Gday...

1902  -             Australian Aboriginal painter, Albert Namatjira, is born.

Albert Namatjira was born Elea Namatjira on 28 July 1902. He was born into the Arrernte tribe of the Northern Territory. Namatjira was raised at the Lutheran mission school, Hermannsburg, near Alice Springs. In his early years, he learned to paint in non-traditional style, but his experience in European watercolour style was gained from painter Rex Batterbee. Namatjira held his first exhibition in Melbourne in 1938, and his work was completely sold out.

Namatjira was also the first Australian Aborigine to be granted Australian citizenship in 1957, ten years before Australian citizenship was offered to all Aborigines. The sale of his paintings brought him great wealth, but as an Australian Aborigine, he did not have the right to own land or to build a house until the law was changed.

After Namatjira's death in 1959, his painting style was denounced by many indigenous people as a mere product of being "assimilated" into western society. However, his unique desert landscapes, with their striking detail and earthy colours, are still hailed as the work of one of the greatest Australian artists of all time.

1923  -             Construction begins on the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

The Sydney Harbour Bridge connects the Sydney CBD with the North Shore commercial and residential areas on Sydney Harbour. It is the largest steel arch bridge in the world, though not the longest, with the top of the bridge standing 134 metres above the harbour.

In 1912, John Bradfield was appointed chief engineer of the bridge project, which also had to include a railway. Plans were completed in 1916 but the advent of WWI delayed implementation until 1922. Workshops were set up on Milson's Point on the North Shore where the steel was fabricated into girders. Granite for the bridge's construction was quarried near Moruya. Construction of the bridge began on 28 July 1923, and took 1400 men eight years to build at a cost of £4.2 million. Sixteen lives were lost during its construction, while up to 800 families living in the path of the proposed Bridge path were relocated and their homes demolished when construction started.

The Premier of New South Wales, Jack Lang, opened Sydney Harbour Bridge on 19 March 1932.

1945  -             A B-25 bomber, lost in fog, crashes into the Empire State Building, killing 14

As the world was celebrating the end of WWII, tragedy occurred. On 28 July 1945 at 9:49am local time, an unarmed B-25 bomber slammed into the northern side of the Empire State Building in New York, between the 79th and 80th floors, at 322 kilometres per hour. The aircraft's wings were torn off and a 5m x 6m hole gouged in the side of the building. One engine flew right through the Empire State Building and out the other side, and crashed through the roof of a nearby building. The other engine and part of the bombers landing gear fell through an elevator shaft. When the plane hit, its fuel tanks exploded, engulfing the 79th floor in flames. The fire was doused within 40 minutes. The pilot, an experienced, decorated WWII veteran, died, along with two crew. Eleven workers in the Catholic War Relief Office on the 79th floor were also killed. A subsequent investigation found that the accident was caused by pilot error due to dense fog.

One of the more amazing survival stories involved elevator operator Betty Lou Oliver. After being treated for burns, Oliver was on her way down the elevator to the ambulance when the cable snapped, weakened by the crash. Oliver survived the elevator plummeting from the 75th floor down to the basement. The descent was slowed by cables beneath the elevator acting as coils as it neared the basement, and by the cushioning effect of the compressed air under the elevator, caused by the very tight fit of the car in the hatchway. 

1993  -             The opal is made Australia's national emblem.

Opal is a precious stone which shows a variety of iridescent colours from reds, pinks and purples to yellows, greens and blues. The brilliant colours are produced by the diffraction of light through microscopic spheres within the opal which split the white light into all the colours of the spectrum. Opal was first discovered in Australia in 1849 near Angaston, South Australia, by German geologist Johannes Menge. More productive fields were discovered through the decades, and Australia now produces around 97% of the world's opal. It is mined mainly in dry, outback areas such as Quilpie-Yowah in western Queensland, Lightning Ridge in north-west New South Wales, and Coober Pedy and Andamooka in the dry central north of South Australia. Australian Aborigines tell a legend that the opal was created when a rainbow fell to earth.

On 28 July 1993, the opal was officially made Australias national gemstone. Opal is also the state gem of South Australia.

Cheers - John