Australian Explorers
Saturday, June 13, 1874. : Explorer John Forrest’s party fires upon Aborigines during an attack in central Western Australia.
John Forrest was born on 22 August 1847, near Bunbury in Western Australia. Between the years of 1869 to 1874, Forrest led three expeditions, two of them with his brother Alexander, to explore the uncharted areas of Western Australia. In 1869, he led the search for Ludwig Leichhardt’s party which had gone missing on their trek across Australia from east to west, a search which was unsuccessful. In 1870, he surveyed the route which Edward Eyre had taken in 1840-41 from Adelaide to Albany, across the Great Australian Bight.
In April 1874, the brothers departed Geraldton with three experienced white men, two aborigines and enough supplies for eight months, in search of a stock route and pastureland to the east. During this expedition, on 13 June 1874, the exploration party was attacked by Aborigines. The Aborigines retreated only when two of them were badly wounded by rifle fire. It is thought that the Aborigines attacked because the Forrest party was camping on sacred ground.
Australian History
Thursday, June 13, 1816. : Sydney’s Royal Botanic Gardens are founded.
The Royal Botanic Gardens in Sydney are located in the heart of the city’s CBD, at the edge of Sydney Harbour. Besides being the oldest Botanic Gardens in Australia, they are also the home of the oldest scientific institution in the southern hemisphere. Taking up an area of approximately 30 hectares, the land was originally used as an initiation ground by the indigenous Cadigal people, who referred to the area as Woccanmagully. After the First Fleet arrived in 1788, the land was cleared for farming, giving rise to the name Farm Cove. The first crop of grain was harvested in July that year.
Governor Arthur Phillip laid the foundation plate for Australia’s first Government House, and reserved Farm Cove as crown land. By 1802, the gardens had begun to be planted with a collection of native and exotic plants. Between 1794 and 1807, with the desperate need for farmland, plots of ground adjoining Farm Cove were leased privately, and houses built. Part of the land originally set aside by Arthur Phillip was the Governor’s demesne, later The Domain. This, too, had been encroached upon by private farms, so in 1807, Governor William Bligh began to remove the private farms and houses to reclaim the demesne and begin the construction of a road system. After Bligh was deposed during the Rum Rebellion, Governor Lachlan Macquarie formally established ‘The Demesne’ for Government House, removing all remaining buildings. Originally, the Governor’s Demesne extended from present-day Circular Quay to Woolloomooloo, and included Bennelong Point, the Royal Botanic Gardens, Lady Macquarie’s Chair and the Domain.
Governor Macquarie completed the road system which Bligh began. This included the ring road now known as Mrs Macquarie’s Road. The road was finished on 13 June 1816, on a date that has come to be regarded as Foundation Day for the Botanic Gardens. Gradually over time, the size of the Governor’s Domain shrank, while regulations against the use of the area by the public were relaxed. The Royal epithet for the Botanical Gardens was granted in 1959.
Australian History
Wednesday, June 13, 1923. : Australia sees the introduction of Vegemite.
Vegemite is the registered brand name for a dark brown, salty food paste made from yeast extract, mainly used as a spread on sandwiches and toast. It is popular in Australia and is known as one of Australia’s national foods. The iconic Australian spread was first developed in 1922 by food technologist Dr Cyril P Callister when his employer, the Australian Fred Walker Company, had him develop a spread from brewer’s yeast after World War I had disrupted the supply of imported yeast spreads.
A trade name competition was held to find a name for the new product, and the winning name of Vegemite was chosen from the entries by Walker’s daughter Sheilah, by being picked at random out of a hat. The product was introduced to the Australian public on 13 June 1923. Initial interest and sales were slow, but the product endured through a name change to “Parwill”, then a return to “Vegemite” in 1935. Largely an acquired taste, Vegemite is notorious for the dislike it generates amongst some foreigners.
Australian History
Wednesday, June 13, 1951. : Former Australian Prime Minister, Ben Chifley, dies.
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 Australia’s 16th 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, on 13 June 1951, Chifley died of a heart attack.
World History
Wednesday, June 13, 1990. : Official demolition of the Berlin Wall begins.
The Berlin Wall, which stood as a symbol of the Cold War for nearly thirty years, was originally erected overnight on 13 August 1961, when the Eastern and Western halves of Berlin were separated by barbed wire fences up to 1.83 metres high. The barbed wire was gradually replaced 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 its fall. On 9 November 1989, an international press conference began in East Berlin. Huge demonstrations against political repression had been continuing for months. At the conclusion of the peace conference, greater freedom of travel was announced for people of the German Democratic Republic. At midnight, the East German government allowed gates along the Wall to be opened after hundreds of people converged on crossing points. In the ensuing weeks, many people then took to the wall with hammers and chisels, dismantling it piece by piece.
The official demolition of the Berlin wall began on 13 June 1990, and was undertaken by former East German border guards under a democratically elected government.
World History
Friday, June 13, 1997. : Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh is sentenced to death.
On 19 April 1995, Oklahoma City was the target of a terrorist attack. At 9:02am, a rented truck containing about 2,300 kg of explosive material exploded in the street in front of the Alfred P Murrah federal building, a US government office complex. The truck bomb was composed of ammonium nitrate, an agricultural fertiliser, and nitromethane, a highly volatile motor-racing fuel. 168 were killed in the explosion, including 19 children attending a day-care centre in the building. 800 more people were injured, while over 300 buildings in the surrounding area were destroyed or seriously damaged, leaving several hundred people homeless and shutting down offices in downtown Oklahoma City.
Within an hour of the explosion, 29-year-old Gulf War veteran Timothy McVeigh was arrested, travelling north out of Oklahoma City after being pulled over for driving without a licence plate by an Oklahoma highway patrolman. At the trial, the United States Government asserted that McVeigh’s motivation for the attack was to avenge the deaths two years earlier of Branch Davidians near Waco, Texas, whom he believed had been murdered by agents of the federal government. On 13 June 1997, Timothy McVeigh was sentenced to death by a jury consisting of seven men and five women, who unanimously voted that McVeigh should die by lethal injection. He was executed by lethal injection at a US penitentiary in Terre Haute, Indiana, on 11 June 2001.