Australian History
Tuesday, April 5, 1932. : Australia’s best-known racehorse, Phar Lap, dies under suspicious circumstances.
Phar Lap, a giant chestnut thoroughbred gelding, standing 17.1 hands high, is regarded by many to be Australia’s and New Zealand’s greatest racehorse. A much-loved Australian national icon, he was actually born and bred in Timaru, in the South Island of New Zealand, but never raced in NZ.
The name Phar Lap was derived from the shared Zhuang and Thai word for lightning. According to the Museum Victoria, medical student Aubrey Ping often visited the track in Randwick, talking with riders and trainers. He had learned some Zhuang from his father, who migrated to Australia from southern China. He reputedly suggested “Farlap” as the horse’s name. Sydney trainer Harry Telford liked the name, but changed the F to a Ph to create a seven-letter word, and split it into two words, so as to replicate the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.
Phar Lap dominated the racing scene in Australia during a long and distinguished career. In the four years of his racing career, he won 37 of 51 races he entered, including the Melbourne Cup in 1930. In that year and 1931, he won 14 races in a row. For his final race in 1932, Phar Lap was shipped to Agua Caliente Racetrack near Tijuana, Mexico, to compete in the Agua Caliente Handicap, which was offering the largest purse ever raced for in North America.
Early on 5 April 1932, Phar Lap’s trainer for the North American visit, Tommy Woodcock, found him in severe pain, with a high temperature. Within a few hours, Phar Lap haemorrhaged to death. A necropsy revealed that the horse’s stomach and intestines were inflamed, and many believed he had been deliberately poisoned. A variety of theories have been propounded through the years. In 2006 Australian Synchrotron Research scientists said it was almost certain Phar Lap was poisoned with a large single dose of arsenic 35 hours before he died, supporting the belief that Phar Lap was killed on the orders of US gangsters, who feared the Melbourne-Cup-winning champion would inflict big losses on their illegal bookmakers.
Phar Lap’s heart was a remarkable size, weighing 6.2 kg, compared with a normal horse’s heart at 3.2 kg. Phar Lap’s heart is now held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. It is consistently the display visitors request most often to see, and pay their respects to the gentle, big-hearted giant of the horse racing world.
Australian History
Thursday, April 5, 1979. : Kakadu National Park is proclaimed.
Since the establishment in 1879 of the Royal National Park near Sydney, Australia’s first National Park, the number of areas set aside for official protection has steadily grown. There are now more than 500 National Parks in Australia, covering a variety of biomes. One of Australia’s most well-known National Parks is Kakadu in the Northern Territory.
Kakadu National Park is located about 170 kilometres southeast of Darwin. Extending almost 200 km in length from north to south and over 100 km from east to west, the park is equivalent to almost half the size of Switzerland. Van Diemen Gulf forms Kakadu’s northern boundary, while the Wild Man and East Alligator Rivers form the eastern and western boundaries. Listed as a World Heritage Area for both its rich culture and natural beauty, Kakadu is recognised as a site of particular significance to the continent’s original inhabitants, with ancient rock art chronicling indigenous history for many thousands of years. The park is estimated to be home to over 280 species of birds, or approximately one-third of Australia’s bird species, as well as a quarter of all the freshwater fish species found in Australia, 10 000 species of insects, 120 species of reptiles and 1 000 species of plants.
Kakadu was declared a National Park in three stages between 1979 and 1991. The first 6000 square kilometres of Arnhem Land were declared under the National Parks and Wildlife Act on 5 April 1979 as part of the Commonwealth Commission of Inquiry into the Ranger Mining Proposals. It has since been expanded to cover an area of more than 19 800 square km.
World History
Saturday, April 5, 1614. : The legendary Pocahontas, who saved Captain John Smith from execution by the Indians, marries English colonist John Rolfe.
Pocahontas was the nickname of Mataoaka, the daughter of the chief of Algonquian Indians in the Chesapeake Bay region, along the coast of Virginia. Born around 1595, Pocahontas gained fame when, as a young girl of around thirteen, her intervention saved Captain John Smith from being killed by the Indians. There remains some doubt whether Smith was indeed in danger, or whether he misunderstood the Indians’ intentions; it is possible that Pocahontas intervened in a ritual that was used to accept John Smith as a “friend” of the tribe, and was only symbolic. Regardless, the story has been much romanticised in stories and film.
In 1612, Pocahontas was captured and held hostage by the Jamestown colonists, in the hope that they could ransom her for the release of some of their own people held in captivity by Pocahontas’s tribe. During this time, she learned English and was baptised. She became a valuable intermediary between the settlers at Jamestown and the Indians, helping to generate peace between the two groups. On 5 April 1614, Pocahontas married English colonist John Rolfe, who established the growing of tobacco in Virginia, and her name was changed to Rebecca Rolfe. In 1616 she was taken to England to be presented to the king. On 16 March 1617, whilst returning to Virginia, she died, probably of tuberculosis, pneumonia or smallpox.
