Born on this day
Tuesday, August 5, 1862. : Joseph Merrick, the ‘Elephant Man’, is born.
Joseph Carey Merrick was born on 5 August 1862 in Leicester, England. He began showing signs of deformity when he was only two. Merrick’s mother died when he was eleven, and after no relatives wanted him, he was forced to earn his living selling shoe polish. He was nicknamed the “Elephant Man” because of the abnormal masses of flesh which developed on his face and body. Other employment doors were closed to him, so in desperation, he offered himself as a sideshow attraction. Recent studies have suggested that Merrick suffered either from neurofibromatosis type I, a genetic disorder also known as von Recklinghausen’s disease, or Proteus syndrome, which affects tissue other than nerves – or even a combination of the two.
Merrick was only treated decently when he was befriended by Dr Frederick Treves, a surgeon at London Hospital. Treves often referred to him as “John”, so it is a common misconception that the Elephant Man’s name was John Merrick. Merrick became something of a celebrity in High Victorian society, eventually becoming a favourite of Queen Victoria. He was well cared for at the hospital, and immersed himself in writing both prose and poetry.
Merrick died on 11 April 1890 after the weight of his malformed head suffocated him in his sleep.
Born on this day
Tuesday, August 5, 1930. : Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon, is born.
Neil Alden Armstrong was born in Wapakoneta, Ohio, on 5 August 1930. He catapulted to international fame as the first man to walk on the moon, in the Apollo 11 mission on 29 July 1969. His first words upon landing on the moon were, “Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed.” However, he is best remembered for his enduring words, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. A small crater on the Moon near the Apollo 11 landing site was named in his honour. Only another ten people followed in Armstrong’s footsteps during the next four years of moon landings.
Armstrong was a Navy pilot during the Korean War, and later joined the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics (which later became NASA) as a civilian test pilot. He was the first civilian to enter the astronaut-training programme. Prior to Apollo 11, he was command pilot of the Gemini 8 mission, which achieved the first docking of two orbiting spacecraft. After the moon landing, Armstrong became Professor of aerospace engineering at the University of Cincinnati in 1971, remaining there until 1979.
Neil Armstrong died on 25 August 2012, aged 82.
Australian History
Monday, August 5, 1850. : A British Act of Parliament separating Victoria from New South Wales is signed by Queen Victoria.
Some years after the arrival of the First Fleet in New South Wales in 1788, Britain sought to expand its claim on the continent. In 1803, the British Government instructed Lieutenant-Governor David Collins to establish a settlement on the southern coast. This settlement was not a success and the site was abandoned, but expeditions continued to be mounted to explore the land between Sydney and Port Phillip. Thanks to the initiative of John Batman, Melbourne was settled in 1835, and despite being regarded as an “illegal” settlement, the foundling colony thrived. Governor Bourke formally named Melbourne in 1837.
The Port Phillip Colony encompassed Melbourne and “Australia Felix”, which was the fertile western district discovered by Major Thomas Mitchell. The first petition for formal separation of the colony from New South Wales was drafted by Henry Fyshe Gisborne who had been appointed Commissioner for Crown Lands of the Port Phillip District in 1839. Although Governor Gipps had initially been in favour of separation from New South Wales, he rejected the petition. Further campaigning yielded a change in opinion, and on 5 August 1850, the British Act of Parliament separating Victoria from New South Wales was signed by Queen Victoria. The New South Wales Legislative Council subsequently passed legislation formalising Victoria’s separation a year later, on 1 July 1851.
Australian History
Wednesday, August 5, 1914. : Australia enters World War I.
The assassination by Serbian Nationals of His Imperial and Royal Highness Archduke Franz Ferdinand of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in June 1914 caused a chain reaction, as countries throughout the world allied themselves with either Serbia or Austria-Hungary. World War I broke out as Britain formally declared war on Germany on 4 August 1914. As a result, its colonies and dominions around the globe were also drawn into the war. Canada, India, New Zealand and the Union of South Africa were among those countries that offered military and financial assistance.
Although Australia had achieved Federation in 1901, this did not mark independence from Great Britain: it was merely the first step in a process of independence that would take another eight decades. While Federation gave Australia the right to govern itself, the newly formed country was still allied to Britain. On 5 August 1914, Australian Prime Minister Joseph Cook pledged support, offering Britain 20 000 troops, and stating that “…when the Empire is at war, so also is Australia.” Cook’s offer was accepted by the British government, which requested that the troops be sent “as soon as possible”.
Australian History
Saturday, August 5, 1944. : Japanese prisoners at Cowra, New South Wales, stage a breakout: 4 Australians and 234 Japanese are killed.
