Australian Explorers

Wednesday, February 18, 1874. :   Explorer Giles is nearly killed by one of his horses.

Explorer Ernest Giles was born William Ernest Powell Giles on 7 July 1835 in England. He emigrated to Australia in 1850 and was employed at various cattle and sheep stations, allowing him to develop good bush skills. Giles made several expeditions into the Australian desert. The first, lasting four months, commenced in August 1872 and resulted in the discovery of an unusual oasis in the desert, the Glen of Palms, now called Palm Valley, as well as Gosse’s Bluff. On this first journey he discovered Lake Amadeus, a huge saltpan in central Australia, which he named after the King of Spain, and he sighted the Olgas, named after the king’s wife.

Giles commenced his next expedition in August 1873. On this expedition, he was able to approach closer to the Olgas, but his attempts to continue further west were thwarted by interminable sand, dust, biting ants and lack of water. After a two month recovery period at Fort Mueller, Giles set out north towards the Rawlinson Range, from which he again tried to penetrate westwards. On 18 February 1874, he was thrown by one of his horses and dragged along, only narrowly escaping being killed. This major mishap, however, barely compared to the tragedy which awaited the exploration party. (see 23 April)

Australian History

Monday, February 18, 1793. :   Reverend Richard Johnson commences the first church school in Sydney.

The First Fleet of convicts to New South Wales consisted of eleven ships. One of these was the ‘Golden Grove’ which carried Reverend Richard Johnson, the first chaplain to the New South Wales colony. Johnson was considered to be a true man of God, with a sincere and active faith which he readily put into action, planting the first seeds of Christianity in New South Wales.

In England, Johnson was a successful farmer, and he successfully utilised his talents in the very different conditions of New South Wales, growing crops of lemons and oranges from seedlings obtained in Rio de Janeiro. Although the colony suffered near-starvation in its early years, Johnson was able to grow enough vegetables for himself and his wife. Apart from farming, Johnson’s duties were many, and they included officiating at weddings and funerals, conducting church services and generally taking responsibility for the spiritual wellbeing of the colony. This included the education of the children of the colony. Johnson is believed to have commenced formal school lessons within eighteen months of the First Fleet’s arrival in New South Wales.

Johnson campaigned for several years in an attempt to have proper church and school buildings constructed, but Governor Phillip was more concerned with ensuring proper convict and military buildings were built. Despite the absence of an official school building, on 18 February 1793 Johnson opened the first formal school in Sydney. This occurred at the location where he would later construct the first church building. This school catered for children of marines and convicts. There were no desks or other equipment, and children had to sit on the floor or basic stools. Instruction centred around the basics of the alphabet, reading and writing, and the Bible and Catechism.

By 1797, Johnson was responsible for the establishment of several more schools in the Sydney area and Parramatta.

World History

Monday, February 18, 1546. :   German theologian and Protestant Reformer, Martin Luther, dies.

Martin Luther was born in 1483, in Eisleben, Germany. At age 17 he enrolled in the University of Erfurt, gaining a Bachelor’s degree in 1502 and a Master’s degree in 1505. According to his father’s wishes, Luther then enrolled in the law school of that university. A terrifying near-encounter with a lightning bolt in 1505 led Luther to abandon his law studies and enter a monastery, dedicated to serving God.

Luther struggled with the Roman Catholic church’s demands that one could only earn favour with God through good works. Through his in-depth study of the Scriptures, he reached the realisation that salvation is a gift of God’s grace, received by faith alone and by trust in Christ’s death on the cross as the only means to that salvation.

It was this that led him to openly question the teachings of the Roman Catholic church, particularly the nature of penance, the authority of the pope and the usefulness of indulgences. The Reformation of the church began on 31 October 1517, with Luther’s act of posting his Ninety-Five Theses on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. The document contained an attack on papal abuses and the sale of indulgences by church officials.

Controversy raged over the posting of the 95 Theses. Luther was excommunicated several years later from the Roman Catholic church for his attacks on the wealth and corruption of the papacy, and his belief that salvation would be granted on the basis of faith alone rather than by works. In 1521, the same year in which he was excommunicated, Luther was summoned before the Diet of Worms. The Diet was a general assembly of the estates of the Holy Roman Empire that occurred in Worms, Germany, from January to May in 1521. When an edict of the Diet called for Luther’s seizure, his friends took him for safekeeping to Wartburg, the castle of Elector Frederick III of Saxony. Here, Luther continued to write his prolific theological works, which greatly influenced the direction of the Protestant Reformation movement.

Luther died of natural causes on 18 February 1546 at Eisleben. The last words he ever wrote were “Know that no-one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles. Do not assail this divine Aeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads. We are beggars: this is true.”

