Gday...

1806  -             Captain William Bligh becomes Governor of New South Wales.

William Bligh was born in Plymouth, south-west England, on 9 September 1754. He is arguably best known for his role in the mutiny on the Bounty, which occurred after Bligh left Tahiti on his way to the Caribbean. For reasons undetermined by historical records, Master's Mate Fletcher Christian led the mutiny, with the support of a small number of the ship's crew. Bligh and his own supporters were provided with a 7m launch, a sextant and enough provisions to enable them to reach the closest ports, but no means of navigation. Nonetheless, they completed an impossible 41 day journey to Timor.

Bligh was honourably acquitted in a London court, and later assigned as Governor to the fledgling colony of New South Wales. He took up this position on 13 August 1806, replacing Philip Gidley King. He was selected as the new Governor because he was known to be a strong character, which was required to restore order in an increasingly difficult colony. Bligh sought to normalise trading conditions in the Colony by prohibiting the use of spirits as payment. He received criticism for his seemingly despotic ways, and apparent disregard for English law as opposed to his own law.

Blighs chief critic was grazier and wool grower John Macarthur, who convinced men from the New South Wales Corps to rebel against Bligh. Early in 1808, Governor Bligh was overthrown and replaced with a military Junta in an event later known as the Rum Rebellion. The name came about because Bligh asserted that Macarthur's main attack against the Governor came about because of his prohibition on Spirits for trading. The Rum Rebellion caused Bligh to be imprisoned from 1808 to 1810. Evidence suggested the catalyst to the event was more a clash of strong personalities than any real disregard for English laws. Bligh was known for his violent temper and tendency to alienate others, but his motives were honourable. Bligh was exonerated in 1811, after which he returned to England.

1817  -             Explorer John Oxley discovers the Bogan River in central western New South Wales.

John Oxley was born in England in 1783 and came to Australia in 1802. He was made Surveyor-General of the New South Wales colony in 1812. In 1817, Governor Macquarie ordered Oxley to follow the course of the Lachlan River, to determine where it led. Because the rivers of NSW flowed west, away from the coast, belief prevailed that somewhere in Australia's interior was an inland sea. After following the Lachlan for three months and being continually obstructed by swampland and waterholes, Oxley concluded that the countryside was useless (though it is now valuable pasture and grazing land).

It was shortly after his party turned its course back in the direction of Sydney that Oxley came across the Bogan River, on 13 August 1817. The small New South Wales town of Nyngan is situated on the banks of the Bogan, as are several smaller settlements such as Gongolgon, and the river is a popular spot for inland fishing.

1888  -             John Logie Baird, inventor of television, is born.

John Logie Baird was born on 13 August 1888 in Helensburgh, Scotland. He was educated at the Glasgow and West of Scotland Technical College, which later became the University of Strathclyde, and the University of Glasgow, but the eruption of WWI prevented him from completing his degree. Baird experimented with the transmission of both static and moving pictures using ventriloquists' dummies. The first moving image was transmitted on 30 October 1925. Baird's first public demonstration of successful transmission, on 27 January 1926, showed two dummies' heads moving.

Baird called his pictorial-transmission machine a "televisor," and it used mechanical rotating disks to scan moving images into electronic impulses. A number of inventors including Paul Gottlieb Nipkow and Boris Rosing contributed towards the development of television, but Baird was the first to transmit clearly discernible images. Baird died on 14 June 1946.

1940  -             Three Parliamentary Ministers are killed when their aircraft crashes in Canberra.

The war years for Australia were a difficult and uncertain time, and they were marked by political instability in the early years. However, no-one could have predicted the tragedy which occurred in August 1940 and undermined the government just one month before the federal election.

On 13 August 1940, three Victoria-based United Australia Party ministers, in addition to Sir Brudenell White, the Chief of the General staff, were aboard an RAAF Lockheed Hudson bomber coming in to land at Canberra when it stalled. The aircraft then crashed into the hills adjacent to the airfield. White, two officials and the four crew, along with Minister for the Army and member for Corangamite, Geoffrey Street, Minister for Air and member for Flinders, James Fairbairn and Sir Henry Gullet, member for Henty and Vice-President of the Executive Council, were all killed. A Judicial Court of Inquiry following the incident issued a stern warning to RAAF pilots regarding the tendency of the Hudson aircraft to stall when the speed was allowed to drop too far.

