Born on this day
Friday, March 14, 1879. : Physicist Albert Einstein is born.
Albert Einstein was born on 14 March 1879 at Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. At six he began learning to play the violin and became a gifted amateur violinist, although it is said that once, in a violent temper, he threw a chair at his teacher. Einstein was considered a slow learner, possibly due to dyslexia, simple shyness, or the significantly rare and unusual structure of his brain, which upon his request was removed and examined after his death. There is a persistent rumour that he failed mathematics later in his education, but this is untrue; a change in the way grades were assigned caused confusion years later.
Einstein was passionately interested in physics and mathematics and read eagerly in both subjects. He is perhaps best known for his development of the special and general theories of relativity. This theory considered all observers to be equivalent, not only those moving at a uniform speed. In general relativity, gravity is no longer a force, as it was in Newton’s law of gravity, but is a consequence of the curvature of space-time. Einstein’s equation E = mc2 proposed that the energy in matter is equal to its mass multiplied by the square of the velocity of light. This equation explained how stars, like our own sun, can emit large amounts of light while losing very little mass The equation also anticipated the splitting of the atom and led to the development of nuclear fission and the atomic bomb. Einstein won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his explanation of the photoelectric effect.
In the early years of the 20th century Einstein advanced theories that proposed entirely new ways of thinking about space, time, and gravitation and revolutionised scientific and philosophic inquiry. He died on 18 April 1955.
Australian History
Sunday, March 14, 1790. : William Bligh arrives back in London a year after the Mutiny on the Bounty, in which he was cast off his own boat.
William Bligh was born in Plymouth, south-west England, on 9 September 1754. He was only 8 when he first went to sea. At age 22, he was chosen to join Captain Cook’s crew on the ‘Resolution’, and became commander of the ‘HMAV Bounty’ eleven years later.
The famous mutiny on the Bounty occurred after Bligh left Tahiti on his way to the Caribbean. After enjoying the culture of the Tahitians for several months, Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian led the mutiny, supported by a small number of the ship’s crew who hoped to return to Tahiti, and who could no longer tolerate Bligh’s irascible ways and strong disciplinarian stance. On 28 April 1789, Bligh and most of his own supporters were set adrift on a 7m launch. Further numbers of supporters remained on the Bounty, but the launch was already at sea level and could not take on any more men. Bligh was given a sextant and enough provisions to enable them to reach the closest ports, but no means of navigation. Bligh chose not to head for the closer Spanish ports, which would have slowed down the process of bringing the mutineers to justice, but used his recollection of Cook’s maps to head for Timor on a 41-day journey of nearly six thousand kilometres. From here, he stood a better chance of communicating quickly to British vessels which could pursue the mutineers.
After recovering in Timor and being tended to by the inhabitants of the Dutch colony, Captain Bligh finally returned to England, arriving there on 14 March 1790. His men had suffered starvation, scurvy and dehydration. Whilst some of the men died from the ravages of the journey, many of them survived to serve in the Royal Navy once more. Bligh himself was honourably acquitted in a London court, and later assigned as Governor to the fledgling colony of New South Wales.
Australian History
Saturday, March 14, 1942. : Japanese bombers make the first of nine attacks against Horn Island in Torres Strait.
During World War II, the first real attack of the Japanese on an Australian base occurred with the bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942. That attack scattered the naval base at Darwin and demoralised Australians. Darwin continued to be bombed dozens more times over the following months, while other localities, both on the Australian mainland and offshore, also came under fire.
Horn Island is a small island which lies off the tip of Queensland’s Cape York Peninsula, in Torres Strait. Just 53 km2 in area, it is known as Nurupai by its indigenous inhabitants. The island was settled by Europeans during the nineteenth century, mined for gold during the 1890s, and established as a pearling centre in the first half of the twentieth century. In the opening years of World War II, a large Allied air base was built, named the Horn Island Aerodrome, and used as a staging base for Allied aircraft between Australia and New Guinea, while any non-military and non-indigenous people were evacuated to the mainland.
