and cooperation on matters of economics, defence and foreign policy.

Cheers - John

sorry misappropriate

Gday...

1843  -             The first Christmas cards are created.

The giving and receiving of Christmas cards has become a tradition throughout the world in the last century, with commercially-produced Christmas cards becoming more popular during the twentieth century. The earliest form of Christmas greetings were produced as gifts in Germany; they were called "Andachtsbilder" and were scroll-like greeting cards with devotional pictures, wishing the recipient "Ein gut selig jar", or "A good and blessed year". However, the tradition was not maintained over the ensuing centuries.

Sir Henry Cole, Director of London's Victoria and Albert Museum, found that writing numerous Christmas greetings to friends and colleagues was becoming a time-consuming task. He asked his artist friend, John Calcott Horsley, to design a card which could be used by Cole and also sold to the public. The first Christmas cards were created in England on 9 December 1843. Horsley produced 1,000 lithographed and hand-coloured cards. More like postcards, they sold for a shilling, which was the equivalent of a day's wages for a labourer. It was another twenty years before Christmas cards became commercially viable for the common man, following the invention of cheaper colour lithography.

1882  -             One of the earliest sightings of Australia's mythical 'yowie' is recorded.

The yowie is a mythical Australian creature, commonly frequenting bushland on the continent's eastern side, although the west is not without its sightings. The name "yowie" has come from the Aboriginal word for the creatures.

One of the earliest sightings of the yowie is recorded in a letter from naturalist H J McCooey in "The Australian Town and Country Journal", dated 9 December 1882. McCooey claimed to have seen the yowie in 1880, in an area of bushland between Ulladulla and Bateman's Bay on the New South Wales southern coast. He described the yowie as being about 5 feet high, and it stood on its hind legs as it watched the birds up in trees. It had long black hair which was reddish about its throat. Its eyes seemed small and were hidden by dirty, matted fur around its forehead. Its forearms seemed grotesquely long, though the rest of its body seemed to be in relative proportions. Repulsed by the appearance of the creature, McCooey threw a stone at it, whereupon it disappeared into a nearby ravine.

1941  -             Australia formally declares war on Japan.

On the morning of 7 December 1941, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched a surprise attack on the Pacific Fleet of the United States Navy, stationed at Pearl Harbor, Oahu, Hawaii. This one act changed the direction of World War II. Despite the success of the Japanese in their aim of crippling the US navy, the attack pushed the US into WWII.

An hour after the attack, Australian Prime Minister John Curtin declared that "from one hour ago, Australia has been at war with the Japanese Empire". Two days later, on 9 December 1941, at 11:15 am, Australian time (8:15 pm, December 8, American E.S.T.), war was formally declared. In part of his speech, John Curtin stated:

"The Australian Government ... did not want war in the Pacific. The Australian Government has repeatedly made it clear, as have the Governments of the United Kingdom, the United States of America, and the Netherlands East Indies, that if war came to the Pacific it would be of Japan's making. Japan has now made war." With that declaration came Australia's involvement in the war on Japan.

1968  -             The computer mouse makes its public debut.

Douglas C Engelbart, born on 30 January 1925, was an American inventor. In collaboration with William Engliah, he invented the computer mouse. The first prototype computer mouse was made to use with a graphical user interface, in 1964. Engelbart's computer mouse was patented on 17 November 1970, under the name "X-Y Position Indicator For A Display System". Calling it a mouse because of its tail-like cable, it was simply a hollowed-out wooden block with two metal wheels and a single push button on top. It was designed to select text and manipulate it, such as moving it around.

The computer mouse was demonstrated for the first time on 9 December 1968, after being developed at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park. The occasion was the Fall Joint Computer Conference, attended by about 1000 computer programmers and professionals. Engelbart's invention was revolutionary for changing the way computers worked, from specialised machinery that only trained scientists could use, to user-friendly tools that almost anyone could use.

1993  -             The first on-orbit service and repair mission to the Hubble Space Telescope takes place.

The Hubble Space Telescope was launched on 24 April 1990, by the Space Shuttle Discovery from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida. The telescope was the product of a cooperative project between the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA). After launch, it was decided that on-orbit servicing every three years would be preferable to returning the Telescope to Earth every five years, as originally planned.

