Gday...

1792  -             The first convict is believed to have been buried in the Old Sydney Burial Ground.

The Old Sydney Burial Ground is also known as the George Street Burial Ground, the Cathedral Close Cemetery or the Town Hall Cemetery. Bordered by George, Druitt, Bathurst and Kent Streets, it was laid out in 1793 by Governor Phillip and Reverend Johnson. Before it was officially set out, Phillip and Rev Johnson chose the site in September 1792, as it was far enough away from the main settlement to not pose a health hazard. The first interment was a convict named Michael Dunn, who was believed to have been buried at the site on 8 September 1792.

Around 2300 people, both convicts and free settlers, were interred at the Old Sydney Burial Ground before 1820, when a new burial ground was opened on Brickfield Hill, later the site of Central Railway Station. In 1869, the site needed to be cleared for the construction of the Sydney Town Hall, so the Old Burial Ground was moved to Haslem's Creek, to become the Rookwood Cemetery.

1854  -             The handle of the public water pump in Broad St, London is removed in an attempt to end the deadly cholera epidemic.

Cholera was a common disease in previous centuries. Poor sanitation contributed significantly to outbreaks and the spread of cholera, but at the time, it was not known that this was the cause. London was one of many cities which suffered numerous cholera outbreaks, and it was hit by yet another in 1854.

John Snow was a doctor who had served as both colliery surgeon and unqualified assistant during the 1831-32 London Cholera epidemic. He then studied at the Huntierian School of Medicine in London and, within two years, was accepted into the Royal College of Surgeons of England. He graduated from the University of London in 1844. Snow believed that cholera developed and was transmitted via contaminated food and water, a theory he propounded in his 1849 publication, "On the Mode of Communication of Cholera". This was contrary to the prevailing belief that cholera was transmitted by inhaling contaminated vapours. Snow had neither evidence nor proof to back up his beliefs.

When London was again hit by a cholera epidemic, this time in 1854, Snow meticulously plotted the location of deaths resulting from the diseases. From this, he extrapolated the likely centre of contamination, noting that up to 500 deaths had occurred in under two weeks near the intersection of Cambridge and Broad Street. This prompted Snow to meet with the Board of Guardians of St. James's parish and demand the removal of the handle from the water pump on Broad St, which was freely accessed by the public. The handle was duly removed on 8 September 1854. An immediate reduction in deaths was reported, and the epidemic contained.

Although the evidence seemed clear, controversy dogged Snow's theory for years after the event. Some were of the belief that the epidemic had already reached its climax at the time of Snow's action, whilst others believed that Snow only mapped the locations after the removal of the pump handle. Nonetheless, credit goes to Snow for his bold actions, and the fact that his theory that cholera was transmitted through contaminated water was subsequently proved viable.

1900  -             8000 are killed when Galveston, Texas, is hit by a powerful hurricane.

Galveston is a city in Texas, on Galveston Island on the Gulf Coast of the United States. It was also the location of one the deadliest ever natural disasters in the United States.

The Great Galveston Hurricane was a category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale, with wind gusts up to 217 kilometres per hour. The hurricane made landfall at Galveston during mid-afternoon on 8 September 1900. The estimated death toll was between 6,000 and 12,000, while the official number was cited as 8,000.

The high death toll was attributed to a number of factors. The inhabitants of the city were familiar with the vagaries of the weather, so early morning warnings in the form of dark skies, high tides and heavy swells went unheeded. A fifteen-foot high wall of water preceded the hurricane, swamping the low-lying city. Extreme wind gusts hurled entire rows of houses into subsequent rows, and people were hit by flying bricks and slate roofs.

To minimise the effects of future hurricanes, a solid seawall was built along Gakveston's ocean front. The city authorities commenced extensive work raising buildings by up to seventeen feet by pumping sand beneath foundations. Of lasting economic impact, however, was the decision by several shipping companies to move their operations further north to Houston, where there was a safer harbour.

1921  -             Harry Secombe, singer, comedian and actor, is born.

Harry Secombe was born on 8 September 1921 in Swansea, South Wales. He was one of the original Goons of the Goon Show, a British radio comedy programme originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service. Secombe appeared in the radio series as Neddy Seagoon, and played alongside "Goons" founder Spike Milligan, and Peter Sellers. He appeared in a variety of stage musicals, including Pickwick in 1963 and The Four Musketeers in 1967, and he also starred in the 1968 musical film "Oliver!" Harry Secombe was knighted in 1981, and died on 11 April 2001.

1925  -             Peter Sellers, British comedian and actor, is born.

Peter Sellers was born Richard Henry Sellers in Southsea, Hampshire, England, on 8 September 1925. His early entertainment experience came from playing the ukelele, banjo and drums for jazz bands. Sellers was one of the original Goons of the Goon Show, a British radio comedy programme originally produced and broadcast by the BBC from 1951 to 1960 on the BBC Home Service. Sellers appeared in the radio series alongside "Goons" founder Spike Milligan, and Harry Secombe, who shared Sellers's birthday. He moved on to television and films. Sellers died on 24 July 1980, from a heart attack.

1943  -             Italy's surrender to the Allies in WWII is announced.

