Born on this day
Tuesday, February 27, 0272. : Constantine I, first Christian Emperor of Rome, is born.
Gaius Flavius Valerius Aurelius Constantinus was born on 27 February 272 at Naissus, today Niš, in Upper Moesia. His father was Greek general Constantius I Chlorus. Constantine served at the court of Diocletian in Nicomedia, after the appointment of his father as one of the two caesares (junior emperors) of the Tetrarchy in 293. In 305, Augustus Maximian abdicated, and Constantius succeeded to the position. However, Constantius fell sick during an expedition against the Picts of Caledonia, and died on July 25, 306. Constantine was at his deathbed where General Chrocus and the troops loyal to his father’s memory proclaimed him Emperor. Over the next eighteen years, he fought a series of battles that first obtained him co-rule with the Eastern Roman Emperor, and then finally leadership of a reunified Roman Empire.
Constantine was the first Roman Emperor to freely allow Christianity. It is said that his conversion occurred as the result of a vision of a cross he had prior to his victory in the Battle of Milvian Bridge on 28 October 312. In his vision, he was instructed to make a new standard which displayed the first two Greek letters of the word Christ – Chi (χ) and Rho, (ρ) which came to be known as the labarum. Following this event, Constantine removed penalties for professing Christianity, under which many had been martyred in previous persecutions of Christians, and he returned confiscated Church property. Christians were permitted to compete with pagan Romans in the traditional “cursus honorum” for high government positions and greater acceptance into general civil society. New churches were allowed to be constructed.
Debate continues among historians as to whether Constantine was a Christian himself, or whether it was just a new political angle as he was only baptised when he was close to death. Nonetheless, Constantine allowed new freedoms for Christians which they had previously been denied, and fought for their rights in a society hostile to Christianity.
Australian History
Wednesday, February 27, 1788. : The first convict is hanged in the colony of New South Wales.
The First Fleet of convicts to New South Wales assembled in Portsmouth, England, and set sail on 13 May 1787. They arrived in Botany Bay on 18 January 1788. After determining that Botany Bay was unsuitable for settlement, Captain Arthur Phillip led the Fleet northwards to Port Jackson, arriving on 26 January 1788.
Conditions in the new colony were tough. The English tools could not stand up to the hard work of tilling the Australian soil, and they broke easily. The convicts were disinclined to work hard, many of them not being used to manual labour, and the heat and humidity of the Australian climate only added to their discomfort and lack of motivation to work. In addition, rations had to be meted out very carefully until farms could start producing crops. Many convicts were hungry enough to steal food, and punishment for theft was severe, ranging from lashing with a cat o’ nine tails, or even death by hanging. Governor Phillip could not afford for any rations to be lost to theft, so he felt compelled to enforce harsh disciplinary measures.
The first convict to be hanged in New South Wales was seventeen-year-old Thomas Barrett. Less than a month after the colony was established, Barrett was found stealing “butter, pease and pork”. In a ceremony which all convicts were forced to witness, Barrett was hanged, on 27 February 1788.
Australian History
Thursday, February 27, 1902. : Harry ‘Breaker’ Morant is executed for the war crime of murdering Boer prisoners.
Edwin Henry Murrant, later ‘Breaker’ Morant, was born on 9 December 1864 in Bridgwater, Somerset, England. Although information about his early years is sketchy, records suggest that Murrant emigrated to Australia in 1883 aboard the SS Waroonga, a passenger cargo ship. He then adopted the name Harry Harbord Morant, as he claimed to be the son of Admiral Sir George Digby Morant of Devon, but it is believed that his father was Edwin Murrant, Master of the Union Workhouse at Bridgwater.
Once in Australia, Morant worked in various jobs such as horse-trader, journalist and bookkeeper, until he established himself as an expert horseman, droving sheep and cattle through outback Queensland, New South Wales and South Australia. A bush poet who associated with the likes of Banjo Paterson and Henry Lawson, Morant had his ballads published in the Sydney magazine The Bulletin, under the pen-name of The Breaker. In 1884, Morant married Daisy May O’Dwyer at Charters Towers, Queensland. The marriage did not last long; after Morant was caught pig-stealing, Daisy insisted he leave. Daisy herself went on to marry stockman John Bates and, as Daisy Bates, became renowned as a friend and protector of the Aborigines, sacrificing her own lifestyle to improve theirs, whilst preserving their culture and traditions.
