Australian History
Friday, March 1, 1901. : The Postmaster-General’s Department in Australia is put into effect.
In the early years of settlement in Australia, there was no official postal service. It was only after the arrival of Governor Macquarie that Australia’s first postmaster, Isaac Nichols, was appointed. This occurred in 1809, and the first official post office was opened by Governor Macquarie in Sydney in June 1810. Over the next ninety years, each of the colonies of Australia instituted their own postal services, and by 1844, every town was serviced by a post box.
It was not until after Federation that Australia’s various postal services were all centralised under one name: the Postmaster-General’s Department. The PMG became effective on 1 March 1901. It controlled all postal services in Australia, and later also controlled the telecommunications services. All stamps being used by the states at the time were still current until 1913, when the Commonwealth’s standard stamp series was adopted.
The PMG was disaggregated in July 1975 into the Australian Postal Commission, which traded as Australia Post, and the Australian Telecommunications Commission, or Telecom (later Telstra).
Australian History
Friday, March 1, 1901. : The Australian army and navy are formed.
From the time that Australia was colonised in 1788, defence forces in Australia were initially supplied and maintained by Great Britain. The colonies gained responsible government between 1855 and 1890, and the colonial Governors were granted authority from the Crown to raise their own fighting units, which were initially supported by Great Britain. However, the cost of maintaining these forces in the Australian colonies came under increasing scrutiny in the British House of Commons. Consequently, in March 1862, it was “resolved that those colonies which had achieved responsible government would have to bear the cost of their own internal defences”. Accordingly, British military support ceased in 1870, with responsibility for defence then being assumed by the various colonial governments.
On 1 January 1901, federation of the colonies was achieved, and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. Two months later, on 1 March 1901, all state naval and military forces were transferred to Commonwealth control.
Australian History
Sunday, March 1, 1942. : Japanese forces sink the HMS Perth, resulting in the loss of over 350 men.
The ‘Perth’ was originally laid down by HM Dockyard at Portsmouth in June 1933 and launched on 26 July 1934. After the Australian government purchased it, it was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy as HMAS Perth at Portsmouth on 29 June 1939. By February 1942 Perth was one of very few major Allied warships in what was known as the ABDA area, or the combined Australian, British, Dutch and American theatre in south-east Asia. Late that month, the ABDA squadron moved in from Surabaya in eastern Java to intercept and oppose the Japanese forces approaching from the Makassar Strait. This resulted in the Battle of the Java Sea, which saw the loss of three Allied destroyers and the withdrawal of the heavy cruiser HMS Exeter, due to damage. No Japanese ships were lost.
The remaining Allied cruisers, HMAS Perth and USS Houston, were ordered to sail through Sunda Strait to Tjilatjap. On the night of 1 March 1942, they encountered a Japanese amphibious landing force including aircraft carriers, battleships, three cruisers and ten destroyers, near Batavia. The two Allied cruisers managed to sink two Japanese destroyers and four loaded troop transports before being overwhelmed and sunk. Of the 680 men aboard the Perth, 357 were lost. Survivors were gradually picked up by Japanese warships and became prisoners of war, where they were ultimately sent to labour on the Burma-Thailand railway. Of the 320 who were captured, 105 or nearly one-third died before they were liberated in 1945.
Australian History
Saturday, March 1, 1975. : Colour television begins broadcasting in Australia.
The history of colour television goes back to an early patent application in Russia in 1889 for a mechanically-scanned color system. John Logie Baird, instrumental in the development of television, demonstrated the world’s first colour transmission on 3 July 1928. It was not until after WWII, however, that experimental colour television broadcasts were transmitted in various locations around the world; 1953 in the USA and 1967 in Europe.
In Australia, colour transmissions began to be tested on the commercial television networks on 19 October 1974. Colour television was officially implemented on 1 March 1975, with the first news colour bulletin read by James Dibble of the Australian Broadcasting Commission. Dibble had also read the first televised news bulletin on ABN-2 Sydney in November 1956. Colour television proved to be so popular that, by 1978, two-thirds of Australian viewers had bought a colour set.
World History
Monday, March 1, 1700. : Today is the feast day of St David, patron saint of Wales.
St David is the patron saint of Wales. Known as Dewi Sant in the Welsh language, St David was born around the end of the fifth century, the son of King Sant of South Wales. His mother was St Non. A major influence in his life was his teacher, St Paulinus. After being ordained a priest, David became deeply involved in missionary work and founded several monasteries. He was instrumental in spreading Christianity among the pagan Celtic tribes of Western Britain. An ascetic who drank neither wine nor beer, David was elected primate of the Cambrian Church and later Archbishop of Wales. He remained in his community at Menevia, dying there around the year 589. Menevia is now known as St David’s.
The feast day of St David is held on 1 March every year. Commemorating the death of St David in 601 AD (though the actual year is uncertain) and increasingly popular since the Middle Ages, the date was declared a National Day of Celebration in Wales during the 18th century. In 2000, the National Assembly for Wales voted unanimously to make St David’s Day a public holiday. The day is celebrated with parades and musical events such as eisteddfodau, along with various sporting and cultural activities according to different regions. It is a day when the flag of St David can be seen flying throughout Wales.
World History
Wednesday, March 1, 1978. : Actor Charlie Chaplin’s grave is ransacked, the coffin removed and held for ransom.
Charlie Chaplin was an actor, writer, director, producer, composer and choreographer, whose main legacy was some 80 mostly silent films. He is best remembered for his “Little Tramp” character, with his toothbrush moustache, bowler hat, bamboo cane and his idiosyncratic walk.
Chaplin died on 25 December 1977 in Vevey, Switzerland, where he had lived for decades, and was buried in Corsier-Sur-Vevey Cemetery. On 1 March 1978, his body was stolen in an attempt to extort money from his family. While his wife refused to pay the $600,000 in ransom, saying it was not important where his body lay, other family members worked with police to negotiate, via telephone calls, the return of the body for $250,000. Police traced the calls to a public phone box and set up a dragnet. The robbers, a 24-year-old Polish mechanic and his Bulgarian accomplice, were captured. Chaplin’s body was recovered in its unopened coffin, 11 weeks after it was initially taken, near Lake Geneva. After Chaplin’s coffin was returned to Vevey, it was reinterred, sealed in concrete.