Born on this day

Sunday, January 30, 1910. :   British actor, David Niven, is born.

James David Graham Niven was born on 30 January 1910 in London, England. After attending Stowe as a boy, Niven trained at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which gave him the “officer and gentleman” bearing that became his trademark both on and off the stage. When he first arrived in Hollywood in the 1930s, he worked mainly as an extra in westerns, until his first walk-on part in Mutiny on the Bounty (1935), progressing to leading man in the comedy Bachelor Mother (1939).

During World War II he served in the British army, attaining the rank of colonel in the British Commandos and landing at Normandy. He resumed his career afterwards with roles such as Phileas Fogg in Around the World in Eighty Days and James Bond in the unofficial series spoof Casino Royale. He also handled serious drama, and won an Oscar for his role in Separate Tables (1958).

In the 1970s Niven published two humorous autobiographies of his life in the movies, The Moon’s A Balloon (1971) and Bring On the Empty Horses (1975). Niven died in Switzerland in 1983 of Motor Neurone Disease, also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

Australian Explorers

Sunday, January 30, 1774. :   Captain Cook sails closer to the South Pole than any known person has previously sailed.

Captain James Cook is known for being the first European to sight the eastern coast of Australia, thus paving the way for British settlement of the continent. Two years after this journey, in 1772, Cook was sent again to discover if another great land lay east of Australia. Commanding the ship, the ‘Resolution’, Cook became the first known European to cross the Antarctic Circle, on 17 January 1773, in latitude 67 degrees south. However, pack ice and the solid freezing of the ship’s sails prevented further exploration of the region.

A year later, Cook crossed the Antarctic Circle again. This time, he penetrated to 71 degrees 10’S, on 30 January 1774, but met with thick pack ice that prevented further progression. This was the furthest south and closest to the South Pole that any known person had ever been.

Australian History

Monday, January 30, 1854. :   The first Cobb & Co coach departs Melbourne for the Forest Creek goldfields.

The discovery of gold in Australia in the 1850s brought with it an immediate need for faster and better forms of transport. Four enterprising Americans saw a way to fill this need. Freeman Cobb, John Murray Peck, James Swanton and John Lamber started a network of horse and coach runs in a manner similar to what operated in the United States. Originally called the American Telegraph Line of Coaches, the name was later changed to Cobb & Co. Specially sprung coaches that could handle Australia’s rough roads and rocky tracks were imported from America for the enterprise. Horses were replaced at changing stations 25 to 40 kilometres apart, meaning that fresher horses improved travelling time.

Cobb & Co’s first run was on 30 January 1854, departing Melbourne for the Forest Creek diggings (now Castlemaine) and Bendigo. The network of routes was quickly expanded to deal with increased demand in the growing colony of Victoria. Initially a passenger service, Cobb & Co’s reputation for speed and reliable service soon saw it being used for mail delivery and gold escort as well.

Headquarters were moved from Victoria to Bathurst in 1862. Workshops were built at Hay and Bourke in New South Wales and Castlemaine in Victoria, and the service was expanded to include Queensland. The first Cobb & Co coach in Queensland ran from Brisbane to Ipswich on 1 January 1866. The railway line took passengers from Ipswich to Grandchester, and another Cobb & Co service took the passengers from Grandchester on up to Toowoomba.

World History

Tuesday, January 30, 1945. :   The Wilhelm Gustloff sinks in the worst disaster in shipping history.

The Wilhelm Gustloff was a ship built by Blohm & Voss and named after the assassinated leader of the Nazi party in Switzerland, Wilhelm Gustloff. Launched on 5 May 1937, it served first as a German cruise ship, then as a hospital ship. During WWII, the Wilhelm Gustloff was used mainly as a barracks ship for U-boat trainees.

Departing Gdingen early on 30 January 1945 for what was to be its final voyage, the Wilhelm Gustloff carried a cargo of evacuated civilians and wounded German soldiers and sailors. It was escorted by a single torpedo boat. When the ship activated its red and green navigation lights in order to avoid a potential collision with an oncoming minesweeper convoy, it was sighted by the Soviet submarine S-13. The Wilhelm Gustloff was torpedoed 30 kilometres off shore and took three direct hits soon after 9.00pm. 70 minutes later it sank. Because the ship was carrying refugees, there were thousands more passengers than its official carrying capacity of 2,000 allowed. Estimates have suggested that there were between 6,000 and 10,000 on board. The official death toll was 6,050 people, but again, figures suggest that perhaps as many as 9,500 were killed that day, making the disaster the worst in shipping history.

World History

Friday, January 30, 1948. :   Political leader and humanitarian, Mahatma Gandhi, is assassinated.

Mahatma Gandhi was born Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi on 2 October 1869 in Porbandar, India. Gandhi was a peace-loving man who initially trained as a barrister in England, but was unsuccessful in pursuing a career in law once he returned to India. After accepting a post to Natal, South Africa, Gandhi experienced frequent humiliation and oppression commonly directed at Indians in South Africa. This caused him to then spend two decades fighting for the rights of immigrants in South Africa.

After WWI broke out, Gandhi returned to India. Here, he turned his back on western influences to embrace a life of abstinence and spirituality. Inspired by the American writer Henry David Thoreau’s famous essay on “Civil Disobedience”, Gandhi implemented his own campaign of non-violent civil disobedience to bring about change in Britain’s oppression of Indians within their own country. Although frequently jailed by the British authorities, pressure from his followers usually secured his release before he fasted himself to death. Following WWII, he participated in negotiations which eventually led to India gaining independence from Britain.

Gandhi advocated that all people were equal under one God. On 30 January 1948, he was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic who could not accept Gandhi’s belief that Muslims had equal value to Hindus and no-one was better than anybody else.