Australian History
Monday, February 1, 1858. : The first balloon flight in Australia occurs.
The hot air balloon was developed in the 1700s by Frenchman Jacques Étienne Montgolfier, together with his brother Joseph-Michel. Montgolfier progressed to untethered flights until 1783 when he tested the first balloon to carry passengers, using a duck, a sheep and a rooster as his subjects. The demonstration occurred in Paris and was witnessed by King Louis XVI. The first manned, untethered balloon flight occurred on November 21 of that year, and carried two men.
The first balloon flight in Australia occurred on 1 February 1858. Constructed in the UK, the balloon was imported into Australia by the manager of Melbourne’s Theatre Royal, George Coppin. The launch took place at Cremorne Gardens near Richmond. William Dean lifted off at 5:52pm and landed near Heidelberg at around 6:30pm. Two weeks later, Dean again lifted off, this time reaching an estimated altitude of 10,000 feet before descending onto the road between Collingwood and Brunswick Stockade.
Australian History
Monday, February 1, 1915. : Opal is first discovered in Coober Pedy, Australia.
Coober Pedy is a small town located in South Australia’s central north, 685kms south of Alice Springs and 846kms north of Adelaide. Figures on the town’s population vary between around 1,900 people, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics 2006 Census, and 3,500 people, a figure based on Council and Post Office records.
Coober Pedy is known as the “Opal Capital of the World”, but the first opals were discovered accidentally by a gold prospecting party while making camp on the edge of the Great Victoria Desert on 1 February 1915. As word spread and opal miners moved in, the settlement was given the name of Stuart Range Opal Field, after explorer John McDouall Stuart who made the first crossing of the Australian continent from south to north and back.
Finding the extremes of summer and winter temperatures almost unendurable, miners solved the problem by digging out underground homes to help insulate them against the excessive summer daytime heat and the bitterly cold winter nights. The name of the settlement was changed to Coober Pedy in 1920: it is believed to have been derived from the aboriginal words Kupa pita meaning “White man in a hole or burrow”. Coober Pedy was officially designated a town in 1960.
World History
Friday, February 1, 1524. : It is prophesied that the city of London will be drowned by the Thames River on this date.
The Middle Ages are known to have been a time of great superstition. Much store was put in the prophesies of fortune tellers and astrologers, and people willingly upturned their lives to avoid predicted disasters.
One such disaster which was predicted to hit London was a massive flooding by the Thames on 1 February 1524. As early as June 1523, astrologers and soothsayers had already agreed on the fact of, and the date for, such an inundation. Many people left the doomed area or moved to higher ground and by mid-January 1524, the local population had dropped by twenty thousand.
The flood was predicted to be slow and gradual rather than sudden. From daybreak, those who had not already left found a vantage point from which to observe the river, planning to escape in plenty of time once the waters were seen to begin rising. The Thames, of course, continued on its same path without flooding, but many were afraid enough to keep watch right up until the following day. When the predictions were not fulfilled, the fortune tellers concurred to produce the story that their calculations were out by one century exactly.
Of course, the Thames did not inundate London in 1624 either.
World History
Friday, February 1, 1709. : The “real” Robinson Crusoe is rescued by English explorer William Dampier.
Robinson Crusoe is a novel written by Daniel Defoe and first published on 25 April 1719. It is about an English castaway who has to survive for 28 years on a remote tropical island near Venezuela before being rescued, on 19 December 1686. The story is unique in that it is written in autobiographical style, seeming to give an account of actual events. This style of writing was not common in the 18th century.
“Robinson Crusoe” is believed to have been based on the true story of Scottish castaway Alexander Selkirk, who lived for four years on the remote Pacific island of Más a Tierra, although in 1966 its name was changed to Robinson Crusoe Island. Selkirk was rescued from his remote island on 1 February 1709, by Captain Woodes Rogers and English explorer William Dampier, who had become the first Englishman to visit Australia in the late 1600s.
Interestingly, it was on this journey that Dampier was introduced to numerous new words, now common in the English language. Such words included breadfruit, barbeque, cashew, avocado, chopsticks, sea-breeze, sea-lion, settlement, soy sauce and tortilla.
World History
Friday, February 1, 1811. : The light of the Bell Rock Lighthouse, considered one of the “7 Wonders of the Industrial World”, is lit for the first time.
The Bell Rock Lighthouse, in the North sea, is the world’s oldest offshore lighthouse. Situated 18 kilometres off the coast of Angus, Scotland, for many years Bell Rock was notorious for the danger it posed to ships, as it lies just under the surface of the water for all but a few hours at low tide. In one storm alone during the late 17th century, 70 ships were lost. Also known as Inchcape Rock, Bell Rock received its name after the Abbot from Arbroath tried to install a warning bell during the 14th century. Within a year, the bell had disappeared, either taken by Dutch pirates or knocked from its position by the rough seas.
Renowned Scottish engineer Robert Stevenson initially proposed the construction of a lighthouse on Bell Rock in 1799, but the prohibitive costs and practicalities prevented further action. In 1804, the warship HMS York was wrecked on the rocks, and all on board perished: this was enough to reignite interest in Stevenson’s proposition.
