Australian History
Monday, April 18, 1831. : Australia’s oldest newspaper, the Sydney Morning Herald, is launched.
The Sydney Morning Herald is a compact newspaper published six days a week by Fairfax Media in Sydney, New South Wales. Popularly known as the SMH, the newspaper is the oldest continuously published newspaper in Australia.
The SMH, originally named the Sydney Herald, was launched by Ward Stephens, Frederick Stokes and William McGarvie, the proprietors of a commercial printing business. Unable to match the competitors who undercut their prices, the three men elected to use their printing equipment to produce a weekly newspaper. They sourced advertisers, solicited subscribers and enlisted as editor McGarvie’s brother, Presbyterian minister Reverend John McGarvie. The men accessed a recent convict transport for the most up-to-date news from England, as well as another ship that had just arrived from Van Diemen’s Land, working through the night in horrendous conditions as torrential storms swept through the Sydney area.
The Sydney Herald was launched on Monday, 18 April 1831. Initially setting a target of 600 subscribers, the newspaper was able to report the following week that 700 subscribers had signed up. This increased to 750 the following week. The paper was an enormous success, reporting the news in a fair and unbiased manner. It went by the mottoes “In moderation placing all my glory, while Tories call me Whig, and Whigs a Tory” and “Sworn to no master, of no sect am I”.
Although McGarvie returned to his bookshop, the ‘Australian Stationery Warehouse’ just five weeks after the paper launched, Stephens and Stokes continued until Stokes sold out in 1836. He returned three years later to take over when Stephens decided to concentrate on working his land in the Upper Hunter. Stokes found the work hard going, and he sold the newspaper to printer, journalist and editor John Fairfax and journalist Charles Kemp in 1841. Meanwhile, as Sydney grew, so did the newspaper’s readership, and its future success was assured. In 1842, the Sydney Herald became the Sydney Morning Herald.
Australian History
Sunday, April 18, 1971. : Burger King opens its first Australian Hungry Jack’s store in Innaloo, Perth.
Burger King is a worldwide chain of hamburger fast food stores. It began in Florida in 1953 under the name of Insta-Burger King, and initially offered a simple selection of burgers, French fries and milkshakes. As it increased its variety of menu items and gained in popularity, it started to expand into other countries.
When the restaurant chain sought to expand into the Australian market, it was unable to trade under the name of Burger King, as the name had already been trademarked by an Adelaide takeaway. The Australian franchisee selected the name of Hungry Jack’s from a list of possible alternatives which had previously been trademarked in other countries by the company.
The very first Australian Hungry Jack’s was opened in Innaloo, a Western Australian suburb 9km from Perth’s CBD, on 18 April 1971. Within ten years, there were 26 stores across Western Australia, South Australia and Queensland. The first store in New South Wales opened in 1981, and Victoria in 1986.
World History
Monday, April 18, 1791. : One of William Wilberforce’s early campaigns against the slave trade in Britain is easily defeated in the House of Commons.
William Wilberforce was born on 24 August 1759 in Hull, Britain. He studied at Cambridge University where he befriended England’s future prime minister, William Pitt the Younger. In 1780, Wilberforce became member of parliament for Hull, later representing Yorkshire. During his twenties, Wilberforce became a Christian, and his motivation for social reforms was largely a by-product of his active and practical Christianity. He was strongly influenced by former slave-trader John Newton, then the leading evangelical Anglican clergyman of the day and Rector of St Mary Woolnoth in the City of London.
In 1787, Wilberforce became leader of the parliamentary campaign of the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. On 18 April 1791, Wilberforce attempted to pass one of many parliamentary bills against the slave trade. His campaign was defeated easily in the House of Commons, as many of the members of parliament stood to profit from their own indirect involvement in the trade.
In 1806, a change of tactics was suggested by maritime lawyer James Stephen. This involved introducing a bill to ban British subjects from aiding or participating in the slave trade to the French colonies. It was a smart move, as the majority of the ships were flying American flags, though manned by British crews and sailing out of Liverpool. The Foreign Slave Trade Act was quickly passed, and the tactic proved successful. The new legislation effectively prohibited two-thirds of the British slave trade. In the long run, many MPs who had benefited from the slave trade lost their financial support, and ultimately their position in parliament. This opened the way for a further attempt to pass an Abolition bill.