Prior to World War II, Italy had allied itself with Hitler's Germany. The Italian forces had been defeated in northern Africa and the Balkans, reducing support for Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and his leadership. Mussolini was ousted in July 1943 by the Italian Fascist Party's Grand Council: the Italian military then took over and negotiated a surrender to Anglo-American forces, which was announced on 8 September 1953. According to the commander in chief of Allied forces in the Mediterranean, General Eisenhower, Italy had agreed to end all hostilities with the United Nations.

Four days after the announcement, German troops acted swiftly to free Mussolini from where he was being held in detention. After his rescue, he set up and became leader of the Italian Socialist Republic in German-held northern Italy. Two years later, he was arrested again by Italian partisans, and executed.

1966  -             Science fiction series 'Star Trek' airs for the first time.

Star Trek, the science fiction series which went on to spawn many more spinoff series and films, was created by Gene Roddenberry and debuted on 8 September 1966. Set in the 23rd century, Star Trek follows the adventures of the Starship Enterprise and her crew. Initially, the series did not rate well, and only a sustained campaign by its devoted fans kept the series going through two more seasons.

The show's success came after it was sold into syndication, and stations were able to air it at times more suited to its fans and potential audience. A new audience created a broad market for the franchise, thus paving the way for the success of six Star Trek movies based around the characters of the original series. The first of the spinoff series, 'Star Trek: the Next Generation', premiered in 1987.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1754  -             Captain William Bligh, known best for his role in the mutiny on the 'Bounty', is born.

William Bligh was born in Plymouth, south-west England, on 9 September 1754. He was only 8 when he first went to sea. At age 22, he was chosen to join Captain Cook's crew on the 'Resolution', and became commander of the 'HMAV Bounty' eleven years later.

The famous mutiny on the Bounty 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. Bligh chose not to head for the closer Spanish ports, which would have slowed down the process of bringing the mutineers to justice, but instead completed a 41 day journey to Timor. From here, he stood a better chance of communicating quickly to British vessels which could pursue the mutineers.

Bligh became Governor of New South Wales in 1805, but another mutiny, the Rum Rebellion, caused him to be imprisoned from 1808 to 1810. He was exonerated in 1811, after which he returned to England.

1803  -             The Lady Nelson arrives in Van Diemens Land, now Tasmania, in preparation for the first British settlement.

The first European to discover Tasmania was Dutch trader Abel Tasman in November 1642. Tasman discovered the previously unknown island on his voyage past the "Great South Land", which he later called "New Holland". He named the island "Antony Van Diemen's Land" in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

After the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip claimed the entire eastern coast for the British Empire, including Van Diemens Land, though it was not yet known to be separate from the mainland. Tasman believed Van Diemens Land to be part of New Holland, and it was not until 1798-99 that Matthew Flinders and George Bass proved Van Diemens Land to be an island.

In order to offset continuing French interests in southern parts of Australia, Lieutenant John Gordon Bowen was sent to establish the first British settlement in Van Diemen's Land. The ship Lady Nelson arrived at Risdon Cove on 9 September 1803, and Bowen arrived on The Albion three days later to establish a settlement on the Derwent River. There were 49 people in the initial settlement party.

Lieutenant-Governor David Collins, who had abandoned the new settlement at Sorrento on Port Phillip Bay due to lack of fresh water, arrived at Risdon Cove a month later. Unimpressed with the site chosen by Bowen, Collins moved the settlement to Sullivans Cove on the Derwent River in 1804. This settlement was later renamed Hobart Town.

1839  -             Darwin Harbour, where the city of Darwin now stands, is discovered and named.

The city of Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, Australia is located on Darwin Harbour. The land was originally occupied by the Larrakia people of the Top End who had already been trading with the Macassans for many years before European settlers came. The first Europeans to the area were Dutch traders who visited Australia's northern coastline in the 1600s, charting the first European maps of the region.

Darwin Harbour was first discovered by Captain of the HMS Beagle, John Lort Stokes, on 9 September 1839 and named "Port Darwin" after British naturalist Charles Darwin, who had been on the Beagle on a previous journey. The harbour was initially not settled, as Port Essington, 300 kilometres north, was regarded as a more strategic site for settlement and a better prospect to offset any intended French colonisation of Australia's far north coast. Like other settlements along the northern coastline which preceded it, Port Essington floundered for some years, eventually being abandoned.

After John McDouall Stuart made the first successful crossing of Australia in 1862, this opened the way for the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to the north coast, opening Australia to direct communication with the rest of the world. Thus, the settlement of Darwin was more successful than previous incursions into settling the north coast as it was to serve a very important link in this communication. Darwins first white settlers arrived on 5 February 1869. The town was initially named Palmerston after the Prime Minister of Britain, Lord Palmerston, Henry Temple. However, all shipping to the area was consigned to "Port Darwin". In 1911, when South Australia handed control of its northern half to the Commonwealth of Australia, the name Darwin was officially adopted.

1880  -             Australian pioneer in physical therapy for polio sufferers, Sister Elizabeth Kenny, is born.

Australian nurse Elizabeth Kenny was a pioneer in physical therapy. Born on 20 September 1880 at Kelly's Gully, a township just west of the New South Wales town of Warialda, her family then moved to the small town of Nobby on the Darling Downs, near Toowoomba, Queensland.