The first of nine Japanese bombing attacks occurred on Horn Island on 14 March 1942. Mid-morning, eight G4M1 Betty bombers departed the Japanese base at Rabaul and were joined by twelve A6M2 Zeros for escort from Lae. Reaching Horn Island at 11:25am, they dropped 78 x 60kg bombs, 32 of which struck the island. Fortunately, no-one on the ground was killed. The Japanese bombers were intercepted by nine Kittyhawks of the 7th Pursuit Squadron which shot down two Zeros and claimed one bomber.
The defence of Torres Strait from Horn Island remains a little-known facet of World War II, but it was crucial, as Horn Island was the nearest operational airbase to the Japanese forces in New Guinea. Interestingly, early in 1997, divers located the wreck of one of the Zeroes near Thursday Island.
Australian History
Tuesday, March 14, 1989. : Motpena, South Australia, records the state’s highest ever rainfall in a single day.
Motpena is a locality and homestead near the Flinders Ranges of South Australia, east of Lake Torrens and west of the tiny town of Parachilna. Although classified as a mid-latitude steppe, it has the distinction of receiving South Australia’s highest rainfall in a single day since records have been kept.
1988 to 1990 saw a particularly wet period in many parts of Australia, with flooding in western Queensland and significant rain in the Lake Eyre basin. On 14 March 1989, Motpena recorded 272.6 mm of rainfall within a 24-hour period. It was closely followed by 247 mm at Nilpena and 246 mm at Balcanoona on the same day. The rains during this wet season also resulted in the filling of Lake Eyre to a depth of 3m.
South Australia is the driest state. By contrast, Australia’s highest ever rainfall in a single day was recorded at Crohamhurst, Queensland, in February 1893, when 907 mm fell.
World History
Saturday, March 14, 1964. : The killer of President John F Kennedy’s assassin is sentenced to the electric chair.
John F Kennedy, often known simply as JFK, was the 35th President of the United States. He served from 1961 until his presidential term was cut tragically short when he was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on Friday, 22 November 1963 while on a political trip through Texas. Three shots were fired at his open-topped car, hitting him in the head and throat. He was taken to Parkland Hospital, but died thirty-five minutes after being shot. Kennedy was the fourth US President to be assassinated, and the eighth to die while in office.
Within an hour of the shooting, Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and later charged with the assassination of President Kennedy. Two days later, nightclub owner Jack Ruby shot Oswald as he was being transferred from police headquarters in Dallas to the county jail, at the centre of a large crowd of police officers, reporters and camera crews.
On 14 March 1964, Jack Ruby was convicted of the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald, and sentenced to death in the electric chair. However, Ruby’s lawyers appealed on the grounds that the excessive publicity in Dallas prohibited Ruby from receiving a fair trial. The appeal was successful, and Ruby’s conviction and death sentence was overturned. However, while awaiting a new trial, Ruby died of a pulmonary embolism in hospital on 3 January, 1967.
Special Days
Saturday, March 14, 1592. : Today is ‘Pi Day’, a celebration of the mathematical formula of Pi.
Pi, in mathematics, is the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter, and is represented by the symbol π. The ratio is the same for all circles and is approximately 3.14159. March 14, written 3-14 in the USA date format, is an unofficial celebration for Pi Day derived from the common three-digit approximation for the number π: 3.14. It is usually celebrated at 1:59 pm, in recognition of the six-digit approximation of 3.14159. Pi Day may be celebrated in a variety of ways. Groups of people, typically pi clubs, give thought to the role that the number π has played in their lives. Pi celebrants may hand out Pi Day greeting cards, devise alternative values for π, eat pi (pie), play pi (piñata), drink pi (Piña Colada) or watch π (Pi (film)). Enthusiasts also note that the day happens to be Albert Einstein’s birthday.
The ultimate pi day occurred on 14 March 1592 at 6:53am and 59 seconds. When written in American-style date format, this is 3/14/1592 6:53.59, which corresponds to the first twelve digits of pi: 3.14159265359 (rounded off, as the absolutely exact value of pi cannot be computed). However, considering this was well before any kind of standardised world time had been established, and the general public had no concept of π, the occurrence likely went unnoticed.