Gday...

1840  -     New South Wales ceases to be a convict colony as the Order-in-Council ending transportation of convicts is issued. 

1851  -     The official announcement is made of the discovery of gold in New South Wales, Australia. 

Gold was discovered in Australia as early as the 1830s, but discoveries were kept secret, for fear of sparking off unrest among the convicts. The discoveries were usually made by farmers who did not want to subject their sheep and cattle runs to a sudden influx of prospectors and lawlessness that would inevitably follow. However, as more people left the Australian colonies to join the gold rush in California, it became apparent that the outward tide of manpower would need to be stemmed. The government began to seek experts who could locate gold in Australian countrysides.

Gold was first officially discovered in Australia in 1851, not far from Bathurst, New South Wales. Edward Hargraves had carefully studied the geology of the area and, convinced that it was similar to that of the California goldfields, from where he had just returned, went prospecting. He enlisted the assistance of John Lister, a man who had already found gold in the region. Lister led Hargraves directly to where gold was found, at Summerhill Creek, at a site which Hargraves named "Ophir". After reporting his discovery, he was appointed a 'Commissioner of Land', receiving a reward of £10,000 plus a life pension. The New South Wales government made the official announcement of the discovery of gold on 22 May 1851. Lister, however, was never given any credit or reward for his part in the discovery.

1860  -     The first elected Parliament of Queensland, Australia, meets.

The Queensland Legislative Assembly is the unicameral, or single house, Parliament of Queensland. Originally part of New South Wales, Queensland gained its independence from Australia's founding state in 1859, when Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent, which declared that Queensland was now a separate colony. On 6 June 1859, the former Moreton Bay District was granted separation from New South Wales, and given the name of Queensland, with Brisbane as its capital city. The first elected Queensland Parliament, or Legislative Assembly, consisted of 26 members and met on 22 May 1860 in Courthouse Building, which was formerly part of the convict barracks in Brisbane's Queen Street.

1888  -     Australian illustrator Hal Gye is born.

Hal Gye, pronounced Jye, was born Harold Frederick Neville on 22 May 1888 at Ryde, New South Wales. Originally a law clerk in Melbourne, Gye became an illustrator for book publishers Angus & Robertson, and various newspapers and magazines including The Bulletin, the Melbourne Punch, and the Sydney Daily Telegraph. He is best known for his distinctive illustrations of C J Dennis's Sentimental Bloke (1915) and of other works by Dennis, Henry Lawson and Banjo Paterson. Gye was also a poet and short story writer, writing under the name of James Hackston. From 1936, Gye wrote the 'Father' series of short stories for the Bulletin and published two collections of short fiction. He also wrote "Den" - A Memory and The Dennis Omelette, both of which are poems about C J Dennis. Hal Gye died in 1967.

1957  -     A hydrogen bomb accidentally drops from a bomber over New Mexico, USA. 

In 1985, a journalist in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA, was on assignment to investigate New Mexico's nuclear weapons research facilities. His assignment began with a simple question: Had the facilities in New Mexico ever had a nuclear accident? His investigations revealed a cover-up of nearly thirty years.

On 22 May 1957, a B-36 Air Force plane was carrying a 19,050kg hydrogen bomb from Biggs Air Force Base, Texas, to Kirtland Air Force Base, at Albuquerque, New Mexico. According to standard procedure, as the aircraft approached Kirtland, the pilot released the bomb's locking pin. However, the aircraft then hit turbulence, causing the bomb to drop through the closed bomb bay doors. The bomb, which was 625 times greater than the atomic bomb that was used on Hiroshima, was unarmed at the time, but still managed to gouge a crater 4 metres deep and 8 metres across, also killing a cow that was grazing nearby. 

1981  -     Britain's 'Yorkshire Ripper' is jailed for life.

Beginning in 1975 and continuing for six years, the Yorkshire region of England was suddenly subject to a series of horrific attacks on women, initially most of them prostitutes, who were beaten, stabbed and left for dead. However, in 1977, a sixteen year old teenager was also killed in the same manner as other victims, though she was not a prostitute: the frightening implication of this was that all women were potential victims.

Some of the women survived their attacks, and their testimonials enabled police officers to slowly build up a picture of possible perpetrators. Peter Sutcliffe, born 2 June 1946, was a seemingly happily-married lorry driver who was repeatedly interviewed, and just as often disregarded, as the Yorkshire Ripper. Sutcliffe was eventually caught after police discovered he had put false number plates on his car and found weapons in the boot. After being questioned intensively for two days, Sutcliffe suddenly admitted his part in the killings, and graphically recounted all the details for the police.

At his trial, Sutcliffe pleaded not guilty to thirteen counts of murder, but guilty to manslaughter on the grounds of diminished responsibility. He also pleaded guilty to seven counts of attempted murder. After demanding details of the prosecution's reasoning, trial judge Mr Justice Boreham rejected the diminished responsibility plea and the case was sent to trial by jury. On 22 May 1981, Sutcliffe was found guilty of thirteen counts of murder and sentenced to life imprisonment at the Old Bailey. He was later diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and interred in Broadmoor secure mental hospital in Berkshire in 1983. However, Sutcliffe could still be released from custody in 2011 if the parole board decides that he is no longer a danger to the public.

Cheers - John