Born on this day
Thursday, May 7, 1840. : Composer Tchaikovsky is born.
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, also Anglicised as Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky, was born in Kamsko-Votkinsk, Russia, on 7 May 1840. His musical talent became apparent while he was still very young, and at age 21 he entered the St Petersburg Conservatory, where he studied composition with Anton Rubinstein. Tchaikovsky wrote 11 operas, four concertos, six symphonies, a great number of songs and short piano pieces, three ballets, three string quartets, suites and symphonic poems, and numerous other works. Possibly his best known works include his Symphonie Pathétique, three ballets – The Nutcracker, Swan Lake, and Sleeping Beauty – and the 1812 Overture, which utilises a real cannon to bring the music to a final climax.
Australian History
Sunday, May 7, 1815. : Following completion of the first road over the Blue Mountains, Governor Macquarie names Bathurst.
In May 1813, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains, finding rich farming land in the Hartley region. However, further exploration was needed so the colony could expand beyond the Great Dividing Range. George Evans was the Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, and keen to progress beyond the discoveries made by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth. Leaving Sydney with a party of five men on 19 November 1813, Evans soon reached a mountain which he named Mt Blaxland, which was the termination of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth’s explorations. He continued on through the countryside, eventually reaching the site of present-day Bathurst.
Upon Evans’s return to Sydney, he recommended building a road which would follow the ridge track determined by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. Shortly after this, William Cox was commissioned to build the road to Bathurst, using convict labour. The original Great Western Highway covered 161 km and incorporated twelve bridges. Following completion of the road, Macquarie travelled along “Cox’s Pass”, taking eleven days to reach Bathurst. The Union Jack was raised and the town of Bathurst named on 7 May 1815.
Australian History
Wednesday, May 7, 2008. : The Black Opal is named as the NSW gemstone emblem.
Opal is a precious stone which shows a variety of iridescent colours from reds, pinks and purples to yellows, greens and blues. The brilliant colours are produced by the diffraction of light through microscopic spheres within the opal which split the white light into all the colours of the spectrum. Along with diamond, emerald, ruby and sapphire, opal is one of the most valuable of gemstones.
Opal was adopted as the state gemstone of South Australia in 1985, while in 1993 it was officially made Australia’s national gemstone. Opal was first discovered in Australia in 1849 near Angaston, South Australia, by German geologist Johannes Menge. Australia now produces around 97% of the world’s opal. It is mined in just three states of Australia. There are significant fields in South Australia, with around 80% of the Earth’s total production being mined at Coober Pedy, Mintabie and Andamooka in the central north of the state. The opal fields in the Quilpie-Yowah region and Winton in western Queensland produce Boulder Opal, the second most rare and valuable form of opal. The third opal-producing state in Australia is New South Wales, where the rare Black Opal is found. Black Opal is the most valuable form of opal found in only two places in the world: Mexico and Lightning Ridge, New South Wales, with the latter producing a superior form of Black Opal. As a result, the Black Opal was named the state gemstone for New South Wales on 7 May 2008.
World History
Friday, May 7, 1915. : British ship, the Lusitania, is sunk by a German submarine, resulting in the loss of 1,198 lives.
The RMS Lusitania, launched in 1906, was an ocean liner of the British Cunard Steamship Lines. Together with its sister ship, the Mauretania, it was built to compete with the fast German liners of the time. Her maiden voyage was from Liverpool, England, to New York City, NY, on 7 September 1907.
On 7 May 1915, six days after departing from New York, the Lusitania was torpedoed by a German U-boat whilst making its 202nd crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. The torpedo caused a second explosion in the ship, believed at the time to have been caused by dust residue from the remainder of the ship’s 6,000 tons of coal fuel. The Germans claimed it was caused by munitions being secretly carried on board. The Allies denied the ship was carrying munitions, although British documents later showed that it was. Another theory is that the sudden force of cold sea water pouring onto the hot steam boilers caused a massive explosion. Regardless of the cause, the Lusitania sank 15 kilometres off the coast of Old Head of Kinsale, Ireland, in just 20 minutes, with a loss of 1 198 lives.
World History
Thursday, May 7, 1942. : The Battle of the Coral sea begins.
During World War II, in late 1941 the Japanese began their conquest of the Pacific region, hoping to take control from the Indian/Burmese border, south through Malaya, across the islands of Indonesia to New Guinea, northwest to the Gilbert Islands and north to the Kuril Islands off the Japanese coast. This would leave Australia wide open for invasion, although that was not the intention of Japan at the time. Singapore and the Malay Peninsula, which had been defended by British Empire Forces, fell in a 70-day campaign that began in December 1941.
Late in January 1942, Japanese forces landed in Rabaul, quickly taking control, dragging Papua New Guinea into the war, and bringing the threat of Japanese invasion of Australia even closer. The first of over 100 Japanese bombings of the Australian mainland began in February, and on 8 March, the Japanese invaded the New Guinean mainland, capturing Lae and Salamaua.
Australian Prime Minister John Curtin sought help from the United States to defend the Pacific. Knowing this, Japan sought to cut Australia off from American support by capturing the Pacific islands of Fiji, the New Hebrides, Samoa and the Solomons, and completing their conquest of Papua New Guinea. Early in May 1942, the Japanese launched an invasion fleet to Port Moresby from Rabaul, seeking to cut off Australia from US support by taking control of the main port on the southern coast of Papua New Guinea. Thus began the Battle of the Coral Sea.
The Battle of the Coral Sea officially began on 7 March 1942 and continued through to the following day. It has been described as a decisive naval battle which quite probably saved Australia. It was fought entirely between aircraft carriers. Two US carriers, ‘Yorketown’ and ‘Lexington’, were hit and the ‘Lexington’ was lost, along with over 500 Americans. No Australians were lost from the Royal Australian Navy. The damage to two major Japanese carriers meant that these carriers were unable to be deployed in the crucial Battle of Midway later on. The Japanese regarded the Battle of the Coral Sea as a tactical victory, but it was the first time Japanese forces had faced defeat of any description. The Battle of the Coral Sea was a atrategic turning point for the Allies in the Pacific, and helped to turn the tide of World War II in the Allies’ favour.