The first servicing and repair mission took place on 9 December 1993. The telescope was captured by the space shuttle Endeavour, and repairs were carried out by astronauts Story Musgrave and Jeff Hofman, travelling at 27,358 kilometres per hour, and 580 km above the Earth. Among other defects requiring repair, the astronauts corrected a fault in the telescope's mirrors which caused the instrument to transmit out-of-focus images of deep space, no better than images seen from Earth.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1520  -             German theologian and Christian reformer, Martin Luther, publicly burns a papal edict demanding he recant his doctrines.

Martin Luther was a German theologian and Augustinian monk whose teachings inspired the Reformation and deeply influenced the doctrines of the Protestant churches in general, and the Lutheran church in particular. Luther openly questioned the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, in particular, the nature of penance, the authority of the pope and the usefulness of indulgences.

The Reformation of the church began on 31 October 1517, with Luther's act of posting his Ninety-Five Theses, more fully known as the "Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences", on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials. Controversy raged over the posting of the 95 Theses. Luther was excommunicated several years later from the Roman Catholic church for his attacks on the wealth and corruption of the papacy, and his belief that salvation would be granted on the basis of faith alone rather than by works.

On 10 December 1520, Luther publicly burned Pope Leo X's bull "Exsurge Domine," which demanded that Luther recant his heresies, including his doctrine of justification by faith alone. The following year, Luther was summoned before the Diet of Worms. The Diet was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that occurred in Worms, Germany, from January to May in 1521. When an edict of the Diet called for Luther's seizure, his friends took him for safekeeping to Wartburg, the castle of Elector Frederick III of Saxony. Here, Luther continued to write his prolific theological works, which greatly influenced the direction of the Protestant Reformation movement.

1582  -             France adopts the Gregorian calendar.

The Gregorian calendar, widely adopted in the western world, was initially decreed by Pope Gregory XIII on 24 February 1582. The Gregorian calendar was first proposed by Aloysius Lilius because the mean year in the Julian Calendar was slightly long, causing the vernal equinox to slowly advance earlier in the calendar year.

On 5 October 1582, the Gregorian calendar was adopted for the first time by Catholic countries such as Italy, Poland, Spain and Portugal. On 10 December 1582, France began using the Gregorian calendar.

Non-Catholic countries such as Scotland, Britain and the latter's colonies still used the Julian calendar up until 1752, and some Asian countries were still using the Julian calendar up until the early twentieth century.

1859  -             Today is Proclamation Day, marking Queensland's official separation from New South Wales.

When the First Fleet arrived in Australia in 1788, the entire eastern half of Australia came under the name of New South Wales. The colony of Van Diemen's Land (later Tasmania) was established in 1825, and Victoria (Port Phillip District) separated from New South Wales in 1851. The first settlement in what is now Queensland was established at Redcliffe in 1824, and later moved to Brisbane. The first free settlers moved to the area in 1838.

In 1859, Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent, which declared that Queensland was now a separate colony from New South Wales. Queenslanders celebrate June 6 every year as Queensland Day, the day which marks the birth of Queensland as a self-governing colony.

Queensland actually separated from New South Wales on 10 December 1859, and this has now come to be known as "Proclamation Day". On this day, the new Queensland ensign, a light blue flag with a red St George's cross, and union jack in its upper left hand corner, was raised. On 1 January 1901, Queensland became one of the six founding States of the Commonwealth of Australia.

1878  -             Bushranger Ned Kelly robs the Euroa bank.

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

One of Kelly's more daring bank robberies was carried out on 10 December 1878. Kelly and his gang rode into the Victorian town of Euroa, where they robbed the National Bank of about 2,000 pounds. As a result of this robbery, the reward for their capture was increased to 1,000 pounds each.

1896  -             Alfred Nobel, benefactor of the Nobel Prizes, dies, eight years after reading his own obituary.

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.

Eight years prior to his death, 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.

1997  -             Environmentalist, Julia 'Butterfly' Hill, commences living high in a redwood tree in California to prevent its destruction.

