Gday...

1850  -     Work begins on the first NSW railway line from Sydney to Parramatta. 

Up until the mid-1800s, the horse and carriage remained the major means of transporting goods and people across Australias long distances overland. Both New South Wales and Victoria were keen to develop a railway network, and Victoria was the first colony to complete a railway line, which opened in September 1854. However, New South Wales was the first to begin work on a railway line.

The Sydney Railway Company, established for the purpose of constructing the first railway line, was incorporated in October 1849. On 3 July 1850, work began on the first railway line from Sydney to Parramatta, a distance of 22km. The first sod was turned at Cleveland Paddocks by the Governors daughter, Mrs Stewart, at the southern end of modern-day Central Station and Cleveland Street. The construction suffered some setbacks, in particular financial difficulty, and was put on hold until taken over by the New South Wales colonial government. The line finally opened five years later, on 26 September 1855.

1886  -     Karl Benz drives the first automobile in the world, reaching a top speed of 10 kilometres per hour.

     Karl Benz was a German engineer and inventor, born on 25 November 1844. Benz started Benz & Company in 1883 in Mannheim to produce industrial engines. It was there that he invented and patented the two-stroke engine. He was later influenced by Gottlieb Daimler, who inspired Benz to develop a four-stroke engine suitable for powering a four-wheeled horseless carriage. He demonstrated the first gasoline car powered by an internal-combustion engine in Mannheim, Germany, on 3 July 1886 after patenting it on 29 January 1886. The vehicle had three wheels, an electric ignition, differential gears and was water-cooled. It reached a top speed of 10 kilometres per hour.

1915  -     A medical report from Anzac Cove notes the increasing incidence of dysentery among the troops.

ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Every year Australians and New Zealanders celebrate ANZAC Day to commemorate the troops landing on 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli on the Turkish Aegean coast. Hundreds of troops were killed on the first day of the campaign, and by the time the troops withdrew eight months later, around 8700 had died at Gallipoli.

Apart from the gunfire and battle itself, the conditions at Anzac Cove were horrendous. As the campaign protracted through the Turkish summer, temperatures increased, while fresh water, already in short supply, had to be rationed. Wells did not last very long, and water had to be brought in. The troops were limited to around 2.3 litres a day. It was invariably drunk during the day, and could not be spared for washing. The men often shaved using leftover tea.

The ANZAC Legend of loyalty, mateship and courage under fire was born on the battlefields of this campaign, and in the trenches. Conditions were highly unsanitary. The stagnant water bred mosquitoes, while lice and rats were prevalent. Hordes of flies were attracted by the leftover food in empty tins and rotting corpses which, in turn, harboured countless maggots. Disease was rife. On 3 July 1915, a medical report from the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station situated at Anzac Cove observed that Dysentery is becoming very acute, and cases of extreme collapse are occurring. From the time the ANZACs arrived in April until the last troops left in December 1916, an estimated 700 Australian soldiers had died from diseases.

1922  -     Queensland becomes the first state to abolish the death penalty. 

From the time the First Fleet arrived in Australia in 1788, capital punishment was a common form of punishment for both major and minor crimes. The first convict to be hanged in the new colony of New South Wales was seventeen year old Thomas Barrett. Less than a month after the colony was established, Barrett was found stealing "butter, pease and pork" and hanged in a ceremony which all convicts were forced to witness on 27 February. Capital punishment continued to be used as a deterrent to criminals, right up until the last man Ronald Ryan - was executed in Melbourne in 1967.

Two decades after Federation, Queensland became the first state to abolish capital punishment, doing so on 3 July 1922. It was not until 1968 that the next state, Tasmania, abolished capital punishment.

1988  -     290 civilians, including 66 children, are killed when their commercial flight operated by Iran Air is shot down by the USS Vincennes.

Iran Air Flight 655 "IR655" was a commercial flight operated by Iran Air which flew from Tehran to Bandar Abbas to Dubai. On 3 July 1988, the flight was scheduled to depart Bandar Abbas at 9:50am, but left 27 minutes later, at 10:17am. After take off, it was directed by the Bandar Abbas tower to turn on its transponder and proceed over the Persian Gulf. The flight was assigned routinely to commercial air corridor Amber 59, a twenty-mile-wide lane on a direct line to Dubai airport.

The Vincennes was a US Navy Ticonderoga class AEGIS guided missile cruiser. It was situated in the Strait of Hormuz and, during clashes with Iranian gunboats, had crossed into Iranian territorial waters. The Vincennes mistakenly identified the Iranian airplane as an attacking military fighter. Although the crew of the ship allegedly repeatedly tried to contact Flight 655, they received no response. It was determined later that the attempts to contact Flight 655 were sent on the wrong frequency. The Vincennes fired two anti-aircraft missiles, breaking the aircraft in two. It was only after the attack that the crew of the Vincennes realised the plane was a civilian airliner. The accident resulted in 290 civilian fatalities from six nations. 

1991  -     Apple Computers and IBM indicate their intentions to work together to swap technologies and develop new machines.

Apple Computers and IBM were formerly enemies for the computer hardware and software market. Both companies were significant players in the personal computer revolution of the 1970s and 1980s. IBM, currently the biggest information technology company in the world and holding more patents than any other tech company, was founded in 1888 and incorporated on 15 June 1911. Apple, founded at Los Altos, California on 1 April 1976 (and incorporated on 3 January 1977) by Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne, dominated the personal computer industry from 1977 to 1983. On 3 July 1991, both companies signed a letter of intent to develop and market new technologies to be integrated into existing and future products.

Cheers - John