Gday...

79  -     The ancient city of Pompeii is destroyed as Mt Vesuvius erupts.

The ancient city of Pompeii lay southeast of Naples, Italy. It lay in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius, the only active volcano on the European mainland, and its inhabitants were used to rumblings and tremors from the volcano. The city was severely damaged by an earthquake in AD 62, and sometime early in AD 79 wells dried up throughout the city. No-one heeded the warning. On August 24 AD 79, Pompeii and the neighbouring city of Herculaneum were buried under a pyroclastic flow, a cloud of superheated gas, ash, and rock erupting from the volcano. Being a popular summer holiday spot, it is estimated that there were about 20,000 inhabitants in Pompeii at the time of the eruption.

Immediately following the eruption, those who had not been killed by falling rocks quickly packed to flee. However, clouds of poison gas rolled into the city. Those who were outside died instantly from the gas, while people who were still in their houses died from lack of oxygen. After hundreds of years of lying buried, Herculaneum was rediscovered in 1738, and Pompeii in 1748.

1759  -             William Wilberforce, the man largely responsible for the abolition of the slave trade, is born.

William Wilberforce was born on 24 August 1759 in Hull, Britain. He studied at Cambridge University where he befriended England's future prime minister, William Pitt the Younger. In 1780, Wilberforce became member of parliament for Hull, later representing Yorkshire. During his twenties, Wilberforce became a Christian, and his motivation for social reforms was largely a by-product of his active and practical Christianity. He was strongly influenced by former slave-trader John Newton, then the leading evangelical Anglican clergyman of the day and Rector of St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London.

In 1787, Wilberforce became leader of the parliamentary campaign of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Between 1789 and 1806, he attempted to pass numerous parliamentary bills against the slave trade, but was unsuccessful each time, as many of the members of parliament stood to profit from their own indirect involvement in the trade.

In 1806, a change of tactics was suggested by maritime lawyer James Stephen. This involved introducing a bill to ban British subjects from aiding or participating in the slave trade to the French colonies, It was a smart move, as the majority of the ships were flying American flags, though manned by British crews and sailing out of Liverpool. The Foreign Slave Trade Act was quickly passed and the tactic proved successful. The new legislation effectively prohibited two-thirds of the British slave trade. In the long run, many MPs who had benefited from the slave trade lost their financial support, and ultimately their position in parliament. This opened the way for a further attempt to pass an Abolition bill.

Further support from Abolitionists enabled the final passing of an Abolition Bill on 23 February 1807. As tributes were made to Wilberforce, who had laboured for the cause during the preceding twenty years, the bill was carried by 283 votes to 16. The Slave Trade Act received the royal assent on 25 March 1807. This Act did not free those who were already slaves; it was not until 1833 that an act was passed giving freedom to all slaves in the British empire.

Despite ill health, Wilberforce continued to campaign for social reform, including the improvement of factory conditions in Britain. He was instrumental in the development of the Society for the Suppression of Vice in 1802. He also worked to develop the Association for the Better Observance of Sunday, the aim of which was to provide all children with regular education in reading, personal hygiene and religion. He was closely involved with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. He was also instrumental in encouraging Christian missionaries to go to India. Wilberforce died on 29 July 1833, shortly after the act to free slaves in the British empire passed through the House of Commons. He was buried near his friend, former Prime Minister William Pitt, in Westminster Abbey.

1872  -             Queensland's borders are extended to include Thursday Island and the Torres Strait islands.

Thursday Island is the administrative and commercial centre of the Torres Strait Islands. It is situated 39 km north of Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, in Torres Strait. The island is populated by the Melanesian Torres Strait Islanders, who named the island Waiben, believed to mean 'dry place', due to the scarcity of fresh water on the island. The island has an area of about 3 km² and an estimated population of 3,500.

On 24 August 1872, the borders of the state of Queensland were extended a further 100km from the coastline. This allowed for the inclusion of Thursday Island and the Torres Strait islands within Queensland's borders. An administrative centre for the Torres Strait Islands was set up on Thursday Island by the Queensland Government in 1877, and a township gradually developed. A thriving pearling industry began in 1885 and swelled the population with workers from Asian countries, including Japan, Malaya and India, whilst South Pacific islanders were also brought in to work in the industry. Whilst pearling is no longer a major industry there, the population retains the influence of these other cultures.

In the 1970s, Papua New Guinea sought to include the Torres Strait Islands within its borders. The Torres Strait Islanders maintained that they were Australians, and after considerable diplomatic discussions, all of the Torres Strait, including Thursday Island, remained as part of Australia.

1879  -             Explorer Alexander Forrest's expedition through northwest Australia is threatened with starvation.

Alexander Forrest was born on 22 September 1849 at Picton in Western Australia. He gained much of his exploring experience from working with his brother John, but was an established explorer in his own right.

In 1879 Alexander led an expedition from the DeGrey River, up the coast to Beagle Bay, then inland into the area now known as the Kimberley. He discovered good country and the Fitzroy River, but when he came across another river in the east, a shortage of food forced the men to keep moving, rather than explore the river more closely. By 24 August 1879, the future of the expedition was threatened by an increasingly desperate shortage of rations. With only 27kg of flour remaining, and most of the horses killed for food, Forrest's only solution was to push 160km east to the Overland Telegraph Line, where they were able to receive necessary food and water.

1909  -             Workers start pouring the concrete for the Panama Canal.

The Panama Canal is a ship canal about 82km in length, linking the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans via the Caribbean Sea through central America. It was built by the United States between 1904 and 1914 on territory leased from Panama. 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. On 24 August 1909, workers began actually pouring the first concrete for the canal at a lock site at Gatun. The Panama Canal uses locks to raise and lower ships.

1995  -             Windows 95 is released by the Microsoft Corporation.

Windows 95 is a computer operating system released on 24 August 1995. It was the first 32-bit Windows operating system, combining Microsoft's MS-DOS and Windows products. The advantages of Windows 95 on previous products was that it enhanced networking, included pre-emptive multitasking, which allowed programs to be timeshared together more effectively than its predecessor, Windows 3.1, and it expanded memory capabilities. A number of updated editions of Windows have superseded Windows 95, and thus, Microsoft ended its support for Windows 95 as of 31 December 2002.

Cheers - John