Julia "Butterfly" Hill is an American environmentalist who, at the age of 23, lived in a giant California Redwood tree to prevent its destruction. Appalled by the destruction of the redwood forest in Humboldt County, California, Hill climbed into the 54 metre high, 1,000-year-old California Redwood tree nicknamed "Luna" on 10 December 1997. She lived there for 738 days, finally coming down on 18 December 1999. Her actions were designed to prevent loggers of the Pacific Lumber Company from cutting down the tree. She lived in a small 2m x 2.5m shelter that she had built with help of volunteers.

Hill only agreed to come down out of "Luna" when the Pacific Lumber Company agreed to preserve all trees within a 3 acre buffer zone. In 1999, Hill and other activists founded the environmental organisation "Circle of Life", which continues to work towards preserving the natural environment. Hill herself became the youngest person to be inducted into the Ecology Hall of Fame.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1792  -             Josef Mohr, who wrote the lyrics to 'Silent Night', is born.

Josef Mohr was born on 11 De­cem­ber 1792 in Salzburg, Austria, the illegitimate son of a seamstress and a military deserter. Mohr championed the cause of the poverty-stricken, the disadvantaged, the young and the elderly, and was a generous man who willingly gave his time and money to charity.

It was while serving as parish priest at St Nikolas Church in Oberndorf that Mohr penned "Silent Night", one of the world's most enduring Christmas carols. Two days before Christmas 1818, the bellows in the church organ were found to be rotted through. Mohr wrote a poem and asked the church organist and choirmaster, Franz-Xaver Gruber, if he could set it to music which the two men could sing, accompanied by Mohr on the guitar. Late on Christmas Eve, the men practised the song for the first time, and performed it for Mass. "Silent Night" still endures today as a much-loved Christmas carol.

1792  -             Captain Arthur Phillip, first Governor of the New South Wales colony, returns to England.

Arthur Phillip was born in London on 11 October 1738. He joined the Royal Navy when he was fifteen, and alternately earned a living as a navy officer and as a farmer. In October 1786, Phillip was appointed Governor-designate of the proposed British penal colony of New South Wales. He was a practical man who suggested that convicts with experience in farming, building and crafts be included in the First Fleet, but his proposal was rejected. The First Fleet left Portsmouth, England, on 13 May 1787, and arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. Phillip immediately determined that there was insufficient fresh water, an absence of usable timber, poor quality soil and no safe harbour at Botany Bay. Thus the fleet was moved to Port Jackson, arriving on 26 January 1788.

Phillip faced many obstacles in his attempts to establish the new colony. British farming methods, seeds and implements were unsuitable for use in the different climate and soil, and the colony faced near-starvation in its first two years. Phillip also worked to improve understanding with the local Aborigines. The colony finally succeeded in developing a solid foundation, agriculturally and economically, thanks to the perseverance of Captain Arthur Phillip.

Poor health forced Phillip to return to England in 1792. He departed for his homeland on 11 December 1792, sailing in the ship "Atlantic". Phillip resigned his commission soon after arriving back in England, and died on 31 August 1814.

1848  -             Edmund Kennedy is killed by Aborigines just short of his destination of Cape York.

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

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

Kennedy chose to leave the three white men near the Shelburne River when one of them accidentally shot himself in the shoulder. Continuing on with Jackey-Jackey, Kennedy was close to reaching his rendezvous with the 'Ariel' when he found himself surrounded by hostile aborigines. Their spears quickly found their mark with Kennedy, whilst Jackey-Jackey tried to hold off the Aborigines with gunfire. On 11 December 1848, Kennedy died in Jackey-Jackey's arms, signifying the tragic loss of a promising young explorer.

1903  -             The world's first wildlife preservation society is founded.

Fauna and Flora International, formerly the Fauna and Flora Preservation Society, was the world's first conservation society. It was founded on 11 December 1903 as the Society for the Preservation of the Wild Fauna of the Empire. Launched by conservationist Edward North Buxton, its many supporters included both influential people and notable naturalists, but also hunters who were concerned about preserving species for their past-time of hunting for future years. Membership reached 100 within the first year.

