Australian Explorers
Thursday, June 7, 1770. : Lieutenant James Cook names Palm Island, off Australia’s eastern coast.
Lieutenant James Cook was not the first to discover Australia, as he was preceded by numerous Portuguese and Dutch explorers. However, he was the first to sight and map the eastern coastline. Cook’s ship, the ‘Endeavour’, departed Plymouth, England, on 26 August 1768. After completing the objective of his mission, which was to observe the transit of Venus from the vantage point of Tahiti, Cook went on to search for Terra Australis Incognita, the great continent which some believed to extend round the pole. After spending nearly a year charting the coastline of New Zealand, which had been documented by Abel Tasman in 1642, he set sail west.
In mid-April 1770, Cook’s crew first sighted land, although it was not known whether the land belonged to an island or a continent. The land was in fact the far south-eastern corner of the Australian continent, and Cook went on to chart the eastern coast of what was then known as New Holland, claiming it for Great Britain under the name of New South Wales.
Cook named many points of interest along the way. On 7 June 1770, four days after sighting the Whitsunday Passage off Queensland’s coast, Lieutenant James Cook sighted and named Palm Island. The island was named after the many cabbage tree palms growing there.
Australian Explorers
Saturday, June 7, 1823. : Explorers Ovens, Currie and Wild begin their return journey from the expedition in which they discover the expansive Monaro Plains.
In the early colonial days of New South Wales, the need for new grazing and croplands became paramount. Once the barrier of the Blue Mountains was crossed, and the first road constructed as far as Bathurst in 1815, numerous explorers attempted to penetrate further inland in search of fertile land.
On 22 May 1823, royal navy Lieutenant Mark Currie and Brigade Major John Ovens departed the farm of pastoralist Charles Throsby in search of grazing land. They were accompanied by bushman Joseph Wild who, together with Throsby, had already travelled extensively through the area, discovering Lake George three years earlier.
In June, Currie’s party became the first recorded Europeans to pass through the extensive open downs in the area. The party encountered a group of indigenous people who were initially wary of the expedition party, especially the horses. After offering biscuits and other gifts, Currie was able to communicate with the Aborigines, learning that the country was called “Monaroo”, a word possibly meaning ‘treeless plain’, as Currie noted that “It was strangely treeless, and had a great expanse of rolling rich grass lands.” Although Currie initially wanted to call the area Brisbane Downs after Governor Brisbane, the name became Monaro.
On 7 June 1823, after reaching their southernmost point, the exploration party began their return journey, disappointed that a shortage of provisions prevented them from exploring the downs further. Back in Sydney, Currie reported that the soil was good and well-watered, making it suitable for sheep grazing, although the hills were largely stony. Within a few years, squatters had moved their stock into the area, grazing their animals outside the boundaries along the Monaro. In 1836, a 10-pound licence fee was introduced for grazing stock outside the boundaries, and the squatters began droving their sheep down the valley of the Murrumbidgee River towards the region where Cooma now stands. From here, they spread west towards Adaminaby and south towards the Nimmitabel and Bombala areas, opening up the region for farming.
Australian History
Tuesday, June 7, 1825. : Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) officially separates from New South Wales.
Tasmania was first discovered by Abel Tasman on 24 November 1642. Tasman discovered the previously unknown island on his voyage past the “Great South Land”, or “New Holland”, as the Dutch called Australia. He named it “Antony Van Diemen’s Land” in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.
When the First Fleet arrived in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip claimed the entire eastern coast for the British Empire, including Tasmania, though it was not yet proven to be separate from the mainland. In January 1799 Bass and Flinders completed their circumnavigation of Tasmania, proving it to be an island. Tasmania was settled as a separate colony in 1803, but continued to be administered by the Governor of New South Wales. On 7 June 1825, Van Diemen’s Land was separated administratively from New South Wales, and Hobart Town was declared the capital of the colony. As the actual founding documents have not been located, there remains some conflict regarding the date, as some sources state this as occurring on 14 June 1825.
World History
Sunday, June 7, 1654. : Louis XIV is crowned King of France.
Louis XIV was born on 5 September 1638, the son of Louis XIII and Anne of Austria. He was christened “Louis-Dieudonné” (the latter word meaning “God-given”), and received the titles premier fils de France, meaning “First Son of France”, and the more traditional title Dauphin de Viennois. His father Louis XIII died in May 1643, and the four-year-old Louis XIV ascended the throne on 14 May 1643. However, he was not officially crowned King of France until 7 June 1654, almost three years after he officially “came of age”.
Also known as “Louis the Great” or “Le Grand Monarque”, his reign was the longest in French history and characterised by the significant expansion of French influence in Europe and colonisation abroad. An extravagant spender, he was also known as “The Sun King”, or “Le Roi Soleil”. Louis XIV waged four major wars: the War of Devolution, the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the Grand Alliance, and the War of the Spanish Succession. Louis XIV died on 1 September 1715.
World History
Sunday, June 7, 1942. : The Battle of Midway, between American and Japanese forces, ends with a US victory.
The Battle of Midway was a naval battle of World War II, during which land and carrier-based American planes engaged a Japanese fleet on its way to invade the Midway Islands. The battle, which continued for four days, finished on 7 June 1942 with a decisive victory for the US, and marked a turning point for the war in the Pacific.
The purpose of the Battle of Midway was to eliminate the United States as a strategic power in the Pacific. The Japanese intended to lure the American carrier fleet into a trap and destroy it by staging a feint toward Alaska. This would be followed by an invasion of Midway by a Japanese strike force. The US Pacific Fleet was expected to arrive at Midway in response to the invasion, whereby it would be destroyed by the superior Japanese fleet waiting unseen to the west. This would effectively finish off the US Pacific Fleet, and guarantee Japanese naval supremacy in the Pacific, whilst enabling the expansion of Japan’s defensive perimeter further from the Japanese Home Islands. The success of this operation was also considered preparatory for further operations against Fiji and Samoa, as well as an anticipated invasion of Hawaii.
American Intelligence determined that the Japanese were preparing to launch a massive offensive against an objective, and that the objective was the Midway Atoll, 1,600 km northwest of Hawaii. Because of US anticipation of the ambush, Japan lost four carriers, a cruiser, 292 aircraft and suffered 2,500 casualties, severely depleting its naval forces. The USA lost a carrier, a destroyer, 145 aircraft and suffered 307 casualties.