Born on this day
Thursday, February 7, 1478. : Sir Thomas More, the man executed after refusing to recognise King Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church in England, is born.
Sir Thomas More, scholar, lawyer, diplomat and Christian humanist, was born in London on 7 February 1478. More initially served as personal secretary to King Henry VIII, but gradually became entrusted with more responsibilities, eventually rising to the position of Chancellor. However, he resigned from this position the day after Henry VIII manipulated Parliament to remove the freedom of the Church that had been written into English law since the Magna Carta. More was imprisoned in the Tower of London before being executed fifteen months later for refusing to acknowledge King Henry VIII as the Supreme Head of the Church in England.
Born on this day
Friday, February 7, 1812. : English novelist Charles Dickens is born.
English novelist Charles John Huffam Dickens was born on 7 February 1812 in Landport, Hampshire, England. Dickens spent a carefree childhood reading and roaming outdoors, but that changed when his father was imprisoned for outstanding debt when young Charles was only twelve. The boy was thrust into working 10 hours a day in Warren’s boot-blacking factory in London. The money he earned supported himself and his family who then lived in Marshalsea debtor’s prison. When an inheritance from his father’s family paid off the family’s debt and freed them from prison, Dickens’ mother insisted Charles stay working in the factory which was owned by a relative. Dickens’ resentment of his situation and the conditions under which working-class people lived coloured his later writings.
When in his early twenties, Dickens became a journalist. His writings were very popular and read extensively. His novella “A Christmas Carol” was first published on 19 December 1843, and thousands of copies were sold before Christmas Eve that year. Other popular novels followed, such as ‘Oliver Twist’, ‘Great Expectations’, ‘David Copperfield’, ‘The Pickwick Papers’, ‘Nicholas Nickleby’ and ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. The themes of social injustice and poverty are obvious throughout many of Dickens’s novels, and his social commentaries are as popular today as they were when he penned his works.
Australian History
Thursday, February 7, 1788. : The Colony of New South Wales is formally proclaimed.
In 1786, semi-retired naval officer Arthur Phillip was appointed Governor-designate of the proposed British penal colony of New South Wales in 1786. He was authorised to establish the colony under Commissions dated 12 October 1786 and 2 April 1787. Australia was first officially settled by the First Fleet of convicts, which left England in May 1787 and arrived in Port Jackson on 26 January 1788. At Port Jackson, the British flag was raised as Captain Arthur Phillip took formal possession on behalf of the British Crown.
Almost two weeks later, on Thursday 7 February 1788, the colony of New South Wales was formally proclaimed. In an official ceremony presided over by Judge-Advocate David Collins, Captain Arthur Phillip assumed the Office of Governor. The convicts were forced to stand in line and observe the formal proceedings while the declaration was read. Collins’s reading of Phillip’s Commission revealed to those present the tremendous extent of the new Governor’s powers and responsibilities in the colony. It was noted by one of the officers, Ralph Clark, that he had “never heard of any one single person having so great a power invested in him as the Governor has by his Commission”.
This date marks the effective commencement of the first British colony in Australia
Australian History
Tuesday, February 7, 1967. : The ‘Black Tuesday’ bushfires devastate Tasmania.
Australian summers are often marred by bushfires, and many lives and livelihoods have been destroyed when bushfires have roared across the countryside, out of control. Black Saturday, Black Friday, Ash Wednesday, Canberra, Eyre Peninsula – these have all been major bushfires which have claimed lives.
Although Tasmania has a more temperate climate during summer, it is still prone to bushfires. One of the worst of Australia’s natural disasters occurred on what is known as “Black Tuesday” – 7 February 1967. Fanned by 110-kilometre winds and 39 degree temperatures, around 120 different fire fronts swept through southern Tasmania, including the city of Hobart itself. 62 people died, 1400 buildings were destroyed and tens of thousands of stock animals and native animals were killed. An inquiry later found that 88 of the fires had been deliberately lit by arsonists, or were the result of breakaways from rubbish dumps or incinerators, or property owners burning off without permission.
Even today, evidence of the bushfires can be seen in the pale skeletons of burnt trees, present in the bushland on the slopes of Mt Wellington.