In January 1900, Morant enlisted with the Second Contingent of the South Australian Mounted Rifles at Adelaide, in response to the call for horsemen to serve in the Boer War in South Africa. Upon completion of his training, he departed with his regiment in February 1900. Morant served a year of active duty before returning to England briefly. Here, he befriended fellow Boer War veteran, Captain Percy Hunt. Morant and Hunt rejoined the war in April 1901, enlisting in an irregular unit known as the Bushveldt Carbineers or BVC. Although a British unit, the BVC was mainly made up of Australians, and raised up for the purpose of fighting the Boers in Northern Transvaal. Hunt was wounded whilst on patrol in August, and his body later found mutilated and stripped of all clothing. Morant embarked on a revenge patrol, during which he ordered the shooting of a wounded commando named Visser who was found with Hunt’s clothes, and the execution of a group of Boer prisoners. Morant was arrested and court martialled for the murders, along with two other Australians, Lieutenants Peter Handcock and George Witton. Declared guilty, Morant and Handcock were executed on 27 February 1902.
Following the executions, there were accusations that the men were made scapegoats by the British Army, and that they had acted on orders. The sense prevailed that they had not been given a fair trial, particularly since the trial was conducted in a hurry and without proper representation for the accused. In addition, the transcripts were lost soon afterwards, and two British officers also implicated were dishonourably discharged, rather than executed. These actions eventually led to the ruling that Australian service personnel could only come under Australian command, even if an ally led the operation, and be tried only by an Australian military tribunal. Morant himself became something of a folk legend, and his life was immortalised in the 1980 film ‘Breaker Morant’. However, it should be remembered that he was still guilty of the war crime of shooting prisoners.
Australian History
Thursday, February 27, 1997. : The Gang-gang cockatoo is adopted as the faunal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory.
The Gang-gang cockatoo is a stocky cockatoo endemic to south-eastern Australia. It is striking in appearance, with the male having a slate grey body and bright red head and crest, whilst the female is mostly grey with pink and yellow edging on its chest and belly.
The Gang-gang cockatoo was adopted as the faunal emblem of the Australian Capital Territory on 27 February 1997. Although widespread throughout south-eastern country New South Wales, the only city it inhabits is Canberra; hence, its adoption as the official faunal emblem for the ACT. It also features on the logo of the Australian Capital Territory Parks and Conservation Service.
World History
Thursday, February 27, 1964. : Italy seeks advice on how to save the Leaning Tower of Pisa from collapse.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa is the bell tower, or campanile, of the cathedral in Pisa’s Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles). The tower took nearly 200 years to complete, being finished in 1372. It began leaning shortly after construction started on 9 August 1173. Recent studies have determined that the tower’s lean is caused by the remains of an ancient river estuary located under the building. The ground is made up in large part of water and silty sand, and one side of the heavy marble building began gradually sinking into the ground as soon as the foundation was laid. Construction was halted for 95 years while the building settled: when it recommenced, the new chief engineer sought to compensate for the tower’s visible lean by making the new stories slightly taller on the short side. The tower was in serious danger of toppling completely by 1964; on 27 February 1964, the Italian government announced it was accepting suggestions and seeking aid and advice to preserve its famous icon.
Following decades of consultation and preparatory efforts, the tower was closed to the public on 7 January 1990. Its lean was 4.9 metres off the perpendicular; in the preceding century, the belfry atop the tower had moved as much as almost 25cm. Restorative reconstruction finally began in 1999. The Tower remained closed until December 2001 while corrective reconstruction and stabilisation work was implemented.
World History
Wednesday, February 27, 2002. : 57 Hindu pilgrims die as their train catches fire in a suspected Muslim attack.
On 27 February 2002, a train carrying 2500 Hindu activists, known as Kar Sevaks, returned from a pilgrimage to a disputed religious site in the northern town of Ayodhya, India. The fire began as the train, bound for Ahmedabad, was pulling out of Godhra station in the western state of Gujarat. Initially, it was believed that Muslims had started the fire after religious insults were traded as the train passed through Godhra railway station. However, the January 2005 report on the interim inquiry, presided over by Supreme Court judge Umesh Chandra Banerjee, found it had not been started by Muslims at all but had started accidentally. Yet, initial evidence at the site of the fire indicated kerosene had been poured into four of the train’s carriages. The Hindu Nationalist opposition party, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), claimed the report was politically motivated.
15 children, 26 women and 18 men were killed, but that was only the beginning. The fire incited several days of rioting by Hindus in Gujarat state, resulting in the deaths of about 1000 Muslims. Another 60,000 Muslims fled their homes to refugee camps. To date, a further inquiry by the Justice Nanavati Commission is investigating the Gujarat riots, and will have the power to recommend legal action.