Born on this day

Saturday, March 29, 1738. :   Inventor of the concept of the guillotine, Joseph Guillotin, is born.

A guillotine is an instrument for capital punishment by which the victim is decapitated. The machine consists of a tall upright frame from which is suspended a heavy blade. This blade is raised with a rope and then allowed to drop, beheading the victim.

The inventor of the guillotine was Joseph Ignace Guillotin, born on 29 March 1738 in Saintes, France. He was not a torturer; on the contrary, Dr Guillotin was a humanitarian physician and a member of a minor political reform movement that wanted to banish the death penalty completely. He sought a painless method for capital punishment as an interim step towards completely banning the death penalty. Prior to the guillotine, members of the French nobility were beheaded with a sword or axe, often requiring several blows. Commoners might be hanged or quartered, whereby their limbs were tied to four oxen and the animals were driven in four different directions, ripping the person apart.

Guillotin worked with German engineer and harpsichord maker Tobias Schmidt to develop the concept of a machine that would behead painlessly. The final product was designed by Dr Antoine Louis, secretary of the College of Surgeons. In 1791, a law was passed in France requiring all capital punishment to be carried out by guillotine. Assistant executioner and carpenter Leon Berger further modified and improved the machine in 1870.

Australian Explorers

Monday, March 29, 1841. :   The isolated town of Eyre is named, after Eyre’s party finds fresh water two metres below the sandy surface.

Edward John Eyre was the first white man to cross southern Australia from Adelaide to the west, travelling across the Nullarbor Plain to King George’s Sound, now called Albany. Eyre originally intended to cross the continent from south to north. He was forced to revise his plans when his way became blocked by the numerous saltpans of South Australia, leading him to believe that a gigantic inland sea in the shape of a horseshoe prevented access to the north.

Following this fruitless attempt, Eyre regrouped at Streaky Bay, on the west coast of the Eyre Peninsula. He then continued west reaching Fowler’s Bay on 17 November 1840, where he replenished his food and water supplies from a government cutter. He had to choose between attempting another northward trek, or heading west, which had never before been attempted. Eyre chose to go west in a gruelling journey across the Nullarbor, during which his party faced starvation and thirst. On 29 March 1841, the men reached the coast after a journey of 180km without water. They feasted on fish caught in the shallows and, digging behind the sand dunes, they located fresh water at a depth of only 180cm. This spot was named Eyre, and after the advent of telegraph across Australia, a relay station was constructed near the site of the well.

Australian History

Friday, March 29, 1901. :   Sir Edmund Barton is officially elected as the first Prime Minister of Australia.

Edmund Barton first entered politics in 1879, when he successfully stood for the New South Wales Legislative Assembly for the University of Sydney constituency. In 1882 he became Speaker of the Assembly. From 1887 to 1891, and again from 1897 to 1898, Barton sat in the Legislative Council. Barton was a strong advocate of the federation of the Australian colonies, and he led the federal movement following the death of Sir Henry Parkes. In 1897 he was one of the NSW delegates to the Constitutional Convention which developed a constitution for the proposed federation.

On 1 January 1901, federation of the six Australian colonies was achieved and the Commonwealth of Australia was proclaimed. As the most vigorous federalist in the largest state, Barton was appointed Prime Minister, although this was only after some negotiations with the newly elected Governor-General, Lord Hopetoun. Hopetoun, in what became known as the “Hopetoun blunder”, initially invited Sir William Lyne, the Premier of New South Wales, and an anti-Federationist in the referenda prior to Federation, to head the government. Lyne was unable to form a caretaker cabinet when Barton, leading the Protectionist party, refused to serve under him, whilst influential politician Alfred Deakin also convinced leading Victorian and South Australian politicians to decline to serve under Lyne. Hopetoun then turned to Barton.

