Australian Explorers
Tuesday, March 5, 1839. : George Grey discovers the Gascoyne River, longest river in Western Australia.
Sir George Edward Grey, born 14 April 1812, was Governor of South Australia, twice Governor of New Zealand, Governor of Cape Colony (South Africa), Premier of New Zealand and a writer. Prior to his political career, however, he was an explorer to one of Australia’s remotest regions – the northwest.
His first expedition to the area was in late 1837, but was beset with numerous problems including Aboriginal attack and intense heat and humidity (in some areas, over 50 degrees C) compounded by lack of water. Grey himself was speared in the hip and spent two weeks recovering. His first sight of luxuriant country beyond the Macdonald Range convinced him to continue, and after several more days, he discovered the Glenelg River, named after Lord Glenelg, the Colonial Secretary of State. He returned to Hanover Bay in April 1838, but was determined to make another attempt to penetrate inland, hoping to find an overland route to Perth.
Grey departed on his next expedition to the northwest in February 1839. Insufficient water impeded the party’s progress until, after pushing on through thick mangrove swamps, the men arrived at what is now called the Gascoyne River. Arriving there on 5 March 1839, Grey described it as “a stream of magnitude”; indeed, the river is the longest in Western Australia, extending 800km from the Carnarvon Range to the ocean. However, the teeming multitudes of immigrants that Grey envisaged as settling the area never eventuated.
Australian History
Saturday, March 5, 1803. : Australia’s first newspaper is printed.
Australia was built on the skills of the convicts. This was important for the construction of the first buildings, roads and bridges. Convicts were also significant to the colony’s early literary and intellectual development.
In November 1800, convict transport ship “The Royal Admiral” brought George Howe to Australia’s shores. Howe was born in the West Indies but was well-educated in classical European literature, and he had extensive printing experience. His original death sentence for shoplifting in England was commuted to transportation to New South Wales. His skills in printing were immediately put to use for the publication of government documents. In 1802 he issued the first book printed in Australia, “New South Wales General Standing Orders”, which listed Government and General Orders issued between 1791 and 1802.
Howe was also permitted to commence Australia’s first newspaper, which he printed from a shed at the back of Government House. On 5 March 1803, publication commenced of “The Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser”. Initially it was printed weekly, and held four portfolio pages of official material, with a small number of private notices. Early editions comprised shipping news, auction results, crime reports and agricultural notices, poems, literature, and religious advice. Due to the lengthy shipping journeys, overseas news tended to be out of date by 10-14 weeks, but it was still eagerly received by the public.
Howe’s newspaper remained the only one in Sydney until the appearance of explorer William Wentworth’s “The Australian” in 1824.
Australian History
Tuesday, March 5, 2002. : The last commercial Ansett Airlines flight completes its run from Perth to Sydney.
Australia’s national airline is Qantas. However, for nearly seven decades, the domestic airline scene had another significant player in Ansett Airlines.
Ansett Airways Pty Ltd was founded by Sir Reginald Myles “Reg” Ansett in 1935. The very first flight, a single engine Fokker Universal, departed Hamilton, Victoria bound for Melbourne, on 17 February 1936. In 1957, Ansett Airways became Ansett-ANA after taking over the private airline Australian National Airways (ANA), which had gone bankrupt. Further acquisitions of domestic airlines occurred in ensuing decades, and Ansett continued to operate very profitably, well into the latter years of the twentieth century.
In 1987, Ansett made its first international flights, expanding into New Zealand through its subsidiary Ansett New Zealand. Although Air New Zealand had previously become a 50% shareholder, it acquired full ownership of Ansett in February 2000. Unfortunately, a series of poor financial decisions meant that Ansett became more of a liability than an asset to Air New Zealand, and in September 2001, Air New Zealand placed the Ansett group of companies into voluntary administration. Despite an attempt by the federal government to prop up Ansett via government guarantee, the last commercial flight, AN152 from Perth to Sydney, touched down just after 6am on 5 March 2002.
World History
Monday, March 5, 1770. : The Boston Massacre occurs, as British troops fire on American demonstrators.