The primary aim of the Society was the conservation of habitats and species, and to influence legislation towards this end. Today, the Society still works to improve public education in matters of conservation. It is involved in captive breeding programmes specifically for the release of vulnerable and threatened species back into the wild.

1919  -             A monument is dedicated to the destructive Boll Weevil in Enterprise, Alabama.

The boll weevil is a small beetle, highly destructive to cotton crops. Native to Mexico, it began to infest the cotton crops of Coffe County, Alabama in 1915, creating wholesale destruction by 1918. The loss of the main crop in the area threatened the city of Enterprise, the economy of which was based on cotton farming.

H.M.Sessions was an enterprising businessman who saw the opportunity to convert the region from cotton to peanut farming. Together with farmer C. W. Baston, who was heavily in debt following cotton crop losses, Sessions invested in a peanut crop. The first crop was enough to clear Baston's debt, and attracted the interest of other farmers seeking rescue from their financial hole. The ensuing diversification of crops injected new financial prosperity to the farmers of Coffee County and the city of Enterprise.

Bon Fleming was a local businessman who suggested building a monument as a tribute to the beetle. Although the boll weevil wrought only destruction, its presence forced farmers to diversify. The monument was suggested to commemorate how something disastrous can bring about change for the better. The boll weevil monument featured a woman wearing a flowing gown, with her arms stretched above her head. Thirty years later, a boll weevil was added. The statue was dedicated on 11 December 1919.

Frequent theft and vandalism over the years saw the statue reduced to an irreparable state by 1998. The original statue was placed on display at Enterprise's Depot Museum, while a polymer-resin replica was placed in the statue's original position.

1931  -             The Statute of Westminster gives complete legislative independence to countries of the British Commonwealth.

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." The Statute of Westminster 1931 ratified the discussions of the Imperial Conference. It meant that 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.

Australian Parliament formally adopted the Statute of Westminster 1931 under the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942, on 9 October 1942.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1815  -             Explorer James Kelly begins his circumnavigation of Tasmania.

Captain James Kelly was born in Parramatta, New South Wales, in 1791. He was believed to be the son of James Kelly, a cook in the convict transport Queen, and Catherine Devereaux, a convict transported for life from Dublin on the Queen. As a young man, he was inducted into the trades of sealer and sandalwood trader. At the age of 21, Kelly was enlisted to command the whaling fleet of Thomas William Birch of Hobart Town.

On 12 December 1815, Kelly embarked on a journey to circumnavigate Tasmania in the whaleboat "Elizabeth", with the view to exploring the commercial potential along the Tasmanian coast. Kelly is credited with officially discovering Port Davey on the south west coast and, late in December, of Macquarie Harbour on the central west coast. He discovered and named the Gordon River and Birch Inlet. Kelly's successful journey took 40 days.

1851  -             Today is Poinsettia Day in the USA.

The poinsettia (Euphorbia pulcherrima) is a plant, native to Mexico, with brilliantly red-coloured bracts in its native state. Newer varieties have also been bred, with bracts of different colours ranging from white through to lilac, pink and even spotted. Known sometimes as the lobster flower and flame leaf flower, the poinsettia has come to symbolise Christmas because of its bright red and green colours.

In the United States, December 12 has been set aside as National Poinsettia Day. The date marks the death of Joel Roberts Poinsett (2 March 1779 12 December 1851), an American statesman, physicist and botanist, who is credited with introducing the native Mexican plant to the United States. The purpose of the day is to celebrate the beauty of the poinsettia.

1882  -             Australias worst gold mining disaster, to date, occurs in Creswick, Victoria.

Creswick is a small town located in the heart of the central goldfields in Victoria, Australia. The town, which currently has a population of about 3,000, was born after squatters Charles, John and Henry Creswick ran sheep in the area which became known as Creswicks Creek in 1842. The discovery of gold in September 1851 led to a gold rush, and the steady alluvial finds were boosted by the opening up of deeper workings in 1855-6. By 1861, the population of the town had swelled to over 5,000.

