Born on this day
Friday, April 10, 1829. : William Booth, founder of the Salvation Army, is born.
William Booth was born on 10 April 1829 in Sneinton, Nottingham, England. Though his father was wealthy when he was born, financial mismanagement saw the family plunged into poverty, and young William was apprenticed to a pawnbroker at the age of thirteen. He became the family’s chief provider when his father died later that same year. Several years later, Booth was converted to Christianity, studying and teaching himself in order to be a Methodist lay preacher, whilst supplementing his income with pawn-broking. Lack of work for lay preachers led him to open-air evangelising in the streets and on Kennington common. In 1851 Booth joined the Wesleyan Reform Union, and on 10 April 1852, his 23rd birthday, he left pawnbroking and became a full-time preacher at their headquarters at Binfield Chapel in Clapham.
Booth still sought to evangelise, and when his repeated requests for more time for evangelistic campaigns were refused by his church, he resigned from the ministry and became a full-time evangelist. He became known for preaching the gospel to the poor and underprivileged. When William Booth preached the first of nine sermons in a tattered tent on an unused Quaker cemetery in London on 2 July 1865, the East London Christian Mission was born. Booth and his wife held meetings every evening and on Sundays, to offer repentance, salvation and Christian ethics to the poorest and most needy, including alcoholics, criminals and prostitutes. He and his followers practised what they preached, performing self-sacrificing Christian and social work, such as opening “Food for the Million” shops (soup kitchens), not caring if they were scoffed at or derided for their Christian ministry work.
In 1878, the organisation became known as the Salvation Army. They adopted a uniform and adapted Christian words to popular tunes sung in the public bars.
Australian History
Wednesday, April 10, 1811. : Australia’s first toll road opens.
Toll roads and toll bridges are public roadways and thoroughfares which drivers must pay to use. They are believed to have existed in a variety of forms for around 2700 years, with the earliest known toll road thought to be the highway connecting Susa and Babylon. Toll roads and bridges continued to be used through the Middle Ages, in the Holy Roman Empire, as well as across Asia.
As continents were colonised, the practice of implementing toll roads continued. When Governor Lachlan Macquarie arrived in New South Wales in 1810, he upheld high standards for the development of New South Wales from penal colony to free settlement, including improved infrastructure. Macquarie ordered the construction of roads, bridges, wharves, churches and public buildings and introduced a building code. Funds for road construction were to come from Government funds, public subscription and the establishment of toll roads. Private operators were permitted to construct roads and maintain them for ten years, under the colony’s new, strict standards; in return, they collected the tolls to pay for their own costs.
Australia’s first toll road was a newly constructed turnpike road from Sydney to Parramatta. It opened on 10 April 1811, with one toll bar positioned in George St, Haymarket and the other at the Boundary Road end in Parramatta. This was a successful arrangement, as a profit of $930 was made in 1815 alone from the tolls on the Sydney to Parramatta road.
Australian History
Friday, April 10, 2015. : Australian cricket great, Richie Benaud, dies.
The sport of cricket is regarded as synonymous with Australia. Although Australia has no official sport, cricket is considered the country’s unofficial sport, and many great cricketers have become heroes to generations of Australians. Richard “Richie” Benaud is one such cricketing legend whose contribution to cricket not only improved national interest in the game, but made him a household name. Benaud was born in Penrith, New South Wales, on 6 October 1930. He was a Test Cricket all-rounder and later Australian Test captain whose career began at age 18, when he was selected to play for the New South Wales Colts, the state youth team. During his extensive career, Benaud played 63 Tests for Australia. He was the first Australian player to score 2,000 Test runs and take 200 Test wickets, and as Captain, he never lost a series.
After Benaud retired from Test cricket in 1964, he became a full-time cricket journalist and commentator. As with all things cricket, he distinguished himself in this capacity as well, being regarded as a top caller and analyst of cricket. With his distinctive speaking style and his trademark cream jacket, Benaud was a recognisable figure. Benaud became part of Australian cricket folklore not only for his presence in the cricketing world, but also for his numerous awards. In 1961, he was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for services to cricket. In 1985, he was inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame in 1985, while in 1999 he was awarded a Logie Award for Most Outstanding Sports Broadcaster. In 2007, he was inducted into the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame at the Allan Border Medal award evening and in 2009 he was inducted into the ICC Cricket Hall of Fame. Benaud died, aged 84, on 10 April 2015 after a battle with skin cancer.
World History
Sunday, April 10, 1633. : Bananas arrive in Britain for the first recorded time.
Bananas have been cultivated in southeast Asia for thousands of years. It is believed that banana cultivation originated in Papua New Guinea, possibly as early as 3000 BC. In 1502, Portuguese colonists started the first banana plantations in the Caribbean and in Central America. Bananas first arrived in Britain on 10 April 1633, when a bunch shipped over from Bermuda was exhibited in the shop window of herbalist Thomas Johnson of Snow Hill, London. They were not regularly imported into Britain until the late 1800s when tea merchant Edward Wathen Fyffe discovered they were readily available in the Canary Islands. He then began importing the fruit, introducing Fyffes blue label in 1929.
In 1999, a banana skin was found at an archaeological site dating back to the Tudor period, circa 1500, on the banks of the Thames River. This suggests that bananas possibly appeared in Britain some 150 years earlier than official records indicate.
