Born on this day
Saturday, March 18, 1944. : Dick Smith, Australian businessman, entrepreneur and aviator, is born.
Richard Harold ‘Dick’ Smith was born on 18 March 1944 in Roseville, Sydney. In 1968, he founded electronics retailer Dick Smith Electronics, which he sold to Woolworths in 1982. A multi-millionaire, he generously supports charities whilst also encouraging the growth of the Australian product market. To that end, he has launched a range of products which are entirely Australian made and Australian owned, such as Dick Smith foods, which he founded in 1999.
Dick Smith has made numerous ‘firsts’ as an aviator. In 1983, he made the first solo helicopter flight around the world, landing on container ships at sea to refuel. In 1987, he made the first helicopter flight to the North Pole, and he was the first person to fly around the world via the poles in 1989. In 1993, he made the first non-stop balloon crossing of the Australian continent, and in 2000 he made the first Trans-Tasman Balloon flight.
Other achievements include founding the magazine Australian Geographic in 1985, a National Geographic-style magazine focussing on Australia. One of his ‘lighter’ achievements was the April Fool’s Day “Great Sydney Harbour iceberg hoax” of 1978, nominated one of the most imaginative April Fools pranks ever. Smith was named Australian of the Year in 1986. In 1992, he was awarded the Lindbergh Award, an annual world-wide award given to one individual for lifetime achievement for a balance between technical advancement and environmental preservation.
Australian History
Friday, March 18, 1910. : American escapologist, Harry Houdini, makes Australia’s first officially recorded controlled, powered flight of an aircraft.
Frederick C ‘Fred’ Custance is believed by some to be the first person to fly a powered aircraft in Australia. Custance flew a Bleriot monoplane for 5 minutes and 25 seconds near Bolivar, South Australia, on 17 March 1910. The flight was witnessed by F H Jones, owner of both the aircraft and the property where the flight took place, but later conflicting accounts by Jones have cast doubt on who flew the aircraft, and whether or not the flight did, in fact, even take place.
The first controlled flight of a powered aircraft in Australia to be authenticated took place on 18 March 1910, by American escapologist, Harry Houdini. Houdini powered a Voisin biplane, reaching an altitude of about 30 metres over a distance of ten kilometres for 7 minutes and 37 seconds. At least thirty people were present to witness the flight near Digger’s Rest, a small town about 30km northwest of Melbourne, Victoria. It was Australia’s first officially recorded powered flight.
Australian History
Saturday, March 18, 1922. : The first section of the Great Ocean Road in Victoria is officially opened.
The Great Ocean Road is a scenic highway in southern Victoria which begins at Torquay and extends west for 243 km, ending at Allansford, just east of Warrnambool. Hailed as an engineering feat for its time, the road was built by around 3000 returned servicemen, or Diggers, following World War I.
The concept of such a road was first put forward as early as the 1870s. Settlers along the coast could only reach the larger communities inland via rough tracks over the Otway ranges, so calls were made for either a rail or road route connecting these otherwise isolated coastal settlements. Shortly after Geelong businessmen E H Lascelles and Walter Howard Smith proposed a road be built between Geelong and Lorne, the Country Roads Board (CRB) was formed in 1912. Following World War I, CRB chairman William Calder suggested that returned Diggers be gainfully employed on various road projects, including a road extending from Barwon Heads to Warrnambool. The plan was soundly approved by Mayor of Geelong, Howard Hitchcock, who saw not only the value in such a road for tourism, but also as a permanent memorial to the many thousands of soldiers who lost their lives in the Great War.
The Great Ocean Road Trust was officially formed on 22 March 1918, and surveying began in August of that year. On 19 September 1919, the project to construct the Great Ocean Road was officially launched by the Premier of Victoria, Harry Lawson. Taking 13 years to complete, the road is regarded as a tremendous engineering feat for the 1920s. With the absence of any machinery at the time, it required back-breaking manual labour as the men had only shovels, picks and horse-drawn carts to hew out the rocky cliffside. The first section, extending from Lorne to the Eastern View section of the Great Ocean Road, was officially opened on 18 March 1922. The second official opening occurred on 27 April 1932, and this celebrated the extension of the road to Warrnambool.
Although modernised since its original construction, the Great Ocean Road continues to stand as the world’s largest memorial to the soldiers of World War I.
World History
Sunday, March 18, 1314. : The leader of the order of the Knights Templar, Jacques de Molay, is executed.
The order of the Knights Templar was founded around 1118 to protect pilgrims in the Holy Land during the Second Crusade. The order was recognised at the Council of Troyes in 1128 and confirmed by Pope Honorius III. The order grew to become one of the most powerful in Europe. The Knights Templar started lending money to Spanish pilgrims who wanted to travel to the Holy Land, and they gained wealth as the Church showered blessings and money on the order; but with the wealth came power and corruption. Pope Clement V urged Philip IV of France to find some means to extinguish their presence and power.
Thus it was that on 13 October 1307, Philip IV ordered the arrest of the entire order of Knights Templar in France, and had their possessions confiscated. This act served as the origin of the superstition which regards Friday the 13th as an unlucky day. The knights were put on trial and were tortured to extract confessions of sacrilegious practices, including heresy and witchcraft. Many were burnt and tortured, and under duress, admitted to a variety of heresies. These admissions were later retracted as being forced admissions. The leader of the Templars, Jacques de Molay, was executed on 18 March 1314, by which time the Templars had been virtually hunted out of existence.
World History
Sunday, March 18, 1990. : The first and only free elections in the history of East Germany are held, signalling the end of the country’s existence.
Following Germany’s defeat in World War II, Germany was split into two separately controlled countries. West Germany, also known as the Federal Republic of Germany, was proclaimed on 23 May 1949, with Bonn as its capital. As a liberal parliamentary republic and part of NATO, the country maintained good relations with the Western Allies. East Germany, or the German Democratic Republic, was proclaimed in East Berlin on 7 October 1949. It adopted a socialist republic, and remained allied with the communist powers, being occupied by Soviet forces.
The Soviet powers began to dwindle in the late 1980s, and the Communist Party in East Germany began to lose its grip on power. On 18 March 1990, the first and only free elections in the history of East Germany were held, producing a government whose major mandate was to negotiate an end to itself and its state. The German “Einigungsvertrag” (Unification Treaty) was signed on 31 August 1990 by representatives of West Germany and East Germany. German reunification took place on 3 October 1990, when the areas of the former East Germany ceased to exist, having been incorporated into The Federal Republic of Germany, or West Germany.