The Australasian Mining Company began prospecting for gold in the area in 1867, and enjoyed rich returns with the discovery of the Australasian Lead, one of five rich gold leads, or rivers of gold buried beneath layers of basalt, sand and gravel, that run through the area. A decade of regular flooding caused the Australasia No 1 mine shaft to be abandoned. The Australasia No 2 shaft was sunk approximately 200 metres away after the formation of a new company, the New Australasian Gold Mining Company, in 1878.

At around 5:30 am on the morning of Tuesday, 12 December 1882, water which had been accumulating in the Australasia No 1 mine burst through the wall of the reef drive, trapping 27 workers. Hearing the noise of the flooding above ground, water pump engine driver James Spargo increased the speed of the pump, and was quickly joined by two other engine drivers, James Harris and Thomas Clough. Over the next few days, the men ran the engines at more than 10 times their normal speed, trying to lower the water to save the trapped men. Unable to escape from the mine, the men sought respite from the rising waters in the small space of the No 11 jump-up, one of several cutaways where the men would jump up out of the way of the mine trucks. A special train was sent for from Melbourne with equipment to dive into the water. Special diving equipment borrowed from the HMS Cerberus, together with experienced divers, was sent up from Melbourne. It was Thursday (some sources say Friday) before the trapped men could be reached, and by that time, 22 had died. Only 5 were brought out alive.

This was not the only mining accident to occur in 1882: apart from the 22 who perished in this one incident, in the same year there were another 49 deaths due to mining accidents in the colony of Victoria alone. Following the Creswick disaster, 20,000 pounds was collected from townsfolk throughout Victoria to help the widows and orphans, with funds being allocated weekly to the families of the victims. Later, Parliament changed the fund to The Mining Accident Relief Fund Act, 1884, with moneys being paid to assist all victims of mining accidents.

1915  -             American singer and actor Frank Sinatra is born.

Frank Sinatra was born Francis Albert Sinatra on 12 December 1915, in Hoboken, New Jersey, USA. He is considered to be one of the most important popular music figures of the 20th century. As a musician, he was well respected for his gifted vocalisations, rich baritone and his versatile musical style. After making his foray into films, he became the unofficial leader of the Hollywood 'Rat Pack' of the early 1960s, which also included Dean Martin and Sammy Davis Jr. He appeared in 58 films, including On the Town (1949), From Here to Eternity (1953, and for which he received an Academy Award), Guys and Dolls (1955), Pal Joey (1957), The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and The Detective (1968). Sinatra died of natural causes on 14 May 1998.

1917  -             Father Flanagan founds Boys Town, a home for orphaned boys, in Nebraska.

Father Edward J Flanagan, born July 1886, was a Roman Catholic priest in the USA. In December 1917, three homeless boys in Nebraska were assigned to Flanagan's care. Unable to be supported by his financially struggling Parish, Flanagan found a house in Omaha, and borrowed $90 from a friend to pay the first month's rent. He opened the house to the boys on 12 December 1917, and, using the tenet that "There is no such thing as a bad boy", he continued to take in homeless and wayward youth.

After awhile, Flanagan moved the boys from the house in Omaha to Overlook Farm outside town, and in 1936 it was renamed Boys Town. As welfare agencies and juvenile judges passed more children into Flanagan's care, the farm came to rely on volunteers and contributions from the community to keep it running. It shifted from being a place for just orphans to one which took in children, including girls, who were in trouble with the law, or those who came from abusive situations. Possibly America's best-known orphanage/home, Boys Town has established satellite homes in Florida, California, and Texas and is a consultant to other homes in the United States. Similar homes in other countries have been founded on the original model set by Father Flanagan.

1953  -             Charles Yeager becomes the first person to travel two and a half times the speed of sound.

Charles Elwood "Chuck" Yeager was born on 13 February 1923 in Myra, West Virginia. After joining the army at age 16 and training as an aircraft mechanic, he was then selected for flight training. His service record during WWII was impeccable, becoming an "ace-in-a-day" after shooting down five enemy aircraft in a single mission. Yeager remained in the Air Force after the war. He became a test pilot and was ultimately selected to fly the rocket-powered Bell X-1 in a NACA program to research high-speed flight. On 14 October 1947 he broke the sound barrier in the technologically advanced X-1.

