Australian History
Saturday, February 16, 1793. : The first free settlers arrive in New South Wales.
The first European settlers in Australia were primarily convicts from England, along with the officers and marines who guarded them. The only free settlers aboard the First Fleet were an estimated 46 wives and children of the marines. For the first few difficult years, while the colony was being established, subsequent fleets were also made up almost entirely of more convicts.
Prior to leaving England, Governor Arthur Phillip had suggested that convicts with experience in farming, building and crafts be included in the First Fleet, but his proposal was rejected, and this made the establishment of a workable colony difficult in the early years. Phillip maintained his campaign for more farmers, as the colony faced near-starvation in the early years, due to difficulties with growing crops.
In response to Governor Phillip’s repeated requests to the British Authorities for farmers, the first free settlers arrived in New South Wales on 16 February 1793, lured by the promise of land grants. The settlers, who arrived on the ship ‘Bellona’, were described in the Secretary of State’s Despatch of 14 July 1792, as “Thomas Rose, aged 40, farmer from Blandford, his wife, Mrs. Jane Rose, and their children, Thomas, Mary, Joshua and Richard, also Elizabeth Fish, aged 18, related to the family.” They were awarded land grants in the Strathfield Municipality.
Australian History
Thursday, February 16, 1804. : Lieutenant-Governor David Collins takes command of the first settlement on the Derwent River, Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania).
Long before John Batman made his treaty with the Aborigines to lease land at Port Phillip for a new settlement, the British Government instructed Lieutenant-Governor David Collins to establish a settlement on the southern coast. At that stage, the area was still part of New South Wales. The expedition included two ships, 308 convicts, 51 marines, 17 free settlers, 12 civil officers, and a missionary and his wife. In October 1803 Collins and his expedition landed at the site where Sorrento now stands on the Mornington Peninsula, naming it Port King. The Governor of New South Wales at the time, King, was unaware of the expedition or of the British Government’s orders.
The settlement was not a success, as fresh water was in short supply. The local timber was unsuitable for many uses, and the treacherous entrance to Port Phillip Bay made the site unusable as a whaling base. Hearing of better land and timber in Van Diemen’s Land, Collins moved most of the settlement across Bass Strait, and established Hobart on the Derwent River on 16 February 1804. He originally named the settlement ‘Sullivan Cove’ after John Sullivan, Under-Secretary of the Colonial Office.
Australian History
Wednesday, February 16, 1983. : The Ash Wednesday bushfires start in Victoria and South Australia.
Between April 1982 and January 1983, Victoria experienced severe drought conditions and little rainfall, resulting in its driest period on record. On 8 February 1983, hot gusty winds and a severe dust storm hit Melbourne, already experiencing temperatures above 40°C, and exacerbated the intense heat and dry conditions.
16 February 1983 was, ironically, “Ash Wednesday” in the Christian calendar. On that day, eight days after the dust storm, approximately 180 bushfires broke out around the state. A number of factors contributed to the fires, among them arson, and wind gusts which either caused electric wires to clash or tree branches to hit the wires, sparking fires. The largest bushfires started at various sites around Victoria, including Cudgee, Branxholme, Mount Macedon, and areas of the Dandenong Ranges and the Otways. Around 200,000 hectares of land were destroyed, the equivalent of twice the size of Melbourne. 47 people were killed, including seventeen volunteer firefighters, over 2000 homes were destroyed and farmers experienced huge stock losses.
South Australia was also hit by fires which broke out in the Adelaide Hills and Mt Lofty, and the Clare Valley, destroying 208,000 hectares of land in farming country and another 21,000 hectares of pine forests in the state’s south-east. Another 28 people died in the South Australian fires, and 380 homes were destroyed. The emotional and mental cost of the fires was equally devastating, and the Ash Wednesday fires are still remembered as one of Australia’s worst natural disasters.
World History
Tuesday, February 16, 0590. : Pope Gregory the Great declares that people should say ‘God bless you’ when someone sneezes.
Pope Saint Gregory I, or Gregory the Great, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 3 September 590 until his death in 604. He was an able and determined administrator and a skilled and clever diplomat, after whom the Gregorian chant, a musical style of the Middle Ages, was named.
Pope Gregory ascended to the Papacy just in time for the start of the plague, and is thus known as the patron saint of plague. He believed that constant repetition of litanies and unceasing prayer for God’s help and intercession would ward off sickness. On 16 February 590 A.D., Pope Gregory decreed that when someone sneezed, others should say “God bless you” in response. The blessing was endowed by others in the hope that the one who sneezed would not subsequently develop the plague. Interestingly enough, the plague of 590 A.D. dissipated very quickly.
World History
Friday, February 16, 1923. : The door to the burial chamber of Egyptian King Tutankhamun is opened.
Egypt’s King Tutankhamun was the son of King Akhenaten, also known as Amenhotep IV, who lived from 1353 to 1337 BC. He was born between 1341 BC and 1347 BC and died in his late teens. His tomb lay undiscovered for over 3300 years until a team of British archaeologists, led by Howard Carter, discovered a step leading to the tomb on 4 November 1922. The step was hidden in the debris near the entrance of the nearby tomb of King Ramses VI, in the Valley of the Kings. Twenty-two days later, Carter and his crew entered the tomb itself.
After discovering the tomb had been left completely unplundered by thieves, the archaeologists continued exploring. The door of the burial chamber behind the antechamber was opened on 16 February 1923. This led to the discovery of the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. The outer layer was a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins, fitted within each other, and stuck together with black resin. Inside the final coffin, which was made out of solid gold, was the mummified body of King Tutankhamun. Much remains unknown about Tutankhamun’s life, but the golden death mask which covered his mummy is now a famous relic of the ancient world.