Gday...

1629  -     Dutch trading ship 'The Batavia' is shipwrecked off Australia's western coast.

The 'Batavia' was a ship built in Amsterdam in 1628. On 29 October 1628, the newly built Batavia, commissioned by the Dutch East India Company, sailed from Texel for the Dutch East Indies to obtain spices. During the voyage two of the crew, Jacobsz and Cornelisz, planned to hijack the ship, with the aim of starting a new life somewhere using the supply of trade gold and silver on board. After stopping at South Africa for supplies, Jacobsz deliberately steered the ship off course away from the rest of the fleet, planning to organise a mutiny against the captain at some stage.

On 4 June 1629 the ship struck a reef near Beacon Island, part of the Houtman Abrolhos island group off the Western Australian coast. 40 drowned but most of the crew and passengers were taken to nearby islands in the ship's longboat and yawl. The captain organised a group of senior officers, crew members and some passengers to search for drinking water on the mainland. Unsuccessful, they then headed north to the city of Batavia, now Jakarta. Their amazing journey took 33 days and all survived.

After they arrived in Batavia, a rescue attempt was made for the other survivors, but it was discovered that a mutiny had taken place. Cornelisz had planned to hijack any rescue ships, and organised the murder of 125 men, women and children. The rescue party overcame the mutineers, executing the major leaders, including Cornelisz. Two minor offenders were abandoned on Australia's mainland, and others were taken to be tried in Batavia. The mutiny and murders brought infamy to the story of the lost Batavia.

On 27 April 1971, relics and artifacts from the Batavia wreck were salvaged, later followed by the stern of the ship. In 1972 The Netherlands transferred all rights to Dutch shipwrecks on the Australian coasts to Australia. Some of the items, including human remains, which were excavated, are now on display in the Western Australian Maritime Museum in Fremantle, Australia. Others are held by the Geraldton Region Museum. Included in the relics is a stone arch which was intended to serve as a welcome arch for the city of Batavia. 

1861  -     Explorer William Wills heads for the camp of local Aborigines in his desperate search for survival. 

The Burke and Wills expedition was supposed to mark the state of Victoria's greatest triumph: Victoria hoped to be the first state to mount an expedition to cross the continent from south to north. John King alone survived, after being taken in and nursed by the Aborigines of the Cooper Creek area. The expedition to the Gulf took longer than Burke anticipated: upon his return to Cooper Creek, he found that the relief party had left just seven hours earlier, less than the amount of time it had taken to bury Gray, who had died on the return journey. Through poor judgement, lack of observation and a series of miscommunications, Burke and Wills never met up with the relief party sent to rescue them.

In his journal which was recovered after his death, Wills wrote on Tuesday 4 June 1861: 'Started for the Blacks camp intending to test the practicability of living with them and to see what I could learn as to their ways & manners.' Wills was disappointed to find there were no Aborigines at the camp at that time - yet another fact that led to the men's premature death. Burke's continued suspicion of the Aborigines had driven them from the area. Ultimately, only John King survived, after he was taken in and nursed by another group of Aborigines of the Cooper Creek area, after Burke and Wills had perished.

1911  -     Dr Alan Walker, founder of Lifeline, is born.

Alan Walker, Australian theologian and the founder of Lifeline, was born on 4 June 1911 in Australia. He served as Superintendent of the Methodist (later Uniting Church in Australia) Wesley Mission, Pitt Street, Sydney, from 1958 to 1978. Soon after his arrival at Sydney's Central Methodist Mission, he initiated a 30-minute program called "I Challenge the Minister", which went to air on the Nine Network at 4:30 pm on Sundays. The format of the show allowed Walker five minutes to address a subject then take questions from the studio audience. The show was so successful that it ran for seven years.

Walker established Lifeline in March 1963 after athe death of a man named Roy Brown. Brown phoned Dr Walker late one night to talk about deep personal issues that were overwhelming him. However, he committed suicide before he had the opportunity to be met by Walker and properly counselled. From this incident, Walker envisaged a non-intrusive counselling service which people could access any time of the day or night. Originally conceived in Sydney with the tag line "Help is just a phone call away", Lifeline's counselling services have been established in cities around the world, ministering to and counselling millions more. Lifeline counsellors take 400,000 phone calls each day, with 20,000 of them in Sydney alone.

Dr Walker died on 29 January 2003. Tributes to the man and his work were received from The Hon. Robert John Carr, MP and the Rev Dr Billy Graham along with messages from the Hon. John Howard, PM and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu.

1939  -     US President Roosevelt denies entry to the United States of hundreds of Jewish refugees. 

In May 1939 the SS St Louis, a German ocean liner, sailed out of Hamburg into the Atlantic Ocean, carrying 963 Jewish refugees, mostly wealthy, who were seeking asylum from Nazi persecution just before World War II. The ship was headed for Cuba, where the refugees would await their quota number to be able to enter the United States. All of the refugee passengers had legitimate landing certificates for Cuba. However, during the two-week voyage to Cuba, their certificates were invalidated by the pro-fascist Cuban government. When the St Louis arrived in Havana on May 27 only 22 Jewish refugees were allowed entry.

Initially, US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was willing to take in some of those on board, but he faced vehement opposition by his Secretary of State, Cordell Hull, and from Southern Democrats. Some of those who were opposed went so far as to threaten to withhold their support of Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election if he accepted the refugees. On 4 June 1939 Roosevelt issued an order to deny entry to the ship, which was waiting in the Caribbean Sea between Florida and Cuba. Forced to return to Europe, many of the refugees died in Nazi concentration camps.

1989  -     Thousands of students are massacred at Beijing's Tiananmen Square.

Tiananmen Square is a large open area in central Beijing, China. The world's largest public square, it contains the monument to the heroes of the revolution, the Great Hall of the People, the museum of history and revolution, and the Mao Zedong Memorial Hall. As such, many rallies, protests and demonstrations have been held in the square; the most notorious were, arguably, the student protests of 1989 which led to the Tiananmen Square Massacre on 4 June 1989.

Hu Yaobang, a leader of the People's Republic of China, was a dedicated reformer who was deposed from his position. His ideas of freedom of speech and freedom of press greatly influenced the students. Following his death, approximately 100,000 students gathered at Tiananmen Square on 21 April 1989 to commemorate Hu and protest against China's autocratic communist government. When protestors were denied their demands to meet with Premier Li Peng, students all over China boycotted the universities, marching to Tiananmen Square and calling for democratic reforms. The demonstrators were joined by workers, intellectuals, and civil servants, filling the square with over a million people.

The government declared martial law in Beijing in May, and on 3 June, troops and tanks were sent in to retake the square. On 4 June 1989, between 2,000 and 4,000 students were massacred by the tanks and infantry, although exact figures have never been determined due to suppression by the Chinese government. Many protestors were also arrested and executed in the months following the protests. The event sparked international condemnation of China, and harsh economic sanctions were imposed on China until the nation released some of those who were arrested.

Cheers - John