Australian History
Saturday, February 7, 2009. : Today marks the start of the horrific Black Saturday bushfires in Victoria, which eventually kill 173.
Australia is a country well familiar with natural disasters, particularly bushfires. But no-one could have predicted the horror of the inferno which started as the Black Saturday bushfires and ultimately became Australia’s worst ever natural disaster.
The date was 7 February 2009. Southern Australia had been in the grip of a heatwave for several weeks, which intensified in the leadup to Black Saturday. Temperatures in Victoria exceeded a record-breaking 47 degrees for several days and this, together with the tinder-dry countryside, provided the catalyst to the bushfires.
One of the worst of the fires started near Kinglake, a rural settlement north of Melbourne. The fire raged and quickly spread, wiping out the town and killing dozens who had no warning and no time to flee. Over the ensuing days, dozens more were killed in bushland towns such as Marysville, Strathewen and others. The death toll steadily climbed, peaking finally at 173 after police combed burnt out houses and discovered bodies under rubble and ruins. Police, together with sniffer dogs, were sent from New Zealand to help search for bodies.
Apart from the weather, several other factors contributed to the fires. Arson was a major factor: one arsonist was charged, a former firefighter with a reputation as a loner. Faulty, arcing power lines caused several of the fires while in Bendigo, to Melbourne’s northwest, the fires began with a cigarette tossed from a vehicle’s window. Findings of the coronial inquest handed down a year later placed the blame for the Kinglake fire on faulty power lines.
Black Saturday will long live in people’s minds as the day entire towns – houses and populations – were decimated.
World History
Wednesday, February 7, 2001. : A blind cod, which had been caught by the same fisherman 35 times, is sent into retirement in a marine park.
Harald Hauso is a fisherman who frequents the Hardanger fjord in Norway. In the year 2000, a blind cod first swam into Hauso’s nets seeking tiny crabs and starfish. Because it was so thin and in poor condition, Hauso let it go. The same cod continued to return until Hauso estimated he had caught it 40 times, letting it go each time because he felt sorry for it.
A marine park in Aalesund offered to house the fish in its own private pool with a short-sighted halibut as a room-mate, so on 7 February 2001, Hauso caught the fish for the last time. The fish was nicknamed “Balder” after a handsome god in Norwegian mythology.
There were concerns Balder would not survive the journey, as he was swollen from being frequently caught and released. He underwent an operation to release the gases, and made a full recovery after aquarium staff fed him through a tube into his stomach. A month after the operation, Balder began to eat on his own.
Balder eventually died in May 2005.
New Zealand History
Saturday, February 7, 1863. : Naval vessel HMS Orpheus sinks in Manukau Harbour, killing 189.
Manukau Harbour is located on the Awhitu Peninsula on the far north of New Zealand. With a water surface area of 394 square kilometres, it is the country’s second largest harbour. However, the entrance to the harbour is quite narrow, at 1800 metres wide, and because of this, tidal flow is rapid. Coupled with the presence of sandbars at the entrance, navigating through the harbour mouth can be treacherous.
The HMS Orpheus was built in 1861 and commissioned as a vessel of the Royal Navy. It was a Jason-class corvette, 69 metres in length and 12 m at the beam. The ship departed Sydney, Australia on 31 January 1863, under the command of Commodore W Farquharson Burnett CB, to deliver naval supplies and troop reinforcements to Auckland for the New Zealand land wars, a series of conflicts between the New Zealand government and Māori that ran for several decades. The Manukau Harbour entrance had been charted twice between 1836 and 1856, but later evidence indicated that one of the sandbars had shifted and grown. Despite a navigational signal from nearby Paratutae Island indicating the presence of the sandbar, the Orpheus made a course correction too late. As the vessel approached the mouth of Manukau Harbour at around 1:30pm on 7 February 1863, the vessel ran aground. The steamship Wonga Wonga, which was being guided out of the harbour at the time, swung around to assist, picking up any crew who had climbed up on to deck. When the masts began to break at 8:30pm, the remaining survivors were killed.
Out of the crew of 259, 189 died, including Commodore Burnett and the Captain, Robert Heron Burton. This was the highest ever casualty rate for a shipwreck in New Zealand waters.