An accident during her teenage years, in which she broke her wrist, sparked her interest in anatomy. Whilst recovering, Elizabeth keenly questioned her doctor and mentor, Dr. Aeneas McDonnell, about the workings of the human body. Though untrained, in 1911 she began working as a bush nurse in the area, even starting up a hospital in nearby Clifton. At the outbreak of World War I, she volunteered to serve as a nurse. Due to the dire need for nurses, the untrained Kenny was accepted to work on soldier transport ships, and the experience she gained in this venture earned her the official title of "Sister".

Sister Kenny continued to work as a nurse after the war, and even improved the design of stretchers used in ambulances on the Darling Downs. Marketing the stretcher as the "Sylvie Stretcher", Kenny gave the profits to the Australian Country Women's Association who managed sales and manufacture of the invention. Her initiative gained the attention of a family on a cattle station near Townsville, who arranged for her to come and care for their daughter who had been disabled by polio. Her methods of care and treatment enabled the girl to completely recover. She gradually achieved acclaim for her methods by the many polio-stricken children she treated and cured, but criticism from the medical fraternity for her lack of training.

Unlike other methods of the time, Kenny's treatment opposed immobilising affected limbs with casts or braces. She advocated treating children during the acute stage of polio and using hot compresses. However, doctors would not permit her to treat patients until after the first stage of the disease or until muscle spasms had ceased. Instead, she designed a programme of passive exercises to stimulate function.

Kenny's pioneering methods were gradually adopted by more physicians as she travelled to the USA to promote them. During her 11-year stay in America, she opened numerous Kenny Treatment Centres. Although her processes were criticised by many doctors, her dramatic results in affected children spoke for themselves. Her lasting legacy is her methodology for rehabilitating muscles, which formed the foundation for physical therapy, or what is commonly known as physiotherapy.

Kenny returned to Australia in 1951, and died on 30 November 1952. Her grave lies in Nobby Cemetery.

1890  -             Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, is born.

Harland Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana, USA, on 9 September 1890. As his father died when he was young, and his mother had to work to support her children, Sanders learned to cook for his family. He worked a number of jobs through his youth, until he finally acquired a service station in Corbin, Kentucky, where he began to cook chicken for patrons. As his popularity grew, he was employed as a chef in a motel and restaurant, where he began perfecting the recipe that would eventually become a household name. He used the same 11 herbs and spices which are used in KFC today, and his use of a pressure cooker enhanced the process by ensuring quicker cooking, which helped seal in the flavour. Sanders was made an honorary Kentucky colonel in 1935 by Governor Ruby Laffoon.

2000  -             For the first time in history, the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica extends over a populated city.

The Earth's ozone layer protects all life from the sun's harmful radiation, by absorbing ultra-violet light. Whilst ozone molecules are constantly being formed and destroyed in the stratosphere, man's use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) has depleted the ozone layer. CFCs are used as refrigerants, solvents and fire extinguishing agents. Scientific research has found that CFCs release chlorine or bromine when they break down and winds drive the CFCs into the stratosphere, thereby damaging the protective ozone layer. Depletion of the ozone layer has been correlated with higher levels of cancer in humans and animals.

The depletion of the ozone layer is most obvious over the Antarctic, where scientists carefully monitor the size of a hole in the layer. The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered in 1985 by British scientists Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin of the British Antarctic Survey. Since its discovery, the hole has gradually increased in size.

Beginning on 9 September 2000 and continuing to September 10th, the ozone hole covered about 29.7 million square km, about three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States, stretching over a populated city for the first time. Approximately 120,000 residents of Punta Arenas, a city in southern Chile, were exposed to very high levels of ultra violet radiation. After reaching this peak, the hole then began to slowly shrink again in its usual fashion.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1846  -             American inventor Elias Howe patents the sewing machine.

Elias Howe was born in Spencer, Massachusetts on 9 July 1819. After losing his job in a factory, he moved to Boston, where he was employed in a machinist's shop. This provided him with the opportunity to experiment with inventing a sewing machine. He successfully demonstrated his first sewing machine in 1846, and patented his lockstitch sewing machine on 10 September 1846 in New Hartford, Connecticut.

Howe faced a legal battle after Isaac Singer invented the up-and-down motion mechanism, and Allen Wilson developed a rotary hook shuttle, both filing for patents. After winning one suit, the three inventors pooled their patent rights in the Sewing Machine Combination. It was under this patent that the sewing machine was then successfully marketed.

1869  -             American Baptist minister, the Rev. E. Jonathan Scobie, invents the rickshaw in Yokohama.

Rickshaws are a commonly used means of transportation in Asia. Originally, a runner pulled a two-wheeled cart which could seat one or two people. Nowadays, rickshaws are either drawn by bicycle or engine-driven. The word "rickshaw" or "ricksha" comes from the Japanese word 'jinrikisha', which means "human-powered vehicle".

The first rickshaw was believed to have been invented and utilised on 10 September 1869 by an American Baptist minister, the Reverend E Jonathan Scobie, who needed to transport his invalid wife around the streets of Yokohama, Japan. However, there is some dispute as to the identity of the original inventor of the rickshaw. Some sources credit American blacksmith Albert Tolman with inventing the rickshaw around 1848 in Worcester, Massachusetts for a missionary. Still others say the rickshaw was designed by an American Baptist minister in 1888. Japanese sources often credit Izumi Yosuke, Suzuki Tokujiro, and Takayama Kosuke, who are said to have invented rickshaws in 1868, inspired by the horse carriages that had been introduced to the steets of Tokyo shortly beforehand.