Further support from Abolitionists enabled the final passing of an Abolition Bill on 23 February 1807. As tributes were made to Wilberforce, who had laboured for the cause during the preceding twenty years, the bill was carried by 283 votes to 16. The Slave Trade Act received the royal assent on 25 March 1807. This Act did not free those who were already slaves; it was not until 1833, after Wilberforce’s death, that an act was passed giving freedom to all slaves in the British empire.
World History
Wednesday, April 18, 1906. : An earthquake measuring approximately 7.9 on the Richter scale devastates San Francisco.
The City and County of San Francisco is the fourth-largest city in California, USA. San Francisco lies near the San Andreas Fault and Hayward Fault, two major sources of earthquake activity in California, yet it has the highest population density of any major US city apart from New York City.
The most devastating earthquake to hit San Francisco to date occurred on 18 April 1906. It was estimated to be approximately 7.9 on the Richter Scale, and was felt from Oregon to Los Angeles, and inland as far as central Nevada. At the time only 478 deaths were reported, but that figure has been revised to an estimate of between 3000 and 6000. Out of a population of about 400,000, between 225,000 and 300,000 people were left homeless. Whilst the main earthquake and its subsequent aftershocks caused a great deal of damage, fires that burned out of control afterwards destroyed even more property. Some property owners set fire to their damaged buildings, because most insurance policies covered fire losses but did not pay out if the building had only sustained earthquake damage. Damage to the water mains limited resources with which the fire-fighters could extinguish the flames.
The overall cost of the damage from the earthquake was estimated at the time to be around $400,000,000. It was also the first time that images of devastation were captured by photography.
World History
Wednesday, April 18, 1945. : Over one thousand Allied bombers attack the German island of Heligoland, killing 128 people.
Heligoland is a small, triangular-shaped island in the North Sea, belonging to Germany. Situated 70 km from the German coastline, Heligoland actually consists of two islands: the populated 1.0 km² main island of Hauptinsel to the west and the Düne (“dune”) to the east, which is somewhat smaller at 0.7 km². The two islands were connected until 1720, when a storm flood washed away the land connecting them.
The islands became a major naval base for Germany during the First World War, and the civil population was evacuated to the mainland. The islanders returned in 1918, but during the Nazi era the naval base was reactivated. The civilians remained, but on 18 April 1945, over one thousand Allied bombers attacked Heligoland and obliterated all dwellings. 128 people, all members of anti-aircraft crews, were killed, whilst the civilians remained protected in rock shelters. The civilian population was evacuated the next day, and the islands remained uninhabited for many years.
From 1945 to 1952 the islands were used as a bombing range, and on 18 April 1947, the Royal Navy detonated 6800 tons of explosives in a concerted attempt to destroy the main island. The military installations were destroyed, but most of the island remained. In 1952 the islands were restored to the German authorities. After clearing a huge amount of undetonated ammunition, the German authorities redeveloped Heligoland as a holiday resort.
World History
Thursday, April 18, 1968. : An American millionaire purchases London Bridge which is falling down in London, England, to relocate it to Arizona, USA.
There have been a number of different London Bridges over the past 2000 years. In 46AD, the Romans built the first bridge across the Thames River; it was a simple wooden construction which was burnt down in 1014. The replacement bridge was destroyed by a storm in 1091, and the next bridge after that was destroyed again by fire in 1136. The famous stone bridge which was opened in 1260 suited the city until the necessity arose in the early 1800s for a second crossing over the Thames. Engineer John Rennie started construction in 1825 and finished the bridge in 1831. The design was superior, containing five high arches, and constructed from strong Dartmoor granite. It was opened by King William the fourth on 1 August 1831. However, a necessary widening process some 70 years later weakened the bridge’s foundations to the point where it began sinking an inch every eight years.
On 18 April 1968, London Bridge was auctioned and sold for $2,460,000 to Robert McCulloch of the USA, who then paid another $2.7 million to move it to Lake Havasu City, Arizona. There, it was rebuilt brick by brick, and finally opened and dedicated on 10 Oct 1971. Initially, the bridge did not even cross a river. McCulloch later dredged a channel of 1.5km long from the main body of Lake Havasu, creating an island and thus a purpose for the bridge. As a tourist attraction, the bridge now draws around two million visitors annually.