Born on this day

Wednesday, February 13, 1743. :   Sir Joseph Banks, British naturalist and botanist on Cook’s first voyage, is born.

Joseph Banks was born on 13 February 1743 in London, England. He developed his passion for botany whilst studying at Oxford University. After establishing his name through scientific publication, he was appointed to a joint Royal Navy/Royal Society scientific expedition to the south Pacific Ocean on HMS Endeavour, from 1768 to 1771. This was the first of Captain Cook’s voyages of discovery into that region.

This voyage went to Brazil, where Banks made the first scientific description of bougainvillea, and to other parts of South America. The expedition moved on to Tahiti (where the transit of Venus was observed, the primary purpose of the mission), New Zealand, and finally to the east coast of Australia. Here Cook mapped the coastline and made landfall at Botany Bay near present-day Sydney and at Cooktown in Queensland, where the crew spent almost 7 weeks ashore while their ship was repaired after foundering on the Great Barrier Reef. While in Australia, Banks, and the Swedish and Finnish botanists Daniel Solander and Dr Herman Spöring made the first major collection of Australian flora, describing many species new to science.

Banks was a passionate advocate of British settlement and colonisation of the Australian continent, as suggested by the name of Botany Bay. Banks’s legacy lives on through the 75 species which bear his name. He is credited with the classification and description of eucalyptus, acacia, mimosa, and the genus named after him, Banksia. The Canberra suburb of Banks and the Sydney suburb of Bankstown are also named after him. Banks died in London at the age of 77.

Born on this day

Tuesday, February 13, 1923. :   Charles Yeager, the first person to travel two and a half times the speed of sound, is born.

Charles Elwood “Chuck” Yeager was born on 13 February 1923 in Myra, West Virginia. After joining the army at age 16 and training as an aircraft mechanic, he was then selected for flight training. His service record during WWII was impeccable, becoming an “ace-in-a-day” after shooting down five enemy aircraft in a single mission. Yeager remained in the Air Force after the war. He became a test pilot and was ultimately selected to fly the rocket-powered Bell X-1 in a NACA program to research high-speed flight. On 14 October 1947 he broke the sound barrier in the technologically advanced X-1.

Yeager continued to work with experimental craft, achieving faster and faster speeds. He piloted the X1-A, a longer and more powerful version of the X-1, to a speed of Mach 2.4 on 12 December 1953. This was almost two and a half times the speed of sound and the fastest of any human being for that time. Yeager continued to reside in Grass Valley, California, where he was a local hero, until his death on 7 December 2020.

Australian History

Wednesday, February 13, 2008. :   The Australian Government formally apologises to the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

The Stolen Generation refers to a very dark period in Australia’s history when children of Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage were removed from their families under acts of the parliament. Many of the Stolen Generation were not full-blooded Aborigines and/or Torres Strait Islanders: most of them were mixed race children of aboriginal women who became pregnant to white stockmen and stationhands.

From the mid to late 1800s to the mid 1900s, influential factions within the Australian Government sought to decimate all traces of the indigenous Australian culture by separating the children from the elders who could teach them about their traditions. Children were removed and placed in white missions, church missions and white foster families. This was done under the guise of stating that “white man’s ways” were better, less abusive, and offered more opportunities to the children. However, the effect was the loss of around two-thirds of the aboriginal languages, along with many aboriginal stories and other rich aspects of their culture.

During the latter half of the twentieth century, the issue of Aboriginal Rights gained prominence, along with recognition of the injustices perpetrated upon the members of the Stolen Generation. With the dawning of the new millennium, the Australian Government began to come under increasing pressure to formally acknowledge these injustices by way of an official apology. Finally, on 13 February 2008, Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd issued a public, formal apology to the Stolen Generation and their descendants.

During the speech, which was read out to Parliament, Mr Rudd stated, “We apologise for the laws and policies of successive parliaments and governments that have inflicted profound grief, suffering and loss on these our fellow Australians. We apologise especially for the removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families, their communities and their country. For the pain, suffering and hurt of these Stolen Generations, their descendants and for their families left behind, we say sorry. To the mothers and the fathers, the brothers and the sisters, for the breaking up of families and communities, we say sorry. And for the indignity and degradation thus inflicted on a proud people and a proud culture, we say sorry.”