1897  -             The world's first conviction for drunk driving occurs in London.

In 1831, Parliament in England passed the London Hackney Carriage Act, which made it a punishable offence for cab drivers to injure anyone or damage property as a result of having imbibed too much drink. The Licensing Act of 1872 extended the range of the previous legislation, making it an offence for anyone to be drunk while in charge of a carriage on the highway.

On 10 September 1897, a citizen by the name of George Smith became the first driver of a horseless carriage to be prosecuted under the new statute. After drinking two or three glasses of beer, Smith drove his electric cab up onto the footpath and ploughed into number 165, Bond Street, in London.

1906  -             The first Australian licence plates and drivers licence are issued.

The first petrol-driven car to be manufactured in Australia is believed to have been produced by Harry A Tarrant in 1897. After modifications and improvements, Tarrant produced a second vehicle in 1901, which he named the Tarrant. This was followed by a number of improved designs, including the first fully enclosed body made in Australia, and later models included locally designed and manufactured engines, gearboxes and rear axles. Other vehicles began to be imported from 1900, when a Benz No 1 Ideal arrived in Sydney. Australians gradually embraced the concept of the motor car and the horseless carriage gained in popularity.

The first motor car and driving licence were issued in Adelaide on 10 September 1906. The recipient was Dr William Arthur Hargreaves, a chemist and government analyst, born on 29 October 1866 at Ipswich, Queensland. Hargreaves had moved to South Australia in 1899. Always interested in fuel sources, Hargreaves studied the problem of alternative fuels during both world wars and drove his car on a mixture of molasses and petrol at the end of World War I.

Licence plates and drivers licences were introduced in Victoria and New South Wales in 1910.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1854  -             Australia's first steam train makes its maiden voyage in Melbourne.

Melbourne is the capital city of Victoria, Australia. Although it was established as a settlement in 1835 and the new township surveyed and named in 1837, Melbourne quickly grew to rival Sydney. The discovery in 1851 of the Victorian goldfields which were richer than those discovered in New South Wales spurred the city on to even greater wealth, and greater rivalry.

Victoria became the first Australian state to have a completed railway line. Although South Australia had begun operations of horse-drawn trains on 18 May 1854 between Goolwa and Port Elliot, mechanical railways were first established in Victoria in 1854, with work on the line commencing in March 1853. At first, trains were ordered from Robert Stephenson and Company of the United Kingdom, but shipping delays meant that the first trains had to be built locally. Robertson, Martin and Smith built Australia's first steam locomotive in ten weeks at a cost of £2700.

The first steam train in Australia, consisting of two first-class carriages and one second-class carriage, made its maiden voyage on 12 September 1854. It ran along the four kilometre track from Flinders Street to Sandridge, now Port Melbourne, a ten-minute journey. Aboard the first train were Lieutenant-Governor Sir Charles Hotham and Lady Hotham. Upon arriving at its destination at Station Pier, the train was met with gun-salutes by the warships HMS Electra and HMS Fantome

The following year, the locomotives ordered from the UK arrived, and were named Melbourne, Sandridge, Victoria and Yarra.

1892  -             Ambulance services commence in Queensland, the first such service anywhere in the world.

The Queensland Ambulance Service in its current form was established on 1 July 1991, with the amalgamation of 96 individual Queensland Ambulance Service Transport Brigades (QATB). However, Queenslands first ambulance service began operations almost a century earlier.

The need for an ambulance service in Queensland became apparent following an incident at the Brisbane Show in August of 1892. Stories vary, but the common element is that a rider fell from his horse and broke his leg at the showgrounds. The injury was either exacerbated when helpful bystanders assisted the rider, walking him from the field or, according to other accounts, when first aid personnel rushed onto the field and threw the man into a stretcher before bundling him off the field without due care for his condition. Witnessing the event was Military medic Seymour Warrian of the Army Medical Corps. Seeing how the victim should have been immobilised, Warrian canvassed support to form the new City Ambulance Transport Brigade, or CATB.

The first meeting of the brigade was held on 12 September 1892. Operations of Queenslands first ambulance station were initially conducted from the Brisbane Newspaper Company. Officers on night duty spent the night on rolls of newspaper on the floor rather than beds. Transportation of victims was limited to being on foot as, while there was a stretcher, there was no vehicle. As donations flowed in, more equipment was able to be purchased. After first aid kits were put together, one of the first major changes was a stretcher attached to a set of cart wheels, which could then be conveyed by two men at a running pace. Later, the first horse with harness for a cart was purchased.

Warrian's vision of a professional ambulance service was innovative and the service was the first of its kind anywhere in the world. Soon other cities, both in Australia and around the world, followed suit.

1910  -             Alexander Langmuir, the man credited with saving thousands of lives through his work on epidemiology, is born.

Alexander Duncan Langmuir, born on 12 September 1910, is considered to be the father of infectious disease epidemiology. Epidemiology is the science of studying the causes, distribution, and control of disease in populations. Because it is the science of connecting disease or injury with a cause, it enables the possibility of eliminating that cause.

