Gday...

1797  -             Polish explorer Strzelecki, who first climbed and named Mt Kosciuszko, Australia's highest mountain, is born.

Sir Paul Edmund de Strzelecki, born 20 July 1797, was a Polish explorer and skilled geologist who emigrated to London following the national uprising against tsarist Russia in 1830. In 1839 he arrived in Australia, where he made influential friends, among them wealthy grazier James MacArthur. MacArthur was keen to explore promising-looking land in Australia's southeastern corner with the view to acquiring more grazing land and establishing a harbour from which to export pastoral products. Interested in the geology of the Great Dividing Range, Strzelecki agreed to accompany MacArthur, and the two departed from Ellerslie Station near Adelong, New South Wales, in February 1840.

A month later, the two men climbed Mt Townsend, believing it to be the highest peak in the Australian Alps. Using his numerous geological instruments, Strzelecki determined that another peak was higher. Whilst not interesting in acquiring land, Strzelecki was interested in the fame that accompanied important discoveries, and he was determined to climb the peak. He did so, on 15 March 1840, and named the mountain after a Polish patriot, Tadeusz Kosciuszko. At the time, Strzelecki determined the height of the mountain to be 6,510 feet (1984m) above sea level, but it is probable that, whilst making the steep and perilous descent during which he fell many times, Strzelecki damaged his instruments. The actual height of Kosciuszko is 7,316 feet, or 2228m.

1851  -             Gold discoveries at Mt Alexander spark the goldrush in Victoria.

Gold was discovered in Australia as early as the 1830s, but discoveries were suppressed for fear of sparking off unrest among the convicts. When gold was first officially discovered in Australia in 1851, it was at a time when the government in New South Wales sought to encourage gold finds, to limit the numbers leaving Australia for the Californian goldfields.

The first payable gold in Victoria was at Clunes and Warrandyte by James Esmond at Clunes on 11 June 1851. At almost the same time, gold was also discovered at Anderson's Creek, near Warrandyte, by Melbourne publican Louis Michel. Both Clunes and Warrandyte claim to be the first town in Victoria where gold was found.

While these strikes were significant, the real goldrush began when gold was discovered on 20 July 1851 at Mt Alexander, 60km northeast of Ballarat, and close to the town of Bendigo. The discovery was made by John Worley and Christopher Thomas Peters at Specimen Gully. This was a considerable boost for the colony which had achieved independent government separate from New South Wales just that month. Within a year, tens of thousands of prospectors had arrived at the Mt Alexander goldfields. This was also the first Victorian goldfield to which Chinese miners came in large numbers. 

1919  -             The first man to summit Mt Everest, Sir Edmund Hillary, is born.

Edmund Hillary was born on 20 July 1919 in Tuakau, south of Auckland, New Zealand. Hillary's interest in climbing was sparked at age 16 during a school trip to Mt Ruapehu. Despite not being an athletic teenager, he found that he was physically strong and had greater endurance than many of his fellow climbers.

During World War II, Hillary was a RNZAF navigator. He was part of an unsuccessful New Zealand expedition to climb Everest in 1951 before attempting again in 1953. Hillary became the first explorer to reach the summit of Mt Everest at 11:30am local time on 29 May 1953. He was accompanied by Sherpa guide Tenzing Norgay, as part of a British expedition led by John Hunt. Hunt and Hillary received knighthoods on their return.

Hillary climbed 10 other peaks in the Himalaya on further visits in 1956, 1960-61 and 1963-65. He also reached the South Pole, as part of the British Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition, on 4 January 1958. He has devoted much of his life to helping the Sherpa people of Nepal through the Himalayan Trust which he founded and to which he has given much of his time and energy. Through his efforts he has succeeded in building many schools and hospitals in this remote region of the Himalaya. As of 2006 Hillary lives in a quiet retirement at his home in Auckland, New Zealand, although he does appear for occasional official engagements. For many years, Hillary was the only living New Zealander to appear on a banknote.