Construction of the lighthouse began on 17 August 1807. The 60 workers lived on a ship moored over a kilometre from the rock for most of the day, rowing to the rock to work during the four hours it was uncovered. Finding this time-consuming, one of Stevenson’s first actions was to construct a beacon house on tall wooden struts with living room for 15 men. Work was marred by an accident resulting in one worker’s legs being crushed, the loss of two workers’ lives and Stevenson’s own personal loss of three of his children back home. Nonetheless, this incredible piece of engineering was finally completed in 1810. The beacon was first lit on 1 February 1811, and the man whose legs were crushed became the first lighthouse keeper.
2835 blocks of stone were used to construct the Bell Rock Lighthouse, whilst the total weight of masonry, the lantern and its apparatus is 2083.445 tons. The revolving light can be seen from land, 56.3km away. The lighthouse was automated in 1998.
World History
Tuesday, February 1, 1814. : The final ‘Frost Fair’ is held in England.
Hundreds of years ago, when the British climate was much colder than it is now, it was common for the Thames River in London to freeze over completely. For this to happen, a long spell of cold, dry weather was required, during which ice patches would begin to build up at the river’s edges, gradually spreading and forming larger ice surfaces as they joined up with other ice patches. The old London Bridge was supported by many more piers than the current bridge, slowing down the flow of water, and the river itself was broader and shallower. All of these factors contributed to the buildup and thickening of ice.
When the Thames froze over completely, enterprising London merchants began to set up stalls and markets along the middle of the river. The earliest recorded Frost Fair was in the winter of 1564-1565 when crowds turned out to watch a football match, archery contests and dancing. Conditions were right for another Frost Fair in 1607, during which a whole tent city was set up, with a variety of entertainment being offered, including ice bowling. In 1683-84, the Frost Fair grew to include even printing presses which offered Frost Fair memorabilia.
Britain’s final Frost Fair began on 1 February 1814. It was a huge event, with herds of donkeys being led out on the waterway, and a lamb being roasted on the ice, with its meat sold as “Lapland Mutton”. After this event, winters did not become so cold again. Once the new London Bridge was built with fewer supporting piers, which allowed the water to flow more freely, the Thames did not freeze over enough to allow crowds of thousands to wander about on its surface.
World History
Friday, February 1, 1918. : Russia adopts the Gregorian calendar, centuries after the western world.
The Gregorian calendar, widely adopted in the western world, was initially decreed by Pope Gregory XIII on 24 February 1582. The Gregorian calendar was first proposed by Aloysius Lilius because the mean year in the Julian Calendar was slightly long, causing the vernal equinox to slowly advance earlier in the calendar year.
On 5 October 1582, the Gregorian calendar was actively adopted in the western world for the first time. It required an adjustment to correct 11 accumulated days from the Julian calendar. The day following Thursday, 4 October 1582 was Friday, 15 October 1582, effective in most Catholic countries such as Italy, Poland, Spain and Portugal. Non-Catholic countries such as Scotland, Britain and the latter’s colonies still used the Julian calendar up until 1752, and some Asian countries were still using the Julian calendar up until the early twentieth century. On 1 February 1918, Russia finally adopted the Gregorian calendar.
World History
Sunday, February 1, 1920. : The Royal Canadian Mounted Police force is established.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police, also known as the RCMP or Mounties, is both the federal police force and the national police of Canada. The RCMP was created as the North West Mounted Police on 23 May 1873 by Sir John A Macdonald, the first Prime Minister of Canada. The distinctive red uniform was to emphasise the British origins of the force and to differentiate it from the blue American military uniforms.
During the Boer War, the force raised the Canadian Mounted Rifles, mostly from NWMP members, for service in South Africa. For the CMR’s distinguished service there, Edward VII honoured the NWMP by changing the name to the Royal North West Mounted Police on 24 June 1904. On 1 February 1920 the RNWMP was merged with the Dominion Police and was renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, with responsibility for federal law enforcement in all provinces and territories.
World History
Saturday, February 1, 2003. : The space shuttle ‘Columbia’ breaks up on re-entry into the Earth’s atmosphere, killing seven astronauts.
Space Shuttle Columbia was the first space shuttle in NASA’s orbital fleet. Its first mission lasted from April 12 to April 14, 1981, during which it orbited the Earth 36 times. Columbia was the world’s first reusable space vehicle.
On its final mission, the craft was carrying the first Israeli astronaut, Ilan Ramon, and the first female astronaut of Indian birth, Kalpana Chawla. Other crew members on the final flight included Rick Husband (commander), Willie McCool (pilot), Michael P Anderson, Laurel Clark, and David M Brown. Columbia re-entered the atmosphere after a 16-day scientific mission on the morning of 1 February 2003. It disintegrated 16 minutes before it was due to land at Cape Canaveral in Florida. Subsequent investigations indicated that a breach of the shuttle’s heat shield on take-off caused it to break up on re-entry.