March 31
Australian History Thursday, March 31, 1988. : The Skitube alpine railway extension from Perisher Valley to Mt Blue Cow is opened. The Kosciuszko National park in southern New South Wales is home to some of Australia’s best ski fields, including Perisher Valley and Mt Blue Cow. Access to the popular Perisher snowfields was only enabled by a […]
March 07
Australian History Sunday, March 7, 1954. : The “Sydney Morning Herald” reports a new craze of flattening pennies under the Royal Train of Queen Elizabeth II. Princess Elizabeth, who became Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, was born Elizabeth Alexandra Mary Windsor on 21 April 1926. She was proclaimed queen on 6 February 1952, following the […]
March 11
Born on this day Tuesday, March 11, 1952. : Douglas Adams, author of ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, is born. Douglas Noël Adams was born on 11 March 1952 in Cambridge, England. He attended Brentwood School from 1959 to 1970; one incident which inspired Adams through many later periods of writer’s block was when he took […]
March 18
Born on this day Saturday, March 18, 1944. : Dick Smith, Australian businessman, entrepreneur and aviator, is born. Richard Harold ‘Dick’ Smith was born on 18 March 1944 in Roseville, Sydney. In 1968, he founded electronics retailer Dick Smith Electronics, which he sold to Woolworths in 1982. A multi-millionaire, he generously supports charities whilst also encouraging the […]
March 25
Australian History Wednesday, March 25, 1936. : Prime Minister Joseph Lyons opens the world’s longest submarine telephone and telegraph cable link, extending from mainland Australia to Tasmania. The telegraph was the precursor to the telephone. Within Australia, the first telegraph line was laid from Melbourne’s city centre to Williamstown in 1854, while South Australia followed two years […]
March 09
Born on this day Friday, March 9, 1934. : The first person to travel in space, Yuri Gagarin, is born. Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born on 9 March 1934 in Klushino near Gzhatsk, which was later renamed Gagarin in his honour. Flying light aircraft became a hobby for him until he entered military flight training at the […]
March 26
Born on this day Thursday, March 26, 1931. : Star Trek actor Leonard Nimoy is born. Leonard Simon Nimoy, who gained worldwide fame as Star Trek’s Mr Spock, was born on 26 March 1931 in Boston, Massachusetts. He was the second son of Jewish immigrants from Iziaslav, Ukraine. The interest he showed in acting from a very […]
March 22
Born on this day Thursday, March 22, 1923. : French mime artist, Marcel Marceau, is born. Marcel Marceau was born Marcel Mangel in Strasbourg, France, on 22 March 1923. His interest in acting developed after he saw Charlie Chaplin perform, and from 1946 on he studied at the Sarah Bernhardt Theatre in Paris. In 1947 he performed […]
March 28
Born on this day Tuesday, March 28, 1922. : Neville Bonner, the first Aboriginal parliamentarian, is born. Neville Bonner was born on 28 March 1922 at Ukerabagh, near Tweed Heads in northern New South Wales. He worked as a farm labourer before settling on Palm Island, near Townsville, Queensland in 1946, where he rose to the position […]
March 02
Born on this day Wednesday, March 2, 1904. : Children’s author, Dr Seuss, is born. Theodor Seuss Geisel, aka Dr Seuss, was born on 2 March 1904 in Springfield, Massachusetts, USA. As a young boy, he enjoyed drawing, but his teachers discouraged him from planning to make a living from it, telling him he lacked talent. Geisel […]