Australian History
Wednesday, December 26, 1945. : The first Sydney to Hobart yacht race is held.
The Sydney to Hobart yacht race is a major Australian event held annually on Boxing Day. Hosted by the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia, the race starts in Sydney on Boxing Day and finishes in Hobart, a distance of 1167km, or 630 nautical miles.
The first race was held on 26 December 1945, and included nine starters. The inaugural race winner was “Rani”. Initially intended to be a cruise between the two cities, the race has grown over the years to attract international interest, with maxi-yachts from the US, the UK and Europe competing.
Australian History
Friday, December 26, 1947. : The territory of Heard and McDonald Islands is transferred from Britain to Australia.
Heard Island and McDonald Islands together form one of Australia’s external, offshore territories. Located in the Southern Ocean, about 4 100 km southwest of Perth and 1 700 km from Antarctica, they are the world’s only volcanically active subantarctic islands. Mawson Peak, with an elevation of 2 745m, is situated on Heard Island and is the highest peak in any Australian territory. Regarded as one of the world’s wildest and most remote places, the territory has the distinction of being one of very few places where no known species has been introduced directly by Man, even though sealers regularly occupied Heard Island between 1855 and 1929.
Heard Island was believed to have first been sighted by British sealer Peter Kemp in 1833, and he is thought to have entered it on his 1833 navigation charts. The island was named after American Captain John Heard who, in December 1853, reported sighting the island a month earlier. Six weeks later, Captain William McDonald discovered the nearby McDonald Islands.
In 1910, the United Kingdom made a formal claim to Heard Island. They remained as British possessions until 26 December 1947, when effective government, administration and control of Heard and McDonald Islands was transferred to Australia.
Special Days
Tuesday, December 26, 1871. : Today is Boxing Day, also known as St Stephen’s Day.
December 26 is known as Boxing Day in England and other countries in the Commonwealth, but it is unknown when it first began. It was gazetted as a national holiday in England, Wales, Ireland and Canada in 1871.
The holiday appears to have originated in the mid nineteenth century in England. Some historians believe the name ‘Boxing Day’ came about because this was when the boxes placed in churches where parishioners deposited alms (coins) for the poor were opened. The contents were distributed on December 26, which is also the Feast of St Stephen, who was the first Christian martyr. Others believe that the Boxing Day tradition originated as a holiday for members of the upper class to give boxes containing food, clothing or money to tradespeople and servants, in much the same way that many employers offer their employees bonuses today. These gifts were usually given in boxes; hence the name ‘Boxing Day”.
World History
Friday, December 26, 2003. : The Iranian city of Bam and its ancient Citadel are razed in an earthquake which kills 50,000.
The city of Bam lies in the Kerman Province of Iran, about 1000km southeast of Tehran, near the Lut desert. Bam city is believed to have been founded during the Parthian empire which ruled from 250 BCE to 226 CE. Central to the city was the Bam Citadel, the world’s largest adobe structure, believed to have dated back to before 500 BC and remaining in use until 1850 AD. Prior to 2003, the estimated population of Bam was 97,000.
At 5:26am local time on 26 December 2003, Bam was struck by an earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale. The epicentre was around 10 kilometres southwest of the city. Figures from January 17 indicate that 56,230 people were killed in the earthquake, which also destroyed 80 percent of the citadel and 70 percent of the city of Bam. Destruction was widespread as most buildings in the city were constructed also of adobe, and thus did not comply with earthquake regulations set in Iran in 1989. Many of the victims died because they suffocated from the dust released with the collapse of the adobe buildings. Another 29 serious aftershocks followed the initial quake.
Aid poured in from many countries to aid the homeless and to assist with the rebuilding of the ancient citadel. The city and the citadel are still being rebuilt.
World History
Sunday, December 26, 2004. : Hundreds of thousands of people die as a tsunami hits southern Asia.
Boxing Day, 2004, will long be remembered as the day southern Asia was devastated. An earthquake under the sea near Aceh, north Indonesia, in the Indian Ocean, generated a huge tsunami – the biggest the world had seen for 40 years. The earthquake, known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake, registered 9.15 on the Richter scale. It hit at one minute before 8:00am, lifting the ocean floor by 40 metres and generating a gigantic wave which quickly built up and spread out, extending to thirteen countries. An estimated 230,000 people were killed, with at least 128,000 of them in Indonesia alone. Over one million were left homeless.
The wave, travelling at up to 800 kilometres per hour, hit the northern regions of the Indonesian island of Sumatra within fifteen minutes, while Sri Lanka, Thailand and the east coast of India were hit between 90 minutes and two hours later. Somalia was struck about seven hours later. Other countries hit included Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Seychelles and the Indian-owned Andaman and Nicobar Islands. Some 8,500 km away, the coastal village of Struisbaai in South Africa, a 1.5 m “high tide” surged onshore about 16 hours after the quake.
The rest of the world was quick to respond with aid which eventually totalled around 12 billion dollars.