Born on this day
Sunday, December 16, 1770. : The great composer, Ludwig van Beethoven, is born.
The true date of Beethoven’s birth is not known, but it is commonly regarded that he was born on 16 December 1770. He was baptised on 17 December 1770, and it was common practice for infants of his time to be baptised the day after they were born. Born in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven’s talent was recognised when he was very young, but only began to develop fully after he moved to Vienna in 1792 and studied under Joseph Haydn. This marked his “Early” composing career, when he tended to write music in the style of his predecessors, Haydn and Mozart. His first and second symphonies, the first six string quartets, the first two piano concertos, and the first twenty piano sonatas, including the Pathétique and Moonlight, were written in this period.
Beethoven’s “Middle” period of composing began shortly after he was beset with deafness. His music of this period tended towards large-scale works expressing heroism and struggle, and included six symphonies, commencing with the “Eroica”, and including the rich and penetrating Fifth Symphony. Other works include the last three piano concertos and his only violin concerto, five string quartets (Nos. 7 – 11), many piano sonatas, including the Waldstein and Appassionata, and his only opera, Fidelio.
The “Late” period of Beethoven’s career encompassed the final eleven years of his life, and his compositions reflected his personal expression in their depth and intensity. Among the works of this period are the Ninth Symphony, the “Choral”, the Missa Solemnis, the last six string quartets and the last five piano sonatas. Beethoven died on 26 March 1827, but his legacy lives on in his brilliant, expressive compositions.
Australian Explorers
Thursday, December 16, 1824. : Hume and Hovell mistakenly arrive at Corio Bay, instead of Westernport Bay.
Hamilton Hume was an Australian-born settler with excellent bush skills. He was interested in exploring south of the known Sydney area in order to open up new areas of land, but could not gain Government support for his proposed venture. William Hovell was an English former ship’s captain with little bush experience, keen to assist Hume’s expedition financially, and accompany him. Hume and Hovell commenced their expedition on 3 October 1824. Although the two men argued for most of their journey, and even for many years after their return, the expedition was successful in many ways. Hume and Hovell were the first to discover the “Hume River”, though it was later renamed by Sturt as the Murray River. They were the first white men to see the Australian Alps. Much good grazing and pastureland was also found.
There was one major mistake, however. Hovell, as navigator, managed to incorrectly calculate their position when they thought they had reached Westernport on the southern coast. They were, in fact, at Corio Bay within Port Phillip, where the city of Geelong now stands. They reached this point on 16 December 1824. As a result of their reports of excellent farmland when they returned to Sydney, a party was sent to settle the Westernport area in 1826, only to find poor water and soil quality. The Port Philip settlement was abandoned, and not resumed for another ten years. Nonetheless, Hume and Hovell’s expedition was still valuable for opening up vast tracts of fertile land.
Australian Explorers
Tuesday, December 16, 1845. : Thomas Mitchell departs Orange, New South Wales, in search of a great river flowing to the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Major Thomas Mitchell was born in Craigend, Scotland, in 1792. He came to Australia after serving in the Army during the Napoleonic Wars, and took up the position of Surveyor-General of New South Wales. He undertook four separate expeditions into the NSW interior.
Mitchell departed on his fourth and final expedition on 16 December 1845, in search of a great river that he believed must flow from southern Queensland to the Gulf of Carpentaria. He left from Orange in central New South Wales, and headed into what is now western Queensland. Mitchell discovered and named the Balonne, Culgoa, Barcoo and Belyando rivers, which mostly flowed south-west into the Darling. Although this area was not as rich as the land he had found in Victoria on his third expedition, it would prove to be excellent grazing country in the future.
Australian Explorers
Sunday, December 16, 1860. : Burke makes the fateful decision to push on to the Gulf from Cooper Creek, despite waterless country and searing summer heat.
Robert O’Hara Burke and William Wills led the expedition that was intended to bring fame and prestige to Victoria: being the first to cross Australia from south to north and back again. They set out on Monday, 20 August 1860, leaving from Royal Park, Melbourne, and farewelled by around 15,000 people. The exploration party was very well equipped, and the cost of the expedition almost 5,000 pounds.
Because of the size of the exploration party, it was split at Menindee so that Burke could push ahead to the Gulf of Carpentaria with a smaller party. The smaller group went on ahead to establish the depot which would serve to offer the necessary provisions for when the men returned from the Gulf. On November 20, Burke and Wills first reached Cooper Creek. From here, they made several shorter trips to the north, but were forced back each time by waterless country and extreme temperatures. On 16 December 1860, Burke decided to push on ahead to the Gulf, regardless of the risks. He took with him Wills, Charles Grey and John King.
The expedition to the Gulf took longer than Burke anticipated: upon his return to Cooper Creek, he found that the relief party had left just seven hours earlier, less than the amount of time it had taken to bury Gray, who had died on the return journey. Through poor judgement, lack of observation and a series of miscommunications, Burke and Wills never met up with the relief party. They perished on the banks of Cooper Creek. King alone survived to lead the rescue party to the remains of Burke and Wills, and the failure of one of the most elaborately planned expeditions in Australia’s history.
World History
Tuesday, December 16, 1631. : Mount Vesuvius erupts, destroying six villages and killing up to 4,000 people.
Mount Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the European mainland. It is located on the coast of the Bay of Naples, about nine kilometres east of Naples. Mt Vesuvius gained notoriety when, on August 24 AD 79, the city of Pompeii and the neighbouring city of Herculaneum were buried under a pyroclastic flow, a cloud of superheated gas, ash, and rock erupting from the volcano.
Mount Vesuvius continued to erupt dozens of times through the years, though not with the same destructive force. Its most devastating eruption since AD 79 occurred on 16 December 1631, when six villages were buried under lava flows and torrents of boiling water spewed from the volcano. Between three thousand and four thousand people were killed in this eruption.
This event signalled a new phase of regular, destructive eruptions. Since 1631, Vesuvius has erupted explosively another 22 times, with constant rumblings in between. There have been no major eruptions since 1944, the longest recorded period of inactivity in almost 500 years.
World History
Tuesday, December 16, 1997. : 700 people, mostly children, are hospitalised following the broadcast of a cartoon which triggers ‘Nintendo epilepsy’.
On 16 December 1997, over 700 people in Japan were rushed to hospital suffering similar, but unusual, symptoms of simultaneous seizures. The common factor was that they had all watched a cartoon segment on the “Pokémon” show, based on Nintendo’s “Pocket Monsters” Game Boy game. The catalyst to their problem seemed to be a scene featuring an explosion, which was then followed by several seconds of flashing red light in the eyes of one of the show’s characters. Viewers who were admitted to hospitals complained of convulsions, vomiting, and other symptoms.
Major video game manufacturers now admit that some games can trigger seizures or “seizure-like symptoms” in some video game players. Such seizures are usually triggered by repetitive flashing lights, combined with the presentation of certain geometric patterns within the games.