World History
Thursday, April 10, 1710. : The first copyright law is passed.
The purpose of copyright law is to protect the manner and medium by which ideas are expressed, for example, in written, artistic, musical, electronic or digital forms.
The world’s first known copyright law was passed in England by the British Parliament on 10 April 1710. Known as the Queen Anne Statute, it was passed as ‘An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by vesting the Copies of Printed Books in the Authors or purchasers of such Copies, during the Times therein mentioned’. It was the first act to protect the written form of authors, and has since been expanded to include all media. Modern copyright laws have evolved from this original act of parliament.
World History
Monday, April 10, 1815. : 92,000 people are killed as a result of the eruption of Mt Tambora, Indonesia.
Mount Tambora is a volcano on the island of Sumbawa, Indonesia. Although there are few accurate records, evidence indicates that Tambora was 4,000 metres high and 60 kilometres in diameter at sea level. By the 18th century it was believed to be dormant. Approximately 140,000 natives lived in safety on Sumbawa, while 12,000 people lived in a few villages and towns clustered on the Sanggar Peninsula, where Tambora lay.
The first sign of trouble began on 6 April 1815, when light ash began falling over Batavia, and there were rumblings from within the earth, although Tamboar was not the volcano identified as the likely source of the activity. On 10 April 1815, numerous loud explosions could be heard, whilst small rocks and ash began falling. In the late afternoon, the volcano erupted with devastating force. The eruption affected the Maluku Islands (Molucca Islands), Java, and parts of Sulawesi (Celebes), Sumatra, and Borneo. Heavy ash rained down upon the islands of Bali and Lombok. The explosive force had around 4 times the energy of the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa and it ejected an estimated 100 cubic km of melted rock. The resultant caldera was 7km in width. After the eruption, Mt Tambora was reduced to only 2851m in height.
It has been estimated that 10,000 people were killed because of ash and rockfall and pyroclastic flows, whilst starvation and disease in the aftermath caused the deaths of another 82,000. All vegetation on the surrounding islands was razed. 1816 became known as “the Year Without a Summer” because of the extreme weather conditions the eruption caused. The effects extended as far as the north-eastern United States and eastern Canada.
World History
Saturday, April 10, 1858. : Big Ben, the bell in the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster in London, is cast.
Big Ben is the name of the largest bell, properly called the Great Bell of Westminster, in the Clock Tower of the Palace of Westminster in London. Whilst the name Big Ben is often used to describe the whole clock tower, it actually refers specifically to the principal bell within the tower.
The bell was cast in London at the Whitechapel Bell Foundry on 10 April 1858, which was where America’s Liberty Bell was also cast in 1753. Contrary to popular belief, Big Ben is not the heaviest bell in Britain: that honour goes to Great Paul, at 17.002 t, found at St Paul’s Cathedral. The second heaviest is Great George, found at Liverpool Cathedral, and weighing 15.013 t. Big Ben is third heaviest, and weighs 13,762 t.
The bell originally intended for the tower was cast by John Warner and Sons in Stockton-on-Tees in 1856. However, it cracked under test. The current bell, cast by Whitechapel, also began to crack after use, and was out of commission for two years. Eventually, the 300 kg hammer was replaced with a 200 kg hammer, and the bell was turned 90° so the crack would not develop any further. However, the crack, which has now been filled, and the turn means that it no longer strikes a true E.
World History
Wednesday, April 10, 1912. : The RMS Titanic departs on its maiden voyage.
The RMS Titanic was the largest passenger steamship in the world at the time of its launching. It was a White Star Line ocean liner built at the Harland and Wolff shipyard in Belfast, Ireland and, along with its sister ships Olympic and the soon to be built Britannic, was intended to compete with rival company Cunard Line’s Lusitania and Mauretania. The interior of the luxury ship was completed in January 1912, and the finishing touches were completed by early February. The Titanic was considered the pinnacle of naval architecture and technological achievement, and reported by The Shipbuilder magazine to be “practically unsinkable.
The Titanic underwent sea trials near Belfast for a total of 30 minutes in the opening days of April, and the trials were deemed successful. The ship then departed on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, bound for New York City, New York, the day after the sea trials, Wednesday, 10 April 1912, with Captain Edward J Smith in command.
On 14 April 1912, the Titanic sank. Captain Smith, in response to iceberg warnings received via wireless over the previous days, had altered Titanic’s course about 20 km south of the normal shipping route. At 1:45pm, a message from the steamer Amerika warned that large icebergs lay in Titanic’s path, but this warning, and others, were never relayed to the bridge. The ship hit an iceberg shortly after 11:40pm on the 14th, buckling the hull in several places and popping out rivets below the waterline over a length of 90 metres. The watertight doors closed as water started filling the first five watertight compartments, one more than Titanic could stay afloat with. The huge volume of water weighed the ship down past the top of the watertight bulkheads, allowing water to flow into the other compartments. While some passengers were able to access the lifeboats quickly, third-class passengers, many of whom were immigrants hoping to find a better life in America, were unable to navigate their way to the lifeboats through the complex of corridors. All first- and second-class children save one survived the sinking, but more third-class women and children were lost than saved. In all, 1517 people were lost in the disaster, whilst 706 survived.