Born on this day
Tuesday, January 8, 1935. : Elvis Presley, King of Rock ‘n’ Roll, is born.
Elvis Aaron Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, on 8 January 1935. He began learning the guitar at age 11, and often busked around the Lauderdale Courts public housing development, where he lived during his teen years. At age 20, he signed with RCA records, and began to make the music charts regularly. During the course of his career, he had 146 Hot 100 hits, 112 top 40 hits, 72 top 20 hits and 40 top 10 hits. A strong television exposure followed, with appearances on shows such as the Ed Sullivan Show. His next step was movies: between 1956 and 1969, Elvis Presley starred in 31 films.
Elvis died at the age of 42 on 16 August 1977. After being found on the floor of his bedroom’s bathroom ensuite, he was rushed to the Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. However, he was pronounced dead on arrival. His post mortem stated that he had died of cardiac arrhythmia – a form of heart attack. His autopsy results will not be made public until 50 years after his death. Presley was originally buried at Forest Hill Cemetery in Memphis next to his mother, but after an attempted theft of his body, his and his mother’s remains were moved to Graceland.
Australian History
Sunday, January 8, 1804. : The first recorded cricket match takes place in the New South Wales colony.
The sport of cricket is regarded as synonymous with Australia, and Australian cricket teams, past and present, have a strong reputation internationally. Although Australia does not have an official game, cricket is certainly regarded as the country’s unofficial sport.
The first reported cricket game took place in Sydney at what is now known as Hyde Park on 8 January 1804. From this humble beginning great things followed, with inter-club games occurring in the 1830s. Intercolonial games began when a team from Victoria travelled to Launceston, Tasmania for a game in February 1851. The first visit by an English cricket team to Australia occurred during Australia’s summer of 1861-62. Australia reciprocated with a team to England, made up of indigenous players, in 1868. The team played 47 matches, of which they won 14, drew 19 and lost 14.
Australian History
Saturday, January 8, 1814. : George Evans advocates building a road over the Blue Mountains, to follow in the tracks of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth.
In May 1813, Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth crossed the Blue Mountains, finding rich farming land in the Hartley region. However, further exploration was needed so the colony could expand beyond the Great Dividing Range. George Evans was the Deputy Surveyor-General of New South Wales, and keen to progress beyond the discoveries made by Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth. Leaving Sydney with a party of five men on 19 November 1813, Evans soon reached a mountain which he named Mt Blaxland, which was the termination of Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth’s explorations. He continued on through the countryside, eventually reaching what is believed to be the site of present-day Bathurst.
Evans reported favourably on the rich pasturelands well-watered by numerous streams flowing through the region, describing the land as surpassing “in beauty and fertility of soil, any he [had] seen in New South Wales or Van Diemen’s Land.” Upon his return to Sydney, Evans reported on the viability of a road leading west. On 8 January 1814, he recommended building a road which would follow the ridge track determined by Blaxland, Lawson and Wentworth. Evans reported to Governor Macquarie that it would take a dozen men approximately three months to build a road suitable for horses and carts. Shortly after this, William Cox was commissioned to build the road to Bathurst. The original Great Western Highway covered 161 km and incorporated twelve bridges.
Australian History
Thursday, January 8, 1931. : The largest Australian gold nugget of the twentieth century is found in Kalgoorlie.
The goldrush that initiated the development of the town of Kalgoorlie, Western Australia, began with the discovery by Paddy Hannan of a rich seam of gold at Mt Charlotte, 40 kilometres from the prospering Coolgardie goldfields.
However, the largest gold nugget ever found in the eastern goldfields of Western Australia did not come with the initial goldrush. The nugget, known as the “Golden Eagle”, was found by sixteen-year-old Jim (or Jack) Larcombe on 8 January 1931. The nugget, found just 45cm below the surface of the ground, weighed 1136 troy ounces, or 35.3 kilograms. It was 62cm long and required two men to lift it. It was given the name “Golden Eagle” because it had an unusual resemblance to a bird.
Following the discovery, over 700 diggers flocked to the spot near Widgiemooltha, which became known as Larkinville, sparking Western Australia’s last great traditional gold rush. Today, a replica of the nugget can be seen at the School of Mines Rock and Mineral Museum in Kalgoorlie.
Australian History
Thursday, January 8, 1998. : The Melbourne Herald Sun reports that a strange, unidentified creature has washed up on the Tasmanian coast.
On 8 January 1998, the ‘Melbourne Herald Sun’ reported that an enormous, unidentified creature had washed up on the coast of Tasmania. The decomposing carcass, 5 metres long, 2 metres wide and weighing approximately 4 tonnes, had appeared on Four Mile Beach, northwest of Zeehan, in December 1997. The carcass was similar to that of another creature, dubbed the Tasmanian Blob, which washed up near Tasmania’s Sandy Cape in 1960. The “blob” reported in 1998 appeared to have a backbone, six fleshy lobes and white hair. The nearest identification that could be made was that the creature was a “basking shark”.
World History
Wednesday, January 8, 1676. : King Charles II of England is forced to withdraw his Proclamation Suppressing Coffee Houses, delivered only twelve days earlier.
The first record of a public coffee house can be found in 1475, when the first known coffee shop, the Kiva Han, was opened in the Turkish city of Constantinople (now Istanbul). The popularity of coffee, and coffee houses, quickly spread, with Britain opening its first such establishment in 1652.
Coffeehouses were commonly frequented by members of the social upper-class of businessmen. It can even be said that the successful Lloyd’s of London insurance company had its beginnings in a coffee shop run by Edward Lloyd in 1668.
Coffee-houses soon became meeting spots for intellectuals and, as King Charles saw it, breeding ground for potential political subversives. Thus, on 27 December 1675, he issued a “Proclamation Suppressing Coffee-Houses”. The proclamation sought to prohibit “scandalous papers, books and libels from being read in them” and to prevent the coffee-houses from allowing their patrons freedom of speech or the right to express dissatisfaction with the government.
Twelve days later, King Charles withdrew his proclamation, on 8 January 1676. Its withdrawal was forced because the proclamation denied basic human rights and was legally unsustainable. It had also become the subject of considerable ridicule.
World History
Wednesday, January 8, 1800. : The Wild Boy of Aveyron voluntarily emerges from the forests of France.
Victor of Aveyron, commonly known as the Wild Boy of Aveyron, was first discovered in either 1797 or 1799. His history was unknown but he was believed to have been either lost or abandoned as a very small child, and somehow survived alone in the woods.
The boy was found wandering in the forest near Saint-Sernin-sur-Rance, France, his body bearing old scars that seemed to be a result of him having lived the majority of his life in the woods, and he could not speak. Despite being taken into care, he soon escaped back to the woods, where he remained for another year. However, on 8 January 1800, Victor voluntarily emerged from the woods, accepting the care he was offered. At this stage, he was estimated to be about twelve years old.
Victor soon became the object of much study. In one experiment, Biology professor Pierre Joseph Bonnaterre took him out in the snow where the boy played quite happily, without clothes, seemingly not feeling the cold. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard, a young medical student, attempted to teach Victor to speak. Whilst great progress was made in socialising the boy, and even teaching him to read and speak very simply, he never grasped complex language. However, Victor’s ability to show empathy and to socialise with others discredited one theory that he was autistic. Victor lived with Jean Marc Gaspard Itard until he died in 1828.