The Boston Massacre of 1770 was a catalyst to the American Revolution several years later. The incident grew out of the resentment felt by the Americans against the British troops sent to maintain law and order in the colony. There was a tendency for groups of young men to taunt the troops until finally, on 5 March 1770, the troops fired into a rioting crowd. Three Americans were killed immediately, and two more died later from their wounds. British captain Thomas Preston and his men were tried for murder: Preston and six of his men were acquitted, whilst two others were found guilty of manslaughter, punished, and released.
The pressure that resulted from the “massacre” caused Lieutenant Governor Thomas Hutchinson to withdraw the troops to an island in the harbour. Whilst this temporarily eased the tensions, it also highlighted the fact that the British were unwelcome, and unable to maintain the law and order they were supposedly there to protect. The incident laid the foundation for Americans to fight for their independence against British rule.
World History
Friday, March 5, 1937. : The USA formally apologises to Nazi Germany for the New York mayor’s reference to Hitler as a “brown-shirted fanatic”.
Fiorello La Guardia was born to poor Italian immigrants in 1882. After earning his law degree through night school, he was appointed as the Deputy Attorney General of New York in 1914. He served in the armed forces during World War I, then returned to New York to run for the House of Representatives in 1922. Winning the election, he served as congressman until early 1933. He then became Mayor of New York City for three terms from 1934 to 1945, during which time he revitalised New York city, instigating reforms that served the people well.
La Guardia was wary of Hitler’s influence and strongly critical of his policies and the methods of the Nazi regime as Hitler began to gain power during the 1930s. He warned of Hitler’s agenda to eradicate the Jewish race as early as 1934. In 1937, he called for the creation of a special pavilion at the upcoming 1939 New York World’s Fair: “a chamber of horrors” for “that brown-shirted fanatic.”
La Guardia’s inflammatory delivery was quickly denounced, and on 5 March 1937, the United States officially apologised for the statement. However, this action did not stop La Guardia from continuing to be an outspoken activist up until his death in 1947.
World History
Tuesday, March 5, 1946. : Winston Churchill first popularises the phrase ‘Iron Curtain’ in his famous oration prior to the Cold War.
The “Iron Curtain” refers to the boundary which symbolically, politically and physically divided Europe into two separate zones from the end of World War II until the end of the Cold War, approximately 1945 to 1990. While the Iron Curtain was in place, some Eastern and Central European countries, apart from West Germany, Liechtenstein, Switzerland and Austria, were under the political influence of the Soviet Union. To the west of the Iron Curtain the remainder of Europe operated market economies and was, for the most part, ruled by democratic governments.
The term “Iron Curtain” was used during World War II by German Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels and later Count Lutz Schwerin von Krosigk in the closing days of the war. Its use, however, was popularised by the former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who used it in his “Sinews of Peace” address at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri, on 5 March 1946:
“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic an “iron curtain” has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”
Churchill’s use of the term “Iron Curtain” came to symbolise the beginning of the Cold War. This was the period marked by political tension and military rivalry, stopping just short of escalating into full-scale war, between the West as represented by the USA, and the East headed by the Soviet Union.
World History
Friday, March 5, 2004. : Officers of the Mexican airforce film a group of UFOs visible in infrared footage but invisible to the naked eye.
Unidentified Flying Objects have long attracted man’s fascination, and the sightings have continued well into modern times. Mexico is a virtual hotspot of UFO activity, with some reports appearing legitimate and others unsubstantiated.
On 5 March 2004, Mexican air force pilots captured infrared footage of a group of 11 UFOs flying in apparent formation over southern Campeche. The UFOs flew at an altitude of about 3,500 metres, and changed speed and direction regularly, even appearing at one stage to be encircling the aircraft that was on a routine anti-drug trafficking reconnaissance mission.
What was particularly unusual about this group of UFOs was the fact that they could not be seen with the naked eye. Three of the objects appeared on radar, and eleven showed up on infrared film footage. They were reported to have mass and energy, and to be capable of moving freely.