April 18
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 […]
April 10
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 […]
April 27
Australian Explorers Tuesday, April 27, 1802. : Matthew Flinders climbs Arthur’s Seat in Victoria. Arthur’s Seat is a low but striking hill on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Located 75 kilometres southeast of the city of Melbourne, Arthur’s seat rises to a height of 305 metres above sea level. The hill was named by Acting Lieutenant John […]
April 08
Australian Explorers Thursday, April 8, 1802. : Matthew Flinders meets French explorer Nicolas Baudin in South Australia, leading to the naming of Encounter Bay. During the late 1700s and early 1800s, both France and England were seeking to expand their respective empires. Both countries claimed and colonised new lands around the world, and both countries explored lands […]
April 07
Born on this day Friday, April 7, 1780. : Colourful character Jorgen Jorgenson, former convict in Australia, English spy and self-proclaimed Protector of Iceland, is born. Jorgen Jorgenson was born on 7 April 1780 in Copenhagen, Denmark, the son of royal clockmaker Jurgen Jurgensen. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed on an English collier, sailing […]
April 29
Australian Explorers Sunday, April 29, 1770. : Lieutenant James Cook discovers and names Botany Bay. Lieutenant Cook was born at Marton in North Yorkshire, on 27 October 1728. As the son of a farm labourer, he held no great ambitions, being apprenticed in a grocer/haberdashery when he was 16. Lack of aptitude in the trade led his […]
April 19
Australian Explorers Thursday, April 19, 1770. : Lieutenant Cook and his crew first sight the eastern coast of Australia. Lieutenant James Cook was not the first to discover Australia, as he was preceded by numerous Portuguese and Dutch explorers. However, he was the first to sight and map the eastern coastline. Cook’s ship, the ‘Endeavour’, departed Plymouth, […]
April 13
Born on this day Monday, April 13, 1570. : Guy Fawkes, conspirator in the 1605 Gunpowder Plot, is born. Guy Fawkes (later also known as Guido Fawkes) was born on 13 April 1570, in Stonegate, York, England. He embraced Catholicism while still in his teens, and later served for many years as a soldier gaining considerable expertise […]
April 23
Born on this day Thursday, April 23, 1564. : Today is the traditional, though unofficial, date of William Shakespeare’s birth. William Shakespeare, also spelled Shakspere, Shaksper, and Shake-speare, because spelling in Elizabethan times was not fixed and absolute, was born in Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England, in April 1564. 23 April 1564 is the unofficial date […]
April 15
Born on this day Thursday, April 15, 1452. : Renaissance painter, architect, engineer and scientist, Leonardo da Vinci, is born. Leonardo da Vinci was born 15 April 1452 in Vinci, Italy. His name means “Leonardo from the town of Vinci”, so he is generally referred to in short as “Leonardo” rather than as “da Vinci”. He is […]