In 1949, Langmuir created and headed up the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) at the National Communicable Disease Center in Atlanta, now known as the Federal Centre for Disease Control and Prevention. He has been credited with saving countless lives with his innovative research and analytical approach. His work contributed significantly to the virtual elimination of polio in the United States. Dr David Henderson, deputy of the assistant secretary of health at the Department of Health and Human Services, led the World Health Organization's (WHO) program to eradicate smallpox. However, Henderson maintained that the real credit should have gone to Langmuir.

Langmuir died on November 22, 1993. His legacy lives on in the better quality of life enjoyed by millions throughout the world, thanks to his powerful contribution to the science of epidemiology.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1741  -             Handel finishes composing his Oratorio, "Messiah".

Georg Friedrich Handel was born on 23 February 1685, in Halle, Saxony. Already skilled on the harpsichord and organ at age 7, he began composing music when he was 9. During his composing career, he wrote around fifty operas, twenty-three oratorios, much church music and numerous outstanding instrumental pieces, such as the organ concerti, the Opus 6 Concerti Grossi, the Water Music, and the Fireworks Music.

Handel's best known work is probably the oratorio, "Messiah", written within a 24-day period, and completed on 14 September 1741. An oratorio is a large musical composition for orchestra, vocal soloists and chorus, telling a sacred story without costumes, scenery, or acting. "Messiah" is the story of the prophecy of the coming Messiah as told in the old Testament, and the life and death of Jesus, set to texts from the King James Bible. Originally conceived as an Easter oratorio, it has become popular to perform it at Christmas, particularly as it culminates with the powerful "Hallelujah" chorus.

1849  -             Ivan Pavlov, discoverer of the conditioned or learned reflex, is born.

Ivan Petrovich Pavlov was born on 14 September 1849, in Ryazan, Russia. After studying medicine in Russia and Germany, he became a professor in pharmacology and physiology. Pavlov's famous work with dogs actually started as a study of digestion. It was while performing experiments on dogs to show how digestive secretions are regulated that he discovered they are influenced by the sensory stimuli of sight, smell and taste.

Further experimentation proved that other stimuli could produce the same response; for example, Pavlov began ringing a bell at the same time as any of the other three stimuli were introduced. Thus, the dogs soon connected the sound of the bell with the appearance of food, and began to salivate accordingly. In 1903 Pavlov published his results, calling this a "conditioned reflex", meaning it was learned, rather than innate, or instinctive. Although Pavlov won the 1904 Nobel Prize for his work on digestive physiology, he is better known today as an early influence on behavioural psychology.

1898  -             The Gideons Bible Association, responsible for placing Bibles in motel and hotel rooms around the world, begins.

A chance meeting between two Christians on 14 September 1898, began an association that has endured to this very day. The Central Hotel in Boscobel, Wisconsin, USA, was crowded due to a lumbermen's convention being held, and the manager asked two strangers if they would mind sharing a room. In that shared room above the saloon, travelling salesmen John H Nicholson of Janesville, Wisconsin, and Samuel E Hill of Beloit, Wisconsin, discovered that they were both Christians. The two men prayed together, and discussed starting a Christian travelling mens association.

Nothing further came of the idea until the two met up again unexpectedly the following May. They were joined by a third man, William J Knights, on 1 July 1899, and founded the Gideons Bible Association, the primary purpose of which is personal evangelisation conducted by Christian business and professional men. The name comes from the Old Testament book of Judges, and refers to Gideon, who was willing to do whatever God asked of him. Today, the association has over 140,000 members in 175 countries, and distributes over 56 million Bibles and New Testaments every year.

The Hotel Boscobel, where the men met, is considered the Birthplace of the Gideon Bible and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

1982  -             Princess Grace of Monaco dies after receiving severe injuries in a car crash.

Hollywood actress Grace Kelly was born on 12 November 1929. She had a lucrative acting career, and was best known for her roles in Alfred Hitch**** films. She met Prince Rainier III of Monaco in 1955, while attending the Cannes film festival, and the two were married on 18 April 1956. She put aside her acting career to take up new duties as the Princess of Monaco.

On 13 September 1982, the Princess was driving near Monte Carlo when she suffered a minor stroke. Losing control, she crashed down an embankment, injuring both herself and her youngest daughter, Stephanie. Whilst Stephanie suffered a serious cervical fracture, Princess Grace did not regain consciousness at all, dying on September 14. She was given a full royal funeral at the Cathedral of St Nicholas in Monte Carlo.

2001  -             The announcement is made of the closure of Ansett Airlines, Australia.

Australia's national airline is Qantas. However, for nearly seven decades, there was a second major airline in Australia: Ansett Airlines.

Ansett Airways Pty Ltd was founded by Sir Reginald Myles "Reg" Ansett in 1935. The very first flight, a single engine Fokker Universal, departed Hamilton, Victoria bound for Melbourne, on 17 February 1936. In 1957, Ansett Airways became Ansett-ANA after taking over the private airline Australian National Airways (ANA), which had gone bankrupt. Further acquisitions of domestic airlines occurred in ensuing decades, and Ansett continued to operate very profitably, well into the latter years of the twentieth century.