During WWII, by August of 1944 there were around 2,223 Japanese prisoners of war being held in camps around Australia. One of these was at the midwestern town of Cowra, in New South Wales. Japanese prisoners in Australia were housed and treated far better than their Australian counterparts being held in Japanese prisons. The No. 12 Prisoner of War Compound near Cowra was a complex of four smaller camps, each one being allocated in turn to Japanese, Italians, Koreans and Indonesians. At the time of the Japanese breakout, there were 1,104 Japanese prisoners being contained.
On Friday, 4 August 1944, the Japanese prisoners were informed they would be transferred to the prison complex at Hay, in western New South Wales. Around 2am on 5 August 1944, an unauthorized bugle was heard in the Japanese camp, which was a signal for the Japanese prisoners to rush from their huts and attack the fences of the compound. Around 900 Japanese joined in the attack, and those who did not were killed by their compatriots, or they committed suicide. They stormed the outer barbed wire fence using blankets and baseball gloves for protection, armed with knives, baseball bats, clubs studded with nails and hooks, wire stilettos and garrotting cords.
Over the next week or so, 309 prisoners were recaptured alive from the surrounding districts and towns. Several of the Japanese prisoners had been killed in the gunfire immediately after the breakout, or were burnt after inmates set fire to many of the huts. 25 were found hanged from trees outside the compound, where they had apparently committed suicide, and two had been killed by trains. In all, 234 Japanese died and 108 were wounded. 4 Australian military personnel were killed.
Australian History
Monday, August 5, 1991. : Queensland Police Commissioner, Sir Terence Lewis, is found guilty of corruption and sentenced to 14 years in jail.
Terence (Terry) Lewis was born in 1928, and joined the police force at age 20. He won a George Medal for bravery whilst at the Brisbane CIB, and established the Juvenile Aid Bureau in 1963. Lewis was an inspector by the time he was 45, serving for a while in the western Queensland town of Charleville. He was made assistant police commissioner in 1976, a move which attracted negative attention as he did so over the heads of 122 equal or more senior officers. Ray Whitrod, Police Commissioner at the time, resigned in protest over Lewis’s appointment, and Lewis was subsequently promoted to his position.
In the late 1980s, the Fitzgerald inquiry into police corruption was instigated. This was a judicial inquiry presided over by Tony Fitzgerald QC, in response to media reports alleging high-level corruption involving both the police force and the Queensland government under Premier Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen. The inquiry revealed that Lewis had been deeply involved in protection of illegal brothels and had accepted more than $600,000 from self-confessed Queensland Police bagman Jack Herbert. Evidence indicated that Lewis was regularly accepting up to $10,000 per month in bribes.
As a result of the inquiry, Sir Terence Lewis was found guilty of corruption on 5 August 1991, stripped of his knighthood, and sentenced to fourteen years in jail. He has since been released from jail, and survives on an age pension.
World History
Tuesday, August 5, 1884. : The cornerstone of the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty stands is laid.
The Statue of Liberty stands on Liberty Island, formerly Bedloe’s Island, in New York Harbor. Its full title is “Liberty Enlightening the World”. Gustave Eiffel was the Structural Engineer of the Statue of Liberty and its Sculptor was Frederic Auguste Bartholdi. The Statue was completed in Paris in June 1884, and presented to America by the people of France in recognition of the friendship established during the American Revolution.
Although France assumed responsibility for construction of the statue and assembling of the pieces in the USA, America was responsible for building the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty stands. The pedestal was designed by American architect Richard Morris Hunt. Hunt’s initial design of granite was rejected as too costly, so an alternative concrete design with a granite façade was suggested by engineer and project chief General Charles P Stone.
On 5 August 1884, William A Brodie, Grand Master of Masons in New York state, laid the cornerstone of the pedestal upon which the Statue of Liberty now stands. The pedestal was completed in 1886.
World History
Sunday, August 5, 1962. : Famous actress Marilyn Monroe is found dead in her bed.
Marilyn Monroe was born Norma Jean Mortensen on 1 June 1926, in Los Angeles, California. She changed her name after signing a studio contract with 20th Century Fox in 1946. She became one of Hollywood’s most famous seductive stars, appearing in movies such as ‘How to Marry a Millionaire’ (1953), ‘Bus Stop’ (1956), ‘Some Like It Hot’ (1959) and ‘The Misfits’ (1961). She was married to baseball star Joe DiMaggio (1954) and playwright Arthur Miller (1956-61). Scandal surrounded her life as she hobnobbed with the rich and famous, and she was also linked to American President John F Kennedy.
Monroe was found dead of a sleeping pill overdose on 5 August 1962. Her death was officially ruled as probable suicide, but conspiracy theorists have sought to find various motives for powerful people to have instigated her death.