Gday...

1690  -     Today is Orange Day in Northern Ireland, commemorating the Battle of Boyne when Englands Protestant King William of Orange defeated the forces of Irelands Catholic King James. 

 Protestants in Northern Ireland celebrate Orange day annually on July 12. Orange Day marks when England's Protestant King William of Orange defeated the forces of Ireland's Catholic King James on 1 July 1690 in the Battle of the Boyne. James II of England and VII of Scotland had been deposed and had subsequently raised an army in Ireland where a Parliament had acknowledged him as king. Conflict ensued when James II lost the throne to William of Orange, with forces from both sides fighting on the banks of the Boyne River, just outside of the town of Drogheda on Ireland's east coast.
Though not militarily decisive, the symbolic importance of the Battle of the Boyne has made it one of the most infamous battles in British and Irish history and a key part in Irish Protestant folklore. It is still comemorated today, principally by the Orange Order. Once the Gregorian calendar was adopted, the day came to be commemorated on 12 July every year.

1818  -     George Evans discovers the Castlereagh River in NSW. 

 George Evans was born on 5 January 1780. As the Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, Evans undertook many expeditions with explorer John Oxley. In 1818, Oxley, with Evans as second-in-command, set out to follow the westward course of the Macquarie River, which Evans had discovered in 1813. Oxley's progress was obstructed by impassable marshes and, while trying to find a way around them, he sent Evans to the north-east.
Ten days later, Evans returned to report that on 12 July 1818, he had found another river and better pasture country. Evans named the river the Castlereagh after Lord Castlereagh, Secretary for the Colonies. Evans's discovery further fuelled Oxley's belief that there must be an inland sea, as so many rivers seemed to flow in a westward direction. Over the ensuing decades, Australian exploration was dominated by the belief that the continent harboured a large inland sea.                                                                                                                                

1937  -     American actor and comedian Bill Cosby is born.

African-American actor and comedian, Bill Cosby, was born William Henry Cosby Jr on 12 July 1937 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Despite his mother being a hard-working housekeeper and his father serving as a mess steward with the US Navy, financial difficulties forced the family to sell their house and move to a housing project in the Germantown district of North Philadelphia. Although the neighborhood was rough, Cosby's mother provided a firm moral ground for her sons by reading to them from the Bible and from authors such as Mark Twain. Cosby also enjoyed the serial radio programs of the time, such as The Lone Ranger, The Shadow, Lights Out, and the humour of Jack Benny, Jimmy Durante, Fred Allen, and George Burns with Gracie Allen.
A veteran stand-up performer, Cosby gained his start working clubs and making comedy albums. He then moved into television with a ground-breaking role in the 1960s action show I Spy, with actor Robert Culp. I Spy was an adventure show that catered to cold-war America's appetite for James Bond-style espionage fantasies. Despite it starring an African-American in times when the concept of racial equality was considered by few, the show succeeded, largely in part to Cosby's skill and convincing performance. Following the show's debut in 1965, Cosby was honored with an Emmy award for outstanding actor in a dramatic series, and again in the next two consecutive years.
In 1969 Cosby starred in his own situation comedy series, The Bill Cosby Show. He also created the humorous educational cartoon series Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, about a group of young friends growing up in the city. The following decade, Cosby produced and starred in his own TV sitcom, 'The Cosby Show', which ran from 1984 to 1992. The Cosby Show was unique for being the first sitcom based around a successful, middle-class African-American family.
Cosby and his wife have four daughters: their only son, Ennis, was killed whilst changing a tyre in 1997, the victim of a murder-robbery.

1920  -     The Panama Canal, connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans via the Caribbean sea, is formally dedicated, six years after it was unofficially opened.

The Panama Canal is a ship canal about 82km in length, linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via the Caribbean Sea through central America. A canal through Nicaragua was initially preferred by the US, but the Panama site was chosen after a French company acquired the rights to the canal from another bankrupted French company. An American representative of the French company, William Nelson Cromwell, persuaded the United States to take up the Panama route. The canal was ultimately built by the United States between 1904 and 1914 on territory leased from Panama.
The canal saves a total of about 12,500 km on a trip from New York to San Francisco by sea. US President Woodrow Wilson officially opened the Panama Canal on 12 July 1920. However, traffic had been using the canal since its unofficial opening on 15 August 1914, when Canal cement boat Ancon, piloted by Captain John A Constantine, the Canal's first pilot, made the first official transit.

1971  -     The Australian Aboriginal flag is flown for the first time.

 The Australian Aboriginal flag is dominated by a yellow sun in the centre, red in the lower half and black in the upper half. It was first flown at Victoria Square, Adelaide on National Aborigines' Day, 12 July 1971.
The flag was created by Aboriginal activist and artist Harold Thomas. Thomas chose the red ochre to represent the red soil of Australia, and the black to represent the Aboriginal people of Australia and the pride of being black in Australia. The yellow sun was chosen for its commonality as a colour used in aboriginal art, but also because Thomas regarded it as a symbol for all people.
On 14 July 1995, together with the Torres Strait Islander Flag, the Aboriginal flag was proclaimed by the Australian government as one of the "Flags of Australia" under Section 5 of the Flags Act 1953.

Cheers - John