In 1987, Ansett made its first international flights, expanding into New Zealand through its subsidiary Ansett New Zealand. Although Air New Zealand had previously become a 50% shareholder, it acquired full ownership of Ansett in February 2000. Unfortunately, the competition with QANTAS and other airlines, an ageing fleet and the constant grounding of aircraft for maintenance, together with a series of poor financial decisions meant that Ansett became more of a liability than an asset to Air New Zealand. The decision was made to place the airline into administration.

On 14 September 2001, the announcement was made that Air New Zealand had placed the Ansett group of companies into voluntary administration. Despite an attempt by the federal government to prop up Ansett via government guarantee, the last commercial flight, AN152 from Perth to Sydney, touched down just after 6am on 5 March 2002.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1770  -             Captain Cook becomes the first European to note the appearance of the Aurora Australis

Captain Cook, the first European to chart Australia's eastern coast, was hired in 1766 by the Royal Society to travel to the Pacific Ocean to observe and record the transit of Venus across the Sun in mid-1769. Following this, Cook's next orders were to search the south Pacific for Terra Australis Incognita, the great southern continent. Cook came across New Zealand, which Abel Tasman had discovered in 1642, and spent some months there, charting the coastline. Nearly a year later, Cook set sail west for New Holland, which was later to become Australia.

Some time after beginning his journey up the eastern coast of the continent, Cook became the first European to note the appearance of the Aurora Australis. On 16 September 1770, Cook described a phenomenon which was similar in some ways to the Aurora Borealis, but different in other ways: they had "a dull reddish light" with other "rays of a brighter coloured light" passing between them, and "entirely without the trembling or vibratory motion" he had seen in the Aurora Borealis.

By this time, Cook was as far north as Timor, and the Aurora Australis is not usually seen at that latitude. However, considerable solar activity in September 1770 is believed to have contributed to the appearance of the phenomenon.

1847  -             Explorer Edmund Kennedy returns to his depot to find that Aborigines have ransacked his supplies.

Edmund Kennedy was born on 5 September 1818 on the Island of Guernsey, in the Channel Islands. He arrived in Australia in 1840, and took up the position of Assistant-Surveyor of New South Wales. Kennedy accompanied Major Thomas Mitchell's 1845-46 expedition to the interior of Queensland, where he gained much experience in exploration.

In 1847, Mitchell appointed Kennedy to lead a second expedition to trace the course of the Barcoo River (originally named the Victoria River) in the hope that it would lead to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The expedition left on 13 March 1847, and followed the river north to Cooper Creek. This then flowed into the desert, proving it was not linked to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Never one to give up, Kennedy continued southwest, and discovered the Thomson River, on 20 August 1847. He returned to his depot on 16 September 1847, planning to continue north to the Gulf. However, he was dismayed to find that Aborigines had dug up the expedition's carefully buried provisions, and mixed 181kg of flour with clay. This prevented Kennedy from continuing his northward trek, and he was forced to return prematurely to Sydney.

1908  -             General Motors Corporation (GM) is founded in the USA.

General Motors Corporation (GM) was founded on 16 September 1908 when William C Durant consolidated several motor car companies, including Buick, Oldsmobile, and Cadillac. In GM's early years, Durant bought out 30 other companies, including Chevrolet, Delco, the Fisher Body Company, and Frigidaire. By 1929, GM had surpassed Ford to become the leading American passenger-car manufacturer, and amassed manufacturing facilities and branch sales offices in countries around the world as far as Europe, Asia and Australia. By 1955, it was the first company in America to exceed over $1 billion in a single year.

1956  -             Australia's first television broadcast is made by TCN Channel 9 in Sydney.

In 1950, Australian Prime Minister Robert Menzies announced a gradual introduction of television in Australia, commencing with a launch of an ABC station. Three years later his government amended the 1948 Broadcasting Act to allow for commercial television licences.

Test transmissions commenced in Sydney and Melbourne in July 1956. At 7:00pm on 16 September 1956, Australia's first TV broadcast was made by TCN Channel 9 in Sydney. Bruce Gyngell introduced the broadcast with the words "Good evening, and welcome to television".

At the time, there were approximately 2,000 television sets in Sydney. The station was owned by Frank Packer, but it was his son Kerry who later saw and developed the potential of television as an informative media source. Packers TCN 9 launched approximately two months ahead of its nearest competitor, ABN 2. However, a regular broadcasting service was not provided until January of the following year, by GTV 9. GTV 9 had already been granted permission to use the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne for test transmissions, and officially opened with a regular broadcasting service on 19 January 1957.

1975  -             Papua New Guinea is granted full independence from Australia.

Papua New Guinea is a country in Oceania, positioned to the north of Australia. Consisting of the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, as well as numerous offshore islands, it shares the island with the Indonesian provinces of Papua and West Papua. The country is renowned for being largely unexplored, with ancient tribes still occupying dense jungles in the rugged mountains, while it is also believed that undiscovered flora and fauna species lie in its interior.

The first known European incursions into the island began with the Dutch and Portuguese traders during the sixteenth century. The name 'Papua New Guinea' is a result of the country's unusual administrative history prior to Independence. 'Papua' comes from a Malay word, pepuah, used to describe the frizzy Melanesian hair, while 'New Guinea' is derived from 'Nueva Guinea', the name used by Spanish explorer Yñigo Ortiz de Retez, who coined the term due to the physical similarities he noted in the people to those occupying the Guinea coast of Africa.

