Gday...

1846  -     Major Mitchell discovers the Maranoa River.

1804  -     The first cemetery is established in the penal colony of Van Diemen's Land, now Tasmania, Australia.

1066  -     Halley's comet first appears to the English. 

1980  -     An attempt by US troops to rescue 52 hostages in Iran ends in disaster.

 On 1 November 1979 the new leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini, urged his people to demonstrate against United States and Israeli interests. On 4 November 1979, militant Iranian students seized the US embassy in Tehran, taking 66 people captive. The Ayatollah then took over the hostage situation and agreed to release non-US captives, and female and minority Americans, claiming these groups were among the people oppressed by the US government. 52 hostages remained at the mercy of the Iranian government for the next 444 days.

 US President at the time, Jimmy Carter, was unable to resolve the hostage crisis diplomatically. Following his failure, he initiated a rescue attempt, Operation Eagle Claw, on 24 April 1980. A group of C-130 transport airplanes rendezvoused with nine RH-53 helicopters at an airstrip in the Great Salt Desert of Eastern Iran, near Tabas. Two helicopters broke down in a sandstorm and a third one was damaged on landing. The mission was aborted, but as the aircraft took off again one helicopter clipped a C-130 and crashed. Eight US servicemen were killed and several more injured.

 The crisis came to an end 270 days later, soon after Carter lost the November 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan. Thanks to the assistance of intermediaries such as Algerian diplomat Abdulkarim Ghuraib, the hostages were formally released into US custody on 20 January 1981.

1990  -     The Hubble Space Telescope is delivered to outer space.

Cheers - John