Yeager continued to work with experimental craft, achieving faster and faster speeds. He piloted the X1-A, a longer and more powerful version of the X-1, to a speed of mach 2.4 on 12 December 1953. This was almost two and a half times the speed of sound and the fastest of any human being to that date.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1642  -             Dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovers New Zealand.

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, he discovered a previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named the island "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

Tasman did not try to circumnavigate the island, but continued to sail east. On 13 December 1642, Tasman sighted a new land which he described as mountainous and covered in cloud in the south, but more barren in the north. He had discovered New Zealand. However, he also did not choose to explore further, assuming that the two lands were part of a larger continent.

1802  -             Charles Robbins successfully dissuades the French from making a claim on Van Diemen's land (now Tasmania).

Tasmania was first discovered by Abel Tasman on 24 November 1642. Tasman discovered the previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", or "New Holland", as the Dutch called Australia. He named it "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

When the First Fleet arrived in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip claimed the entire eastern coast for the British Empire, including Tasmania, though it was not yet proven to be separate from the mainland. In January 1799 Bass and Flinders completed their circumnavigation of Tasmania, proving it to be an island.

The British were keen to make a formal claim upon the island so that it would not come under the control of France. In November 1802, Governor King sent Charles Robbins, first mate of HMS Buffalo, to Van Diemen's land with the purpose of dissuading an impending French claim. In an earlier moment of indiscretion, French commodore Nicolas Baudin had revealed his intention to colonise Van Diemen's Land. Robbins sailed the schooner 'Cumberland', the only ship available at the time, arriving in Van Diemen's Land on 13 December 1802. He met Baudin and successfully persuaded Baudin to abandon his plans to claim Van Diemen's Land. Robbins's claim to Van Diemen's Land was reinforced by the landing of British troops on King Island in Bass Strait shortly afterwards.

Robbins himself found Robbins Island, a small island off the northwest coast of Van Diemen's Land, in 1804. It was subsequently named in his honour.

1850  -             Cleveland in southeast Queensland is proclaimed a township.

Cleveland is a suburb of Redland City, which lies sandwiched between the boundaries of Brisbane and the Gold Coast in southeast Queensland. Originally known as Nandeebie by the indigenous Koobenpul people, the area was first settled by Europeans in the 1820s, after being discovered by ticket-of-leave convicts Parsons, Pamphlett and Finnegan who had been blown off-course by a wild storm near the Illawarra coast of NSW. Believing they were south of Port Jackson, the men headed north, where they reached Moreton Bay and island-hopped to the mainland. Here, near the Brisbane River, they were eventually rescued by explorer John Oxley who was surveying the area as the site for a possible penal settlement. Redcliffe became the first settlement in the new Colony of the Moreton Bay District, followed by Brisbane, named after the Brisbane River, which in turn was named after Governor Brisbane, then the Governor of New South Wales.

Settlement south of Brisbane began with farming allotments, as the area was rich in volcanic soil. Cleveland, still known as Emu Point, was an important port for small boats in the region, and a strong contender for being a future capital city whenever the colony separated from New South Wales. This was quashed in 1842 when Governor Gipps attempted to come ashore at Emu Point and ended up floundering in the mud and mangroves because his ship was too large to dock. The bay proved to be too shallow to be a major port in the future. The area was renamed Cleveland by surveyors, in honour of William Vane, the 1st Duke of Cleveland.

On 13 December 1850, Cleveland was proclaimed a township, and soon became a popular seaside resort. Two buildings from the 1850s, the Courthouse (now a restaurant) and the Grand View Hotel, still remain as testimony to Clevelands heritage.

1858  -             The first balloon flight in Sydney, Australia, takes place.

The hot air balloon was developed in the 1700s by Frenchman Jacques Étienne Montgolfier, together with his brother Joseph-Michel. Montgolfier progressed to untethered flights until 1783 when he tested the first balloon to carry passengers, using a duck, a sheep and a rooster as his subjects. The demonstration occurred in Paris and was witnessed by King Louis XVI. The first manned, untethered balloon flight occurred on November 21 of that year, and carried two men.

