Gday...

1780  -   An unexplained darkness engulfs the New England region of North America. 

The New England region of the United States is located in the northeastern corner of the country, and covers the states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont. 19 May 1780 came to be known as New England's Dark Day, as an abnormal darkening of the day sky was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. The darkness was so complete that candles were required from noon until midnight, when it finally dispersed and the stars could be seen. It was believed by many that the darkness signalled the end of the world, especially as there were some reports of the air smelling like a malt-house or a coal kiln.

Scientists have never determined conclusively what caused the darkness. It was not an eclipse. It is currently thought it was due to a combination of smoke from forest fires and a thick fog, but this is still theory and has not been substantiated.

1840  -   Strzelecki names the Gippsland region of southeast Australia.

Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, born 20 July 1797, was a Polish explorer and skilled geologist who emigrated to London following the national uprising against tsarist Russia in 1830. In 1839 he arrived in Australia, where he made influential friends, among them wealthy grazier James MacArthur. MacArthur was keen to explore promising-looking land in Australia's southeastern corner with the view to acquiring more grazing land and establishing a harbour from which to export pastoral products. Interested in the geology of the Great Dividing Range, Strzelecki agreed to accompany MacArthur, and the two departed from Ellerslie Station near Adelong, New South Wales, in February 1840.

In March 1840, Strzelecki climbed and named Australia's highest peak after a Polish patriot, Tadeusz Kosciuszko. Strzelecki then continued towards what is now Victoria's eastern coast, passing through rich countryside which he named Gippsland on 19 May 1840, after Governor Gipps, then the Governor of New South Wales.

1861  -   Dame Nellie Melba, Australian operatic singer, is born.

Dame Nellie Melba was born Helen Porter Mitchell on 19 May 1861 at "Doonside" in the inner Melbourne subrub of Richmond. She became the first Australian to achieve international recognition as an Opera soprano.

Born into a musically gifted family, she travelled to Europe in 1886 in an attempt to launch her own musical career. After failing to find success in London, she continued to Paris where a prominent music teacher, Madame Marchesi, saw her potential and agreed to tutor her. Her debut in Brussels in 1887 initiated a professional career in Australia and England that saw her as the prima donna at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden through to the 1920s. Marchesi persuaded her to adopt a suitable stage name: 'Melba' was chosen as a contraction of the name of her native city of Melbourne. Melba was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1918, and was elevated to Dame Grand Cross in 1927.

Dame Nellie Melba died of septicaemia on 23 February 1931. She was given a state funeral from Scots' Church, Melbourne, which her father had built and where as a teenageer she had sung in the choir. She was buried in Lilydale, near Coldstream. Her legacy continues as her name is associated with two foods, a dessert (the Pêche Melba), and Melba toast, while the music hall at the University of Melbourne is known as Melba Hall, and the Australian 100-dollar note features her image.

1915  -   John Simpson Kirkpatrick, the man who heroically rescued 300 wounded soldiers with a donkey at Gallipoli, is killed.

John Simpson Kirkpatrick, born on 6 July 1892 in South Shields, County Durham, England, was a stretcher bearer with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (Anzacs) at Gallipoli during World War I. Originally finding employment stevedoring and stoking on merchant ships, at the outbreak of World War I he immediately joined the Australian Army Medical Corps as a stretcher bearer under the name of "Jack Simpson".

Simpson landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 and, on the second day, took a donkey that had been landed as a water-carrier for one of the field artillery units. Several dozen donkeys had been bought at a Greek island on the way to Gallipoli but, with no way to land them, had been pushed overboard to swim to shore. Only four donkeys did not drown. Simpson's gentle touch convinced the terrified donkey to walk through the artillery noise and chaos, and the two of them began carrying wounded soldiers from the battle line to the beach for evacuation.

Leading the donkey or donkeys, which he variously named Duffy or Murphy, Simpson began his journeys from the beach, up Shrapnel Gully and then Monash Valley. He carried water on his way up and wounded on his way back, whistling confidently the whole time. Simpson continued this for three and a half weeks, disregarding the danger until, on the morning of 19 May 1915, following a night of vicious fighting after the arrival of turkish reinforcements, he was killed by Turkish machine gun fire near Steele's Post as he was returning down Monash Valley with two wounded men. One man was shot with Simpson, but the man on the donkey's back remained. The donkey continued on the well-worn track, obediently carrying the wounded man to where he would be tended.

Today, the story of Simpson and his donkey is an Anzac legend. Though recommended twice for the Victoria Cross, and the Distinguished Conduct Medal, he was never decorated for his actions.

The donkey or donkeys were taken over by New Zealand primary school teacher Richard Henderson, who continued the work of Simpson, maintaining the legend throughout the ANZAC campaign. When the ANZACs were evacuated under cover of darkness, eight months later, the donkey was also evacuated.

1948  -   Australia's Federal Government announces that rail gauges across Australia will be standardised. 

Railway travel in Australia began in May 1854 with the first horse-drawn carriage running between Port Elliott and Goolwa in South Australia. Victoria followed with the first steam train in September of that year, which ran between Flinders Street and Sandridge, now Port Melbourne.

From the beginning of the development of railways in Australia, however, rather than having a standardised railway gauge across the continent, the colonies each adopted their own width of railway track. In Victoria, Tasmania and parts of South Australia, the gauge was 1600 mm; in Western Australia, Queensland and the remainder of South Australia, it was a narrow 1067 mm, while Tasmania also changed to 1067 mm in the late 1800s; but New South Wales adopted the standard European gauge of 1435 mm. Passengers crossing Australia from Brisbane to Perth were required to change trains six times.

When the Commonwealth of Australia was created at Federation in 1901, the new Australian Constitution made provision for the Federal Parliament to make laws with respect to railway acquisition, construction and extension within the states. This opened the way for eventual standardisation of the gauges.

World War II highlighted the difficulty of having incompatible railway gauges across the country, when large amounts of goods and personnel needed to be moved quickly throughout Australia. In March 1945, a report into the standardisation of the rail gauges was completed by former Victorian Railways Chief Commissioner Sir Harold Winthrop Clapp for the Commonwealth Land Transport Board. Following the recommendations of Clapp's report, on 19 May 1948, the Federal Government announced that rail gauges across Australia would be standardised. The European standard of 1435 mm, already in use in New South Wales, was established as the new national standard.

It took until 2004 before the capital cities, as well as Alice Springs and Darwin, were linked by standard gauge. Conversion of railway lines continues; however, some states have retained their own gauges for particular purposes, such as the high speed tilt-trains being used on Queensland's narrow gauge.

Cheers - John