1969  -             Australia's radio telescope at Parkes transmits the first pictures of the Apollo 11 moon walk.  

Parkes, in central western New South Wales, was the site of the first radio telescope to be built in Australia. Its completion in 1961 was the result of ten years of of negotiation between CSIRO Radiophysics Laboratory staff, the Australian Government and significant American Scientific institutions, Carnegie Corporation and the Rockefeller Foundation. Affectionately dubbed "The Dish", the telescope comprised a disc some 210 feet (64 m) in diameter, constructed of mesh woven from high-tensile strength steel designed to withstand a range of pressures. The total cost of construction was 800,000 Australian pounds.

NASA first proposed that the Parkes radio telescope be incorporated into its worldwide tracking network in 1966, and in 1968 requested Parkes's involvement in the Apollo 11 mission. On 16 July 1969, Apollo 11 was launched from Cape Kennedy, Florida. The Parkes telescope was crucial in transmitting the first pictures of the Moon landing, although it almost didn't happen. At the time the astronauts were to leave the landing module, the moon was only in the view of the southern hemisphere. However, mission commander Neil Armstrong elected to forgo the astronauts' scheduled six-hour rest period, and make the moon walk earlier, meaning the moon would not yet have risen over Parkes to get clear enough pictures. Fortunately, the astronauts took so long to prepare for the Moon walk that the Moon was just rising over Parkes.

The controllers at Parkes then faced another crisis. One of the reasons Parkes was chosen was that it had the weather conditions most conducive to gaining the best signal: ironically, as the Moon rose over Parkes, wind gusts of 110 km per hour gusts hit the radio telescope, threatening the integrity of the telescope structure as the dish was hammered back against its zenith axis gears. Nonetheless, tracking was able to begin just as the Moon rose into the Parkes radio telescope's field of view. Being a larger telescope, it captured more signal and so produced better pictures. The command centre at Houston switched to the Parkes feed, staying with that transmission for the remainder of the 21.5-hour broadcast.

In this way, the Parkes radio telescope, which still sits in the middle of a sheep paddock, became an integral part of the history of space exploration.

1969  -             Astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes the first man to walk on the moon.   

Apollo 11 was the first attempt to land man on the moon and the fifth manned mission in the Apollo program. It was launched on 16 July 1969, and passed behind the Moon on July 19, firing the SPS rocket to enter lunar orbit. In the several orbits that followed, the crew had passing views of their landing site. While on the far side of the Moon, the lunar module, named Eagle, separated from the Command Module, named Columbia. After the lunar module separated from the command module, the Eagle landed on the moon's surface at 09:18 GMT on the Sea of Tranquillity, while astronaut Michael Collins remained in orbit above.

American astronaut Neil Armstrong became the first man to walk on the Moon on 20 July 1969, uttering the immortal words, "That's one small step for man but one giant leap for mankind." Armstrong described the surface as being like powdered charcoal. Transmissions of the first photographs, enabled by cameras installed on the Eagle landing craft, were watched by millions of people around the world. Fellow astronaut Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin joined Armstrong on the surface twenty minutes later. They planted the American flag at 0341 GMT, and later unveiled a plaque bearing President Nixon's signature and an inscription which read: "Here men from the planet earth first set foot upon the Moon July 1969 AD. We came in peace for all mankind."

1976  -             The 'Viking I Lander' separates from the Viking I Orbiter spacecraft and successfully lands on Mars.  

The Viking 1 was the first of two spacecraft sent to Mars as part of NASA's Viking program. America's "Viking I Orbiter" spacecraft was launched on 20 Aug 1975, taking almost a year to reach its destination, achieving orbit of Mars on 19 June 1976. The Viking I Lander separated from the Orbiter a month later on 20 July 1976 and landed on Mars, touching down at Chryse Planitia. The craft transmitted photographs, deployed seismometers, and collected samples of material which were then deposited into on-board experiments to be analysed for composition and signs of life. Studies were also done on atmospheric composition and meteorology.

Cheers - John