Upon his appointment, Barton cleared the way for the first Commonwealth elections, resigning his New South Wales seat on 20 March. Barton won the Federal seat of Hume in the inaugural Federal elections on 29 March 1901. In this position, Barton was also elected as Prime Minister. None of the parties won by a clear majority, but the Protectionist party under Edmund Barton won more seats than any other party – 31 of the 75 seats. Barton remained Prime Minister from January 1901 to September 1903.

World History

Friday, March 29, 1912. :   Antarctic explorer Robert Falcon Scott writes his final diary entry on his ill-fated expedition.

Robert Falcon Scott was born on 6 June 1868 in Devonport, England. He was a Royal Naval officer and explorer who commanded the National Antarctic Expedition in Discovery which began in 1900. On 31 December 1902, Scott’s expedition reached the farthest point south of any known exploration party. Following new discoveries in the Antarctic region, Scott was keen to be the first to reach the South Pole. He took with him Lieutenant Henry Bowers, Dr. Edward Wilson, Petty Officer Edgar Evans and army Captain Lawrence Oates. Upon reaching the Pole on 17 January 1912, he found that Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen had beaten him to it.

Scott’s party made slow progress, due to a combination of particularly severe weather, and their own determination to forge ahead laden with their rock samples. Evans died after a fall which resulted in a quick physical and mental breakdown. Oates lost a foot to frostbite and was suffering residual effects of an old war wound. Feeling he was holding the party back, he departed their shelter one morning, uttering the famous words, “I am just going outside. I may be some time.” He did not return.

On 29 March 1912, Scott made his final diary entry. He wrote:

“Since the 21st we have had a continuous gale from W.S.W. and S.W. We had fuel to make two cups of tea apiece and bare food for two days on the 20th. Every day we have been ready to start for our depot 11 miles away, but outside the door of the tent it remains a scene of whirling drift. I do not think we can hope for better things now. We shall stick it out to the end, but we are getting weaker of course, and the end cannot be far. It seems a pity but I do not think I can write more.”

The bodies of the remaining three members of Scott’s party were found in their final camp on 12 November 1912, just twenty kilometres from a substantial depot of supplies. With them were their diaries detailing their journey and their demise. A large ice cairn was then constructed over their frozen bodies to mark their final resting place.

World History

Friday, March 29, 1974. :   The Mariner 10 becomes the first space probe to fly by Mercury.

The Mariner 10 space probe, the last spacecraft in the Mariner program, was launched on 3 November 1973. It was the first to use the gravitational pull of one planet, Venus, to reach another, Mercury. Its mission was to measure the atmospheric, surface, and physical characteristics of Mercury and Venus.

The Mariner 10 first flew by Venus on 5 February 1974. After taking some 4000 photographs of Venus, Mariner 10 then flew by Mercury on 29 March 1974, taking the first photographs detailed enough to reveal the planet’s cratered surface and a faint atmosphere of predominantly helium. Gravity assist enabled the spacecraft to return at six-month intervals for close mapping passes over the planet, but only half of Mercury was able to be photographed, as the other half was always in the dark when the spacecraft returned.

Engineering tests were continued until 24 March 1975, when the supply of attitude-control gas was depleted, and the mission was terminated. Commands were immediately sent to the spacecraft to turn off its transmitter, and radio signals to Earth thereby stopped.

World History

Thursday, March 29, 1979. :   The US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations concludes its report regarding the assassination of President John F Kennedy.

The US House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations was established in 1976 to investigate the assassinations of former President John F Kennedy in 1963 and Dr Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.

On 29 March 1979, after investigating for two years, the committee concluded that Kennedy was probably assassinated as a result of a conspiracy, the members of which were not identified. However, the committee reported that it did not believe the conspiracy included the governments of the Soviet Union or Cuba, nor the FBI, the CIA, or the Secret Service. It also stated it did not believe the conspiracy was carried out by any organised crime group, nor any anti-Castro group, but that it could not rule out individual members of either of those groups acting together. The committee also reported that it believed there was a strong likelihood that there were two gunmen involved. The Secret Service was rebuked for its failure to protect the President.