Australian History
Saturday, April 26, 1890. : Australian poet Banjo Paterson publishes his iconic bush ballad ‘The Man From Snowy River’.
‘The Man From Snowy River’ is a bush ballad by Australian poet and writer A B ‘Banjo’ Paterson. Andrew Barton Paterson was born in 1864, near Orange, New South Wales. He was a proficient student and sportsman, and after leaving school at 16, he took up the position of an articled clerk in a law firm: by the age of 23 he was a fully qualified solicitor. Paterson, who lived during Australia’s late colonial period and early years of Federation, was passionately nationalistic and popular among many Australians searching for their own identity separate from Britain. In 1885, Paterson began publishing his poetry in the Sydney edition of The Bulletin under the pseudonym of ‘The Banjo’, the name of a favourite horse. On 26 April 1890, he published ‘The Man from Snowy River’, a poem which captured the imagination of the nation.
‘The Man From Snowy River’ tells the story of a young stockman who, through wild and dangerous terrain, successfully chases down a valuable horse that has escaped from a station in Australia’s high country. The ballad was based on a real character, Irishman Jack Riley, whom Paterson met when he visited friends at Bringenbrong Station, a large property in the Upper Murray region. Riley lived in a basic timber hut near Tom Groggin Station, and shared many stories with Paterson as they camped overnight. One story in particular captured Paterson’s imagination, as Riley vividly described a thrilling horse chase through perilous territory, giving rise to the scenes that were later developed in ‘The Man From Snowy River’.
Australian History
Wednesday, April 26, 1939. : Australia’s longest serving Prime Minister, Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, becomes Prime Minister for the first of his terms.
Robert Gordon Menzies was born in the Victorian town of Jeparit on 20 December 1894. In 1928 he entered politics after being elected to Victoria’s Legislative Council for East Yarra. After six years in Victorian state politics as Attorney-General and Minister for Railways (1928–34), he was elected to federal parliament as Member for Kooyong. On 18 April 1939, he was elected leader of the United Australia Party following the death of Joseph Lyons eleven days earlier, and became Prime Minister on 26 April 1939.
On 28 August 1941, party dissension led Menzies to resign as Prime Minister. However, after forming the Liberal Party of Australia from the remnants of the UAP in 1944, Menzies regrouped to become Prime Minister for the second time on 19 December 1949 when the new Liberal Party, in coalition with the Country Party, beat Labor. He then remained as Prime Minister for another 16 years, a record which has not been broken in Australian politics. He retired in 1966, and died in 1978.
Australian History
Sunday, April 26, 1970. : The National Carillon in Canberra is accepted by Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of the people of Australia.
Canberra was named the Federal capital of Australia in 1913. The city has several distinguishing features; among them is the National Carillon. The National Carillon is located on Aspen Island in Lake Burley Griffin. It consists of a tower 50 metres in height, containing a chamber for the bells, a clavier for operating the bells, a practice clavier, and various other smaller rooms. There are 55 bronze bells, varying in weight from 7kg to six tonnes, and covering a range of four and a half octaves. The bells were cast in England by John Taylor & Co of Loughborough.
The National Carillon was presented to Australia as a gift from the British Government to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Canberra. It was accepted by Queen Elizabeth II on behalf of all Australians on 26 April 1970. The inaugural recital was performed by John Douglas Gordon, after whom the Aspen Island footbridge is now named.
World History
Wednesday, April 26, 1865. : President Abraham Lincoln’s assassin, John Wilkes Booth, is hunted down and shot.
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from 1861 to 1865, and the first president from the Republican Party. He is notable for opposing the expansion of slavery into federal territories, and for the ramifications of his stand, which led to the American Civil War. Lincoln was a diplomatic and strategic wartime leader. He personally directed the war effort, which ultimately led the Union forces to victory over the Confederacy. Lincoln is most famous for his roles in preserving the Union and ending slavery in the United States with the Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution.
Lincoln was assassinated whilst attending a performance of the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theatre on 14 April 1865. He was shot at close range by John Wilkes Booth, a Confederate sympathiser who was dissatisfied by the outcome of the American Civil War. Nine hours later, Abraham Lincoln died. Booth was hunted down by a military posse and finally located in a barn near Port Royal, Virginia. He was shot and killed on 26 April 1865 by Sergeant Boston Corbett. Booth’s last words were spoken as he stared at his hands and reportedly muttered, “Useless! Useless!” Four co-conspirators were convicted and hanged, while three others were given life sentences.
Life, however, continues to be full of irony. Some time later, Lincoln’s son Robert lost his footing in a crowd on a railway platform and fell between the platform and a moving train. Without hesitation, another man swung down quickly and pulled Lincoln to safety. The man was Booth’s brother Edwin.
World History
Saturday, April 26, 1986. : The Chernobyl nuclear accident occurs.
Chernobyl is a city in northern Ukraine, near the border with Belarus. It is located 14.5 kilometres south by south-east of the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which is notorious for the Chernobyl accident of 26 April 1986. Regarded as the worst accident in the history of nuclear power, clouds of radioactive particles were released, and the severely damaged containment vessel started leaking radioactive matter. 31 people died, 28 of them from acute radiation exposure. Between 100,000 and 200,000 people were evacuated from the city and other affected areas, but because there was no containment building, a plume of radioactive fallout drifted over parts of the western Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, Scandinavia, UK, and the eastern United States.
The incident began with a steam explosion that resulted in a fire, a series of additional explosions, and the subsequent nuclear meltdown. Blame for the accident has been attributed to a combination of error by the power plant operators, and flaws in the reactor design, specifically the control rods. Health officials have predicted that over the next 70 years there will be a 2% increase in cancer rates in much of the population which was exposed to the radioactive contamination released from the reactor.
Chernobyl remains inhabited by a small number of residents who chose to return to their homes after the accident, but most of the evacuated population now lives in specially constructed towns. Testing of radiation levels at Chernobyl indicate that, as of 2022, the levels are within healthy range, and visitors are permitted to the site.