The northern half of the country fell to German control in 1884, and in 1899 the German imperial government assumed direct control of the territory. At this point, the territory was known as German New Guinea. In 1884, Britain had taken control of the southern half, annexing it completely in 1888. The southern half was known as British New Guinea. After the Papua Act of 1905, the British portion was renamed to Territory of Papua. During World War I, Australian troops began occupying the island to defend the British portion. Once the Treaty of Versailles came into effect following World War I, Australia was permitted to administer German New Guinea, while the British portion came to be regarded as an External Territory of the Australian Commonwealth, though in effect still a British possession. The two territories remained separate and distinct as 'Papua' and 'New Guinea'.

Following the New Guinea Campaign of World War II, the two territories were merged as 'Papua New Guinea'. Australia continued to administer the country until it was granted full independence on 16 September 1975. Since independence, the two countries have retained close ties.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1797  -             Coal is officially discovered in New South Wales, Australia, providing the foundation for Newcastle.

Newcastle is the second largest city in New South Wales, Australia. It was not a settlement at the time when a group of convict escapees discovered the first-known coal deposits in 1791. The discovery was not made known, as the convicts sought obscurity rather than notoriety. It was a British soldier, Lieutenant John Shortland, who found a coal seam while looking for the escapees in 1797.

Shortland first found a river which had been overlooked by Captain Cook who had charted the eastern coast 27 years earlier. Shortland named this river the "Hunter", after Governor Hunter, but then discovered a rich seam of coal, on 18 September 1797. For some time after this, the river was known as the Coal River. Shortland took a sample of the coal back to Sydney. Within a year, worker on ships began collecting coal from the riverbanks and selling it in Sydney. The first export of local coal took place in 1799.

In order to have sufficient workers to mine the coal and cut timber, a convict camp for particularly hardened criminals was established in 1801. It was initially known as King's Town, after Governor King. From this settlement came the thriving city of Newcastle.

1895  -             Daniel Palmer, founder of chiropractic treatment, makes the first chiropractic adjustment on a patient.

Daniel David Palmer was born on 7 March 1845 near Toronto, Canada. His family moved to the United States when he was very young. Originally, he worked as a magnetic healer in Davenport, Iowa, but two patients who both presented with problems associated with spinal disorders changed his focus. Palmer corrected the spinal dislocation of the first patient, whose deafness immediately cleared up. This occurred on 18 September 1895. Palmer's second patient, who was suffering from heart disease, also improved after adjustment of a spinal dislocation which Palmer believed exerted pressure on the nerves leading to the heart.

From this, Palmer extrapolated the theory that decreased nerve flow could cause disease, and that misplaced spinal vertebrae could cause pressure on the nerves. Thus, he developed the theory of chiropractic treatment.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1519  -             Ferdinand Magellan leaves Spain on his voyage around the world

Ferdinand Magellan was a Portuguese sea explorer. Born in 1480, at age 12 he became a page to King John II and Queen Eleonora at the royal court at Lisbon. Here he was able to pursue his academic interest in astronomy and geography. He first went to sea when he was 20, and gained much seafaring experience over the next 10 years. He was the first to sail from Europe westwards to Asia, and the first European to sail the Pacific Ocean.

On 20 September 1519 Magellan set sail to circumnavigate the world. His fleet reached the Philippines a year and a half later. Whilst Magellan was well received by many of the people, he died on 27 April 1521, during a battle with an indigenous group. 18 members of his crew and one ship of the fleet returned to Spain in 1522, having completed Magellan's goal of circumnavigating the globe.

1853  -             Inventor Elisha Otis sells his first safety elevator equipment.

Elisha Graves Otis was born in Halifax, Vermont, USA, in 1811. In 1852, Otis developed the first modern passenger elevator. It used his invention of a safety device which prevented the car from falling if the cables broke. On 20 September 1853 he sold his first safety elevator equipment to Benjamin Newhouse in New York City who used it for moving freight.

The safety equipment was not demonstrated in public until 1854, after Otis had begun his elevator business. At the Crystal Palace Exposition in New York, Otis ascended in the elevator, and called for the cable to be cut with an axe. The elevator platform did not fall, but held, secured by a brake using toothed guiderails in the elevator shaft and a spring-loaded bar that automatically caught in the toothed rail of the elevator car if the cable failed. Today, the Otis Elevator Company is the worlds largest company in the manufacture and service of elevators, escalators, moving walks and people-moving equipment.

1954  -             The first Fortran computer program is run.

Fortran is a computer programming language. It was originally developed in the 1950s, primarily for technical and scientific applications. The name "Fortran" is short for "Formula Translation". In its early form, it allowed users to express their problems in commonly understood mathematical formulae. Fortran was developed by an IBM team lead by John Backus, and the first Fortran programme was run on 20 September 1954. Continued modifications through the years have allowed the programme to develop with technology, and it is still a usable language today.

1963  -             Scrivener Dam is completed in order to make Lake Burley Griffin, a central feature of Canberra, Australia's capital.

