Gday...

1865  -     William Booth and his wife establish the organisation that later becomes the Salvation Army. 

William Booth was born on 10 April 1829 in Sneinton, Nottingham, England. Though his father was wealthy when he was born, financial mismanagement saw the family plunged into poverty, and young William was apprenticed to a pawnbroker at the age of thirteen. He became the family's chief provider when his father died later that same year. Several years later, Booth was converted to Christianity, studying and teaching himself in order to be a Methodist lay preacher, whilst supplementing his income with pawn-broking. Lack of work for lay preachers led him to open-air evangelising in the streets and on Kennington common. In 1851 Booth joined the Wesleyan Reform Union, and on 10 April 1852, his 23rd birthday, he left pawnbroking and became a full-time preacher at their headquarters at Binfield Chapel in Clapham.

Booth still sought to evangelise, and when his repeated requests for more time for evangelistic campaigns were refused by his church, he resigned from the ministry and became a full time evangelist. He became known for preaching the gospel to the poor and underprivileged. When William Booth preached the first of nine sermons in a tattered tent on an unused Quaker cemetery in London on 2 July 1865, the East London Christian Mission was born. Booth and his wife held meetings every evening and on Sundays, to offer repentance, Salvation and Christian ethics to the poorest and most needy, including alcoholics, criminals and prostitutes. He and his followers practised what they preached, performing self-sacrificing Christian and social work, such as opening Food for the Millions shops (soup kitchens), not caring if they were scoffed at or derided for their Christian ministry work.

In 1878, the organisation became known as the Salvation Army. They adopted a uniform and adapted Christian words to popular tunes sung in the public bars.

1897  -     Inventor Guglielmo Marconi receives his first patent for a wireless telegraph. 

Guglielmo Marconi was born in Bologna, Italy, on 25 April 1874. Marconi is best known for the development of a wireless telegraphy system, which came to be known as "radio". Marconi demonstrated the transmission and reception of Morse Code based radio signals over a distance of 2 or more kilometres (and up to 6 kilometres) on Salisbury Plain in England in 1896. He made the first wireless transmission across a body of water on 13 May 1897 from Lavernock Point, South Wales to Flat Holm Island. He also received the first trans-Atlantic radio signal on 12 December 1901 at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland (now in Canada) using a 400-foot kite-supported antenna for reception. This was significant in that, prior to this transmission, it was believed that a radio signal could only be transmitted in the line of sight.

Marconi was awarded a British patent for radio communication, specifically "Improvements in transmitting electrical impulses and signals and in apparatus there-for" on 2 July 1897, and this was followed by the US patent on 13 July 1897. Marconi was awarded the 1909 Nobel prize in physics. After Marconi died on 20 July 1937, radio stations throughout the world observed two minutes of radio silence in tribute.

1937  -     Female aviator Amelia Earhart goes missing.

Amelia Mary Earhart was born on 24 July 1897 in Atchison, Kansas, USA. She was the first woman to achieve the feat of flying across the Atlantic. Her first trip across the Atlantic in a Fokker F7 Friendship took 20 hours and 40 minutes. She then flew solo across the Atlantic in 1932. On 11 January 1935 Earhart became the first person to fly solo from Honolulu to California. She had departed Wheeler Field in Honolulu, Hawaii, and after a journey of over 3,800km in 18 hours, she arrived at Oakland Airport in Oakland, California.

In 1937, together with her navigator Fred Noonan, she attempted a round-the-world flight in a Lockheed Electra. Approximately five weeks after she set off, her plane disappeared, last heard about 100 miles off Howland Island in the Pacific, on 2 July 1937. Speculation has been rife over the years regarding what happened to Amelia Earhart. The usual conspiracy theories and alien abduction theories have abounded. Some have claimed Earhart was captured in the South Pacific Mandate area by the Japanese and interned for a number of years before either perishing or being executed. This originated when a man, then 15, claimed he had been toying with his radio and a woman came upon the speaker, claiming to be Amelia Earhart. There was then a scream and the woman said Japanese soldiers had entered the plane, she begging them not to hurt her. Then the transmission went dead.

Regardless of the rumours, no evidence has ever been found to substantiate them, and the circumstances surrounding Earhart's disappearance remain a mystery.

1964  -     US President Johnson signs the Civil Rights Bill, outlawing racial discrimination.

The US Civil Rights Act of 1964 was landmark legislation outlawing discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin. It developed out of the Civil Rights Bill which was introduced by President John F Kennedy in 1963. Originally conceived to protect the rights of black men, the bill was amended prior to passage to protect the civil rights of all men and women. The bill created equal rights in voting, education, public accommodations, union membership and in federally assisted programmes, regardless of an individual's race, colour, religion or national origin. The Bill was passed on 2 July 1964, by the House of Representatives by 289 to 126 votes.

2002  -     Steve Fossett becomes the first person to fly a balloon solo around the world.

Steve Fossett, born 22 April 1944 in Jackson, Tennessee, USA, made his fortune in American financial markets, allowing him to pursue his dreams of adventure. Known for his five world record non-stop circumnavigations of the Earth, as a long-distance solo balloonist, a sailor, and a solo airplane pilot, Fossett currently holds official World Records in 5 sports.

On 19 June 2002, Fossett launched from Northam, Western Australia, on his sixth attempt to fly solo around the world by balloon. He succeeded in achieving his aim on 2 July 2002, landing in Queensland, Australia. He completed the journey in 13 - 14 days and covered approximately 31 260 kilometres.

2007  -     The MV Pasha Bulker is refloated after running aground off Newcastle, New South Wales, almost a month earlier.

The MV Pasha Bulker was a Japanese bulk freighter which gained some notoriety in Australia. Measuring 225 m long with a beam of 32.2 m and a mass of 76,741 metric tons, its cargo hold capacity was 90,911 cubic metres.

On 8 June 2007, it was waiting in the open ocean outside the Newcastle harbour to load coal during stormy conditions. Ignoring warnings to move further out to see to avoid the storm, the ship ran aground about 30 metres off Nobby's Beach around mid-morning. Later investigations indicated the ship's captain failed to take proper precautions as it still had a fully operational engine room and both anchors stored when it beached. The primarily Filipino and Korean crew were rescued by the Westpac Rescue helicopter service directly from the ship. Due to the storm, the ship was forced into a position virtually parallel to the beach, where it stuck firmly on the sand and became trapped between the beach and a rocky reef.

After almost three weeks of assessment and preparation, the first salvage attempt was undertaken on 28 June, on the high tide. However, when one of the cables connecting the ship to the tug boat Keera snapped, the procedure was aborted. Another attempt the following day was similarly hampered when cables attached to the Supertug 'Pacific Responder' and a sea anchor also broke. On the 1st of July, three salvage tugs successfully turned the carrier so that it faced deep water and was close to being able to clear the reef. However, further action was deferred amid fears of an oil leak - which turned out to be a small amount of lubricating oil.

The third attempt was made to tow the Pasha Bulker the following day. Finally, at around 9.37pm on the evening of 2 July 2007, the ship was successfully refloated. After being towed 11 nautical miles, or 20 km, from the shore it was inspected for oil spills and hull damage. Minor repairs were made in Newcastle before the ship was then towed back to Japan by the Japanese supertug Koyo Maru.

Cheers - John