November 30
Born on this day Monday, November 30, 1835. : American author and satirist, Mark Twain, is born. American writer Mark Twain was born Samuel Langhorne Clemens on 30 November 1835, in Florida, Missouri. His birth was marked by the appearance of Halley’s Comet, a phenomenon which reappeared at the time of his death, some 75 years later. […]
November 28
Australian Explorers Saturday, November 28, 1829. : Captain Charles Sturt crosses the Murrumbidgee River on his way to solve the mystery of the inland rivers. Captain Charles Sturt was born in India in 1795. He came to Australia in 1827, and soon after undertook to solve the mystery of where the inland rivers of New South Wales […]
November 24
Born on this day Friday, November 24, 1815. : Grace Darling, the English lighthouse keeper’s daughter who rescued survivors from a shipwreck, is born. Grace Darling was born on 24 November 1815, in Bamburgh, Northumberland, and grew up in the various lighthouses of which her father was keeper. Grace gained heroine status early in the morning of […]
November 19
Australian Explorers Friday, November 19, 1813. : George Evans departs Sydney to explore the land west of the Blue Mountains discovered by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth. For twenty-five years since the First Fleet arrived in Port Jackson, the Blue Mountains virtually imprisoned the colony of New South Wales, preventing exploration to the west. Numerous attempts to cross […]
November 05
Australian History Monday, November 5, 1804. : Lieutenant-Colonel William Paterson lands in Van Diemen’s Land (Tasmania) in order to begin a new settlement in the north. Tasmania was first discovered by Abel Tasman in November 1642. Tasman discovered the previously unknown island on his voyage past the “Great South Land”, or “New Holland”, as the Dutch called […]
November 03
Australian Explorers Saturday, November 3, 1804. : George Caley crosses the Hawkesbury River in his unsuccessful attempt to cross the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. George Caley was born at Craven, Yorkshire, England on 10 June 1770, within a few days of James Cook’s observation of the transit of Venus in Tahiti. He undertook a mere four […]
November 15
Australian History Tuesday, November 15, 1791. : Australia’s first successful grape vine is planted. When the first Fleet landed in New South Wales in 1788, the members of the colony were poorly equipped for the Australian conditions. The colony needed to be self-supporting, but the seeds which had been brought from England had either gone mouldy on […]
November 02
Born on this day Sunday, November 2, 1755. : Marie Antoinette, queen of France and wife of Louis XVI, is born. Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna on 2 November 1755, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife Empress Maria Theresa. When a new peace treaty was signed between Austria and France, it […]
November 14
Born on this day Monday, November 14, 1650. : King William III of England, also known as William of Orange, is born. William III of England was born on 14 November 1650, in The Hague, Netherlands. He became the Sovereign Prince of Orange at his birth because his father died of smallpox eight days before he was […]
November 10
Born on this day Saturday, November 10, 1483. : Martin Luther, German theologian and catalyst to the Protestant Reformation, is born. Martin Luther was born on 10 November 1483, in Eisleben, Germany. At age 17 he enrolled in the University of Erfurt, gaining a Bachelor’s degree in 1502 and a Master’s degree in 1505. According to his […]