The competition to design Australia's new capital city, Canberra, was won in 1911 by American architect Walter Burley Griffin. After winning the competition to design Australia's national capital, he and his wife moved to Australia, where Griffin was appointed as the Federal Capital Director of Design and Construction.

As the Molonglo River flowed through the proposed site of Canberra, Burley Griffin's design included an artificial lake in the city's heart. The design allowed for a central circular basin, with irregularly shaped eastern and western lakes either side. Due to disputes with Australian authorities, Burley Griffin left Australia in 1920 with much of his vision for the city not yet realised. Thus, work on the lake only began in 1958 when engineers first began to investigate the hydrology and structural requirements needed to dam the Molonglo in order to construct the lake.

Excavation of the floodplain for the lake began in 1960. The dam to hold back the waters was named Scrivener Dam after Charles Scrivener, the man who surveyed several sites in New South Wales to select the site for the Australian Capital Territory and Canberra. The valves to complete Scrivener Dam were closed on 20 September 1963 by Interior Minister Gordon Freeth but, due to a drought, the lake only reached its planned level at the end of April the following year.

1975  -             13 miners are killed in the first of several mining accidents at Moura, Queensland.

The town of Moura is located in central Queensland, about 676 km north-west of Brisbane. The Kianga-Moura coalfields were developed in the early 1960s, and by 1968 the coalfields were the largest in Queensland, with coal being railed out to Gladstone on the central Queensland coast.

Nicknamed 'The Coal and Cattle Centre of the Dawson Valley', Moura is a small town with a history of tragic accidents. The first of these occurred on 20 September 1975. 13 miners were killed in an explosion in a mineshaft near the town. An inquiry found that the explosion was caused by "a spontaneous combustion source which ignited inflammable gas and was propagated involving coal dust."

The second major mining accident occurred in the Moura Underground No 4 mine, on 16 July 1986. 12 miners, the youngest of whom was just 18 years old, were killed in this accident. A brass statue of a miner at the southern end of the town commemorates this disaster. Yet another 11 miners were killed on 7 August 1994, when an explosion occurred at the main BHP mine.

Cheers - John

Gday...

1831  -             The first drawing of a numbat is made, following the first recorded sighting.

The numbat is a small marsupial of Western Australia, and the faunal (animal) emblem of that state. It is distinctive for having red-brown fur with six or seven white stripes across its back, and a relatively long, bushy tail. As it feeds mostly on termites, it is sometimes referred to as the banded anteater. Unlike most marsupials, the numbat does not have a pouch for the young. The joeys cling to the mother's underbelly fur whilst attached to a teat. Numbats used to be widespread across the southern part of Australia, but European settlement caused the extinction of the eastern colonies. Always an elusive creature, the first time this marsupial was sighted and drawn was in 1831.

George Fletcher Moore was one of the early settlers in Western Australia. He was involved in several expeditions to explore the region, and on one occasion accompanied explorer Robert Dale in surveying and cutting a road from Guildford to the Avon Valley in the southwest. On 22 September 1831, after seeing a numbat for the first time, Moore drew and described the creature, including in his text that accompanied the drawing the following:

"... chase another of those little animals into a hollowed tree, succeed in getting it, suppose it to be an ant eater from the length of its tongue & other reasons - its colour is yellowish barred with black & white streaks across the hinder parts of its back - length about 12 inches."

1885  -             Ben Chifley, Prime Minister of Australia from 1945-1949, is born.

Ben Chifley was born Joseph Benedict Chifley on 22 September 1885, in Bathurst, New South Wales. He was raised largely by his grandfather, and joined the railways at age 15. Moving up to the position of engine driver, he became one of the founders of the engine drivers' union, the AFULE, and was actively involved in the Australian Labor Party. In 1928, Chifley won the Bathurst-based seat of Macquarie in the House of Representatives, and in 1931 he became Minister for Defence, under Scullin. He lost his seat again shortly afterwards when the Scullin government fell, but regained it in 1940, becoming Treasurer in Curtin's government.

Curtin died in July 1945, and Chifley defeated Forde in the leadership ballot to become Prime Minister. He implemented necessary post-war economic controls, remaining Prime Minister until his defeat by Robert Menzies and the Liberal Party in 1949. Two years later, Chifley died of a heart attack.

1985  -             France admits to bombing the Greenpeace flagship, the 'Rainbow Warrior', in Auckland Harbour.

The Greenpeace flagship, the 'Rainbow Warrior', was named after a North American Indian legend, and launched in 1978. The ship arrived in New Zealand in July 1985 in preparation for leading a flotilla of boats to Mururoa Atoll in the Pacific Ocean to protest against French nuclear tests on the atoll.

Just before midnight on 10 July 1985, underwater charges which had been placed by frogmen on the hull of the Rainbow Warrior, exploded, sinking the vessel while it was in Auckland Harbour, New Zealand. One person was killed in the explosion, Portuguese photographer Fernando Periero. On 22 September 1985, Prime Minister of France Laurent Fabius admitted that the bombing had been carried out by 2 secret agents belonging to the French foreign intelligence agency, DGSC, or Directorate-General for External Security. This was despite a major cover-up operation in which the French Government denied its involvement.

Within months, the French defence minister Charles Hernu had resigned and New Zealand was paid $7m in compensation by the French Government. A new 'Rainbow Warrior' was launched in 1987.

Cheers - John