World History
Monday, April 5, 1971. : Italy’s Mount Etna erupts.
Mount Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe, located on the eastern coast of Sicily in the Mediterranean Sea. Covering an area of 1,190 km² with a basal circumference of 140 km, it is the largest of the three active volcanoes in Italy, and about two and a half times the height of the next largest, Mount Vesuvius.
Etna has erupted numerous times in recorded history, which spans about the last 2000 years. Its 1669 eruption was particularly devastating, ejecting an estimated 830,000,000 m³ of pyroclastic material, destroying the town of Nicolosi, the western side of Catania, and numerous smaller villages.
During the 20th century, eruptions occurred in 1949, 1971, 1981, 1983 and 1991-1993, and another series ensued in 2001 and 2002-2003. On 5 April 1971, lava buried the Etna Observatory, built in the late 19th century, destroyed the first generation of the Etna cable-car, and seriously threatened several small villages on Etna’s east flank.
Etna has continued to erupt regularly. Most recently, the volcano erupted twice in 2007.
World History
Monday, April 5, 1999. : Two Libyans accused of bringing down Pan Am Flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie are handed over for trial in the Netherlands.
In the evening of 21 December 1988, Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York crashed 38 minutes after take-off. The plane was at an altitude of 31,000 feet when a bomb hidden inside an audio cassette player detonated inside the cargo area. All 259 aboard the plane were killed, together with another 11 on the ground who died as the debris showered down. A large portion of the plane crashed into a petrol station in central Lockerbie, exploding into a 90m fireball. Aeroplane parts were scattered across 1,360 square kilometres and the impact from the crash reached 1.6 on the Richter scale.
After several years of investigation, Libyan intelligence agents Abdel Basset Ali al-Megrahi and Lamen Khalifa Fhimah were identified as suspects. When Libya refused to hand over the suspects to be tried in the USA, the United Nations imposed sanctions against Libya. The sanctions were only lifted when Libyan leader Colonel Gadhafi agreed to turn the suspects over to Scotland for trial in the Netherlands using Scottish law and prosecutors. The Libyans were handed over on 5 April 1999. Following a three month trial, Abdel Basett ali al-Megrahi was jailed for life. His alleged accomplice, Lamen Khalifa Fhimah, was found not guilty.
World History
Thursday, April 5, 2001. : A Dutch lorry driver is jailed for his part in the deaths of 58 illegal Chinese immigrants.
On 18 June 2000, 58 Chinese immigrants were found suffocated in a lorry in Dover, Britain, after they had tried to enter the country illegally. The air vent of the 18m container had been closed five hours earlier so the driver could evade detection by the authorities during the ferry journey from Zeebrugge, Belgium. The truck, registered in the Netherlands, had just crossed on the ferry from Zeebrugge when the driver was pulled over for a customs inspection. Officials opened the truck’s doors to find that two men alone survived, whilst the bodies of fifty-four men and four women lay behind them.
On 5 April 2001, the 32-year-old Dutch driver, Perry Wacker, was sentenced to 14 years in prison. He was found guilty of 58 charges of manslaughter, as well as four counts of conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into the UK. A month later, the leader of the international ring behind smuggling the Chinese into Britain, Turkish-born Gursel Ozcan, was given a nine-year sentence by a Dutch court for negligence, but cleared of manslaughter charges.
Special Days
Tuesday, April 5, 2067. : In Star Trek history, today is First Contact Day.
Star Trek, the science fiction series which went on to spawn many more spinoff series and films, was created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966. Set in the 23rd century, Star Trek follows the adventures of the Starship Enterprise and her crew. Initially, the series did not rate well, and only a sustained campaign by its devoted fans kept the series going through two more seasons. The show’s success came after it was sold into syndication, and stations were able to air it at times more suited to its fans and potential audience. A new audience created a broad market for the franchise, thus paving the way for the success of numerous Star Trek movies based around the characters of the original series.
5 April 2063 is officially “First Contact Day”. It marks the day in Star Trek history when humankind achieves/will achieve the first warp flight, attracting the attention of the Vulcan race. Warp drive, enabling humans to travel faster than light, was/will be invented by Terran American scientist Zefram Cochrane. The event was depicted in the movie Star Trek: First Contact, which was released in 1996. The date of first contact was chosen by Star Trek: First Contact co-writer Ronald D Moore in honour of his son, Jonathan, whose birthday is on 5 April.