World History

Tuesday, February 13, 1601. :   The first ships under the East India Company leave England.

The East India Company was an early English company formed for the purpose of developing trade with the East Indies. Not to be confused with the Dutch East India Company, the EIC was established as Governor and Company of Merchants of London Trading with the East Indies after being granted a Royal Charter by Queen Elizabeth I in December 1600. The charter gave the company a monopoly on trade with the East Indies, specifically, all countries east of the Cape of Good Hope and west of the Straits of Magellan. This was to safeguard the profits of the 125 initial shareholders and the Governor, Sir Thomas Smythe.

The first voyage under the banner of the new company left England on 13 February 1601. Four British ships sailed to the Spice Islands of Sumatra and Java under the command of James Lancaster. The ships carried wool and iron to trade, neither of which was of interest to the islanders. In order to ensure the trade would take place, Lancaster captured a Portuguese ship, stealing the gold, silver and Indian textiles, which he was then able to trade for pepper. The ships returned to England in 1603, all loaded with pepper. Lancaster eventually established a factory in the city of Bantam on the island of Java, and within the following decade, another eleven voyages were undertaken between England and the East Indies. Despite opposition from the Dutch-based United East India Company, the British established themselves firmly in the East Indies, achieving a balance of power by the end of the 17th century.

World History

Tuesday, February 13, 1945. :   Between 35,000 and 135,000 civilians are killed as the Allies bomb Dresden, Germany.

By February 1945, the end of WWII was in sight. Hitler’s counteroffensive against the Allies in Belgium had failed and the German air force, the Luftwaffe, was a mere skeleton. The Red Army had captured East Prussia and reached the Oder River, less than 50 miles from Berlin and the Allies were bombing Germany daily. The Allies aimed to demoralise Germany in much the same way as the latter had attempted to demoralise Britain with the Blitz – with a sustained, heavy bombing campaign. Thus, the bombing of Dresden stands out as one of the most controversial and unnecessary acts of WWII.

Before World War II, Dresden was known as “the Florence of the Elbe” and was regarded as one of the world’s most beautiful cities for its architecture and museums. Dresden’s contribution to the war effort was minimal compared with other German cities. But on the night of 13 February 1945, around 800 British RAF bombers descended on Dresden in two waves, dropping 1,478 tons of high-explosive bombs and 1,182 tons of incendiaries on the city. This action created a great firestorm that destroyed most of the city and killed tens of thousands of civilians. Later that same day, another 300 US bombers targetted Dresden’s railways, bridges, and transportation facilities, killing tens of thousands more. Between 35,000 and 135,000 civilians were ultimately killed in the campaign which lasted three days. Dresden, a city of beautiful art and architecture, was reduced to mere rubble.

World History

Sunday, February 13, 2000. :   Charles M Schulz, creator of Snoopy and the ‘Peanuts’ comic strip, dies.

Charles Monroe Schulz was born in St Paul, Minnesota, on 26 November 1922. As a teenager he was shy and introverted, and when he created his comic strip ‘Peanuts’, he based the character of Charlie Brown on himself. Charlie Brown first appeared in the comic strip “Li’l Folks”, published in 1947 by the St Paul Pioneer Press. In 1950, Schulz approached the United Features Syndicate with his best strips from “Li’l Folks”, and “Peanuts” made its debut on 2 October 1950.

“Peanuts” ran for nearly 50 years, appearing in over 2,600 newspapers in 75 countries. In 1999, Schulz had a stroke, and it was then discovered that he had colon cancer. He died on 13 February 2000, two months after announcing his retirement from drawing “Peanuts”. After his death, comic strips all over the world paid tribute to Schulz and Peanuts within their own formats. The Charles M Schulz Museum was opened on 17 August 2002, for the purpose of preserving, displaying, and interpreting the art of Charles M Schulz.