World History

Tuesday, February 18, 1930. :   Once considered the ninth planet in our solar system, planetoid Pluto, is discovered.

For many years, Pluto was considered to be the ninth planet in the solar system, named after the Roman god of the underworld, Pluto. Recently, its status has been downgraded to that of a minor planet. Its largest moon is Charon, discovered in 1978, and two smaller moons, Nix and Hydra, were discovered in 2005. It remains the only planet that has not been visited by human spacecraft, and knowledge of Pluto is limited due to the fact that it is too far away for in-depth investigations with telescopes from earth.

Pluto remained undiscovered until the twentieth century due to its small size, being smaller than the Earth’s moon, and its unusual orbit. It was determined to be a planet on 18 February 1930 by astronomer Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona. The non-circularity of Pluto’s orbit is such that it crosses the orbit of Neptune, making it only the eighth-most distant planet from the Sun for part of each orbit; the most recent occurrence of this phenomenon lasted from 7 February 1979 until 11 February 1999.

Pluto is now considered the largest member of the Kuiper belt. Like other members of the belt, it is composed primarily of rock and ice and is relatively small: approximately a fifth the mass of the Earth’s moon and a third its volume. On 24 August 2006 the International Astronomical Union defined the term “planet” for the first time. This definition excluded Pluto, which the IAU reclassified as a member of the new category of dwarf planets. After the reclassification, Pluto was added to the list of minor planets and given the number 134340.

World History

Tuesday, February 18, 2003. :   200 are killed in a subway fire in South Korea.

Daegu is the third largest city in South Korea, having approximately 2.5 million inhabitants. It lies in the south of the Korean peninsula, about 120 km north of Busan. Daegu has two subway lines, Daegu Subway Line 1 and Daegu Subway Line 2. Line 1 was the site of the tragic Daegu subway fire of 2003, in which around 200 people died. Exact figures are unknown because the intensity of the heat completely incinerated some of the victims.

Kim Dae-han was a 56-year-old unemployed former taxi driver who had suffered a stroke, leaving him partially paralysed, and was disgruntled and depressed about his medical treatment. On the morning of 18 February 2003, he boarded train 1079 on Line 1 in the direction of Daegok, carrying a bag which contained two milk cartons filled with a flammable liquid. Other passengers, becoming aware of his intentions, tried to stop him. In the struggle, one of the cartons spilled and its liquid contents caught fire as the train pulled into Joongang-ro station in Daegu. Kim, his back and legs on fire, managed to escape, as did many passengers on train 1079, but within two minutes the fire had spread to all six cars. The seats and flooring were composed of flammable fibreglass, carbonated vinyl, and polyethylene, and produced thick, chemical smoke as they burned.

Train 1080 entered the station alongside the burning train, as operator of 1079, Choi Jeong-hwan, failed to notify subway officials immediately of the fire. An automatic fire detector shut down the power supply to both trains, preventing train 1080 from leaving the station. Train 1080 operator Choi Sang-yeol initially advised passengers to remain seated while he attempted to reach superiors. He was then told by officials to leave the train and escape to safety. He opened the doors and fled, but in doing so he removed the master key, shutting down the onboard batteries which powered the train doors, sealing passengers inside. Investigations showed 79 passengers remained trapped inside train 1080 and died there. Inadequate emergency equipment compounded the disaster, as Daegu subway trains were not equipped with fire extinguishers, and the stations lacked sprinklers and emergency lighting.

A total of 191 bodies were found and identified through DNA analysis; 6 additional bodies were found but burned so badly that they could not be identified; and 1 person’s possessions were identified but remains could not be located. Ultimately, both train operators were given prison sentences for criminal negligence, whilst Kim Dae-han, sentenced to life imprisonment, died in prison a year later.

World History

Friday, February 18, 2005. :   Fox hunting is banned in England.

Fox hunting is a form of hunting for foxes using a pack of scent hounds, often followed by riders on horses. It is a “blood sport”, an appallingly cruel practice which has been steadfastly upheld by tradition in Britain for centuries. After years of struggle between hunters, sports people and animal welfare groups, the “Hunting Act” of November 2004 was passed, banning the hunting of foxes, deer, mink and hares using dogs. On 18 February 2005, the UK finally introduced a law banning such blood sports altogether. The ban also extended to hare coursing, which involved the hunting of hares with dogs with the sole purpose of killing the hare.

The legal battle is not yet over. Groups which maintain their right to hunt and indulge in their blood sports plan to take further action, appealing to other authorities such as the European Court of Human Rights. Currently, the Hunting Act is still in effect, but enforcing it takes a fairly low priority with police forces. Animal welfare groups such as the League Against Cruel Sports monitor hunts that they believe may be breaking the law and, in some cases, private prosecutions have ensued.