The first balloon flight in Australia occurred on 1 February 1858. Constructed in the UK, the balloon was imported into Australia by the manager of Melbourne's Theatre Royal, George Coppin. The launch took place at Cremorne Gardens near Richmond. William Dean lifted off at 5:52pm and landed near Heidelberg at around 6:30pm. Two weeks later, Dean again lifted off, this time reaching an estimated altitude of 10,000 feet before decending onto the road between Collingwood and Brunswick Stockade.

William Dean was also the first to fly in a balloon from Sydney. Together with his companion, Brown, they launched at 5:00pm on 13 December 1858, witnessed by 7,000 people. The balloon drifted north across Sydney Harbour and landed in Neutral Bay. However, it was not until the 1870s that balloon flights became more commonplace in Australia.

1937  -             Nanking, capital of China, falls to the brutal Japanese imperial forces.

Prior to World War II, Japan began a systematic invasion of Chinese territory, beginning with Manchuria in 1931. In the ensuing years, thousands of refugees fled Manchuria and settled in Nanking, or Nanjing, swelling the population of the city from 250,000 residents to over one million. In July 1937, Japan attacked China again, this time near Beijing. The Chinese government did not retreat as it had before, but declared war on Japan, marking the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which soon became another facet of World War II.

To break the spirit of Chinese resistance, Japanese General Matsui Iwane ordered that the city of Nanking be destroyed. On November 25, Japanese forces began attacking Nanking in earnest. Then, on 13 December 1937, the Japanese Imperial Army marched into Nanking and commenced a massacre that continued for six weeks. In what became known as the "Rape of Nanking," the Japanese butchered an estimated 150,000 male "war prisoners," massacred an additional 50,000 male civilians, and raped between 20,000 and 80,000 women and girls of all ages, often mutilating, disembowelling or killing them in the process. Some figures suggest that 300,000 innocent Chinese died during the carnage.

It is estimated that during the Japanese occupation of China, at least fifteen million Chinese soldiers and civilians were killed. The city of Nanking still sombrely commemorates the atrocities committed by the Japanese army upon its citizens. After World War II, Matsui was found guilty of war crimes by the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, and executed.

1955  -             Australian housewife "superstar", Dame Edna Everage, makes her stage debut.

Dame Edna Everage is the brainchild and ostentatious alter-ego of Australian actor Barry Humphries. The Moonee Ponds housewife, originally created as a parody of Australian suburban insularity, has developed from her earlier dowdiness to become a satire of stardom, the gaudily dressed, ostentatious, international Housewife Gigastar with outrageous glasses.

Barry Humphries was born on 17 February 1934 in Melbourne, Australia. He studied law, philosophy and fine arts at Melbourne University before joining the Melbourne Theatre Group and embarking on an acting career. He created the character of Edna Everage who made her Australian debut at Melbourne's Union theatre on 13 December 1955. Humphries brought her to the British stage in 1969 for his one-man show, "Just a Show". In 1970 Barry returned to Australia, where Edna Everage made her movie debut in John B Murray's The Naked Bunyip.

Humphries has ensured his creation has kept up with the latest technology. Dame Edna now has her own website, dame-edna.com, where fans can find the latest tour dates, merchandise and information about Australia's favourite housewife.

1960 -              My mum passed away aged 42 after an unsuccessful operation on her brain tumour.

1972 -              My eldest son was born.

1975  -             Malcolm Fraser's Liberal Party wins a landslide 55-seat majority victory over the ALP.

Edward Gough Whitlam, elected in 1972 to be the 21st Prime Minister of Australia, had embarked on a massive legislative social reform program which was forward-thinking and progressive in many ways. Whilst initially popular, the fast pace of reform engendered caution amongst the electorate, and the economy was beset by high inflation combined with economic stagnation.

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

This was done on the condition that Fraser would seek a dissolution of both the House of Representatives and the Senate, thus precipitating a general election. Formal elections were held on 13 December 1975, and Fraser's Liberal Party won a massive 55-seat majority victory over the Australian Labor Party.

Cheers - John