Born on this day
Tuesday, February 4, 1902. : Charles Lindbergh, the first person to fly solo across the Atlantic, is born.
Charles Augustus Lindbergh was born on 4 February 1902 in Detroit, Michigan, USA. Displaying an interest in machines from an early age, Lindbergh enrolled in a mechanical engineering program, but quit when he was eighteen. He then joined a pilot and mechanist training programme with Nebraska Aircraft, bought his own airplane and became a stunt pilot. In 1924, he started training as a US military aviator with the United States Army Air Corps. After finishing first in his class, he worked as a civilian airmail pilot on the St Louis line in the 1920s.
Lindbergh is most famous for being the first pilot to fly solo and non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean, flying from Roosevelt Airfield, Long Island, New York City to Paris on 20-21 May 1927 in his single-engine airplane The Spirit of St Louis. The journey took him 33.5 hours and won him the Orteig Prize of $25,000.
Born on this day
Sunday, February 4, 1906. : Dietrich Bonhoeffer, German pastor, theologian and participant in the resistance movement against Nazism, is born.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer was born on 4 February 1906 in Breslau, Germany. He became a Lutheran pastor and theologian, attaining his doctorate at the University of Berlin before doing further postgraduate study at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
Bonhoeffer was a strong opponent of Nazism, and in 1939 joined a secret group of high-ranking military officers based in the Abwehr, or Military Intelligence Office, who wanted to overthrow the National Socialist regime by killing Hitler. After assisting Jews to escape to Switzerland, money was traced back to him: he was arrested in April 1943 and charged with conspiracy. In July 1944, an attempt was made to assassinate Hitler, and Bonhoeffer was found to have connections to the conspirators in the plot. He was executed by hanging at dawn on 9 April 1945, together with his brother Klaus and his brothers-in-law Hans von Dohnanyi and Rüdiger Schleicher.
Bonhoeffer is considered a martyr for his faith, and was absolved of any crimes by the German government in the mid-1990s. His death on April 9th is commemorated in the calendar of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America, and he is still considered one of the greatest, most insightful theologians of all time.
Australian History
Saturday, February 4, 1939. : The first ever mass strike of indigenous Australians occurs as the Yorta Yorta people protest against their deplorable living conditions.
The indigenous people of Australia were the original inhabitants of the Australian continent. Ever since Europeans first settled the continent, Australian history has been dotted with instances of injustices against the native people.
As European settlement spread, more and more Aborigines were displaced from their traditional home. They were dispossessed of their land and, due to the hostilities between whites and Aborigines, they were moved onto reserves and missions, where they were supposed to be protected. The Cummeragunja Mission in southern New South Wales was one such mission, established in 1881, primarily for the Yorta Yorta people who inhabited the land just north of the Murray River near Barmah, Victoria. Many of the Yorta Yorta had been relocated from the strictly religious Maloga Mission, and were permitted to live more self-sufficiently on Cummeragunja, establishing a farm and producing wheat, wool and dairy products.
In 1915, the New South Wales Aboriginal Protection Board took over control of Cummeragunja, disbanding the farm’s committee of management, meaning that the residents no longer had control over funds they raised from their work on the farm. Conditions for the residents became far more restrictive, and a system of distributing rations was implemented. These rations were unhealthy and insufficient, other supplies were minimal, and shelter was inferior. By the 1930s, illness was rife throughout the mission.
On 4 February 1939, between 150 and 200 indigenous residents staged a mass walk-off in protest against the deplorable living conditions. They crossed the border into Victoria, which was against the rules of the New South Wales Protection Board. Many of them subsequently settled in towns such as Barmah, Echuca and Shepparton. No further action was taken on behalf of the aboriginal people’s claims for compensation, and little has been taken in recent years. At most, the Yorta Yorta people have received about one tenth of 1 percent of the traditional lands they lost to European settlement.
World History
Friday, February 4, 1983. : Singer Karen Carpenter dies at age 32 from cardiac arrest, brought on by anorexia nervosa.
Karen Carpenter, born on 4 March 1950 and her brother Richard, born on 15 October 1946, formed the singing duo “The Carpenters” in the 1970s. Known for their simple but rich and melodious popular songs, the pair gained their professional break when they were hired to perform at a party for the premiere of the 1969 film “Goodbye, Mr Chips”. Here they were noticed by its star, Petula Clark, who brought them to the attention of Herb Alpert, who signed them to his label, A&M Records. The Carpenters quickly became popular for songs such as “Close to You”, “We’ve Only Just Begun”, “For All We Know”, “Rainy Days and Mondays”, “Top of the World” and “Sing”, among others.
As their fame grew and their concert schedule became more gruelling, both Karen and Richard developed health problems. Richard developed an addiction to tranquillisers, a habit which he overcame following his admission to a drug rehabilitation facility in Kansas. Karen suffered an ongoing battle with anorexia nervosa and bulimia, dieting excessively and abusing syrup of ipecac. These elements ultimately damaged her heart, and on 4 February 1983, Karen suffered cardiac arrest at her parents’ home in Downey, Los Angeles, and was pronounced dead at Downey Memorial Hospital. She was only 32.
World History
Wednesday, February 4, 1998. : Microsoft founder Bill Gates is hit in the face with a custard pie.
Bill Gates, chairman and chief software architect of Microsoft Corporation, is known for being one of the world’s richest men. Popularity is not necessarily linked to wealth, as Gates found out when he was visiting Belgium on 4 February 1998. Whilst in Brussels to visit European Union officials, he was entering a building to meet with Belgian government officials when he was struck in the face with what is believed to have been a custard cream pie. The perpetrator was Noel Godin, a known Belgian prankster with a penchant for targetting the rich and famous with custard pies. Gates and the Microsoft Corporation declined to press charges.
World History
Wednesday, February 4, 2004. : Social networking site Facebook is founded.
Facebook is the world’s largest social networking site, with over one billion active users, as of late 2012. The site was launched on 4 February 2004 by a young American student of computer science named Mark Zuckerberg. The name “Facebook” originated from the Face Book of Zuckerberg’s high school, Phillips Exeter Academy: the book was distributed to every student to help them get to know their classmates for the following year. Zuckerberg took the idea and developed it as a digital medium.
Facebook was originally established as a network exclusively for students of Harvard College. However, its popularity expanded so rapidly that, within just a few weeks, numerous other Boston schools were requesting a Facebook network as well. With the help of his college room-mates Dustin Moskovitz and Chris Hughes, and other Harvard University students Eduardo Saverin and Andrew McCollum, Zuckerberg continued to build Facebook and, within months, had added 30 more college networks.
The first major investor was Peter Thiel, cofounder of PayPal, who invested $500,000 into Facebook. In 2005, Facebook was expanded to include high school students, and became even more popular with the addition of a photo sharing feature. The following year, the site was opened up to work networks and, by the end of 2006, was available to anyone who held an email address. Since then, the growth of Facebook has been exponential.