Arthur Fadden was given the portfolios of Air and Civil Aviation following the deaths of the Country Party ministers. Although a terrible tragedy, this provided the opportunity for Fadden to show greater leadership. It was one of a series of events which allowed Fadden to rise to the position of Deputy Leader of the Country Party and, ultimately, leader of the Country Party in March 1941.

1941  -             The Australian Womens Army Service is formed, to enable more men to serve in fighting units.

Prior to World War II, women in Australia were only permitted to serve in the defence forces within the Medical Services. The need for men to be released from military duties for utilisation within fighting units became increasingly obvious as the war progressed, and this could only be done if women were employed for certain tasks. Thus, on 13 August 1941, the War Cabinet of the Australian Government approved the establishment of the Australian Army Womens Service, later known as the Australian Womens Army Service.

Selection for the first 29 Officers was stringent and dependent on interviews in each of the states. Only women who had shown leadership within their own profession or in the form of community service were considered. These women received training at the first Officer's Training School, held in Victoria through November and December 1941. Recruitment of other workers then followed. Initially, just a small number of women between the ages of 18 and 45 were to be employed as clerks, typists, cooks and motor transport drivers. However, the entry of Japan into the war changed that. By the end of 1942, 12,000 women had been recruited and trained, and their duties were far-ranging, from butchers to Cipher clerks. Motor transport drivers duties included forming military convoys, and driving cars, ambulances, trucks up to 3 tons, jeeps, floating jeeps, Bren Gun Carriers and amphibious vehicles.

Special approval was granted by the War Cabinet in 1945 for 500 women in the AWAS to serve outside Australia. A contingent was posted to Lae, New Guinea, and a smaller group sent to The Netherlands. In June 1946, an Officer, 3 NCOs, and one Private AWAS were included in the Army quota of 160 personnel in the Victory March contingent in London.

In all, by the time the war ended in 1945, 24 026 women had served in the Australian Womens Army Service. The Australian Womens Army Service was disbanded in June 1947. 

1961  -             East Berlin is cut off from the west by the Berlin Wall.

Berlin is the capital city of Germany. Following WWII, it was divided into four sectors, with sectors being controlled by the Soviet Union, USA, the UK and France. Whilst the countries initially cooperated, governing the city jointly by a commission of all four occupying armies, tensions began to increase between the Soviet Union and the western allies with the development of the Cold War. The border between East and West Germany was closed in 1952, and movement of citizens between East and West Berlin also became more restricted, particularly as people continued to defect from East Germany via West Berlin. Shoppers from East Berlin tended to make their purchases in the western sector, where goods were cheaper and more readily available. This damaged the Soviet economy, as it was subsidising East Germany's economy.

Overnight on 13 August 1961, the East and Western halves of Berlin were separated by barbed wire fences up to 1.83 metres high. Over the next few days, troops began to replace the barbed wire with permanent concrete blocks, reaching up to 3.6m high. Ultimately, the wall included over 300 watchtowers, 106km of concrete and 66.5km of wire fencing completely surrounding West Berlin and preventing any access from East Germany. The wall remained as a barrier between East and West until 1989, when the collapse of communism led to it being dismantled.

1989  -             Thirteen people die in the world's worst hot-air balloon crash, near Alice Springs in central Australia.

The hot-air balloon was invented in 1783 by brothers Etienne and Joseph Montgolfier. The first flight took place on 5 June 1783 in Paris, France. Ballooning gradually evolved from a unique form of transportation to a leisure-time activity enjoyed by tourists around the world.

The world's worst ballooning disaster occurred on 13 August 1989, near Alice Springs in Australia's Northern Territory. Two tourist balloons were launched within minutes of each other, resulting in a mid-air collision. One balloon tore into the fabric of the other, which then plunged to the ground from a height of 600 feet, killing the pilot and all 12 passengers.

Cheers - John