Born on this day
Friday, March 9, 1934. : The first person to travel in space, Yuri Gagarin, is born.
Yuri Alekseyevich Gagarin was born on 9 March 1934 in Klushino near Gzhatsk, which was later renamed Gagarin in his honour. Flying light aircraft became a hobby for him until he entered military flight training at the Orenburg Pilot’s School in 1955. In 1960 Gagarin was selected for the Soviet space program, where he was subjected to a punishing series of experiments designed to test his physical and psychological endurance, as well as training relating to the upcoming flight. He excelled in all areas, and his height of only 157cm made him an ideal choice as the first man to be launched into space.
Gagarin launched in Vostok 3KA-2, or Vostok 1, on 12 April 1961. Soviet authorities did not expect him to survive the descent back through Earth’s atmosphere, so in-flight, he was promoted from Senior Lieutenant to Major. Gagarin did survive, and he became an instant, worldwide celebrity, touring widely to promote the Soviet achievement.
Gagarin died on 27 March 1968 when he was killed in a crash of a MiG-15 on a routine training flight near Kirzhach, together with his instructor. A 1986 inquest suggested that the turbulence from an Su-11 interceptor aeroplane using its afterburners may have caused Gagarin’s plane to go out of control. Weather conditions were also poor at the time.
Australian History
Thursday, March 9, 1837. : The settlement of Melbourne is named.
The city of Melbourne, Australia, had a controversial beginning. John Batman was a native born Australian, interested in opening up new pastureland and promoting the growth of the colonies. He applied for land in the Westernport Bay area of southern Australia, now Victoria, but was not granted any. In May 1835, he led a syndicate calling themselves the ‘Port Phillip Association’ to explore Port Phillip Bay, looking for suitable sites for a settlement. On 6 June 1835, he signed a ‘treaty’ with the Aborigines, giving him free access to almost 250,000 hectares of land. In August that year, Governor Bourke declared Batman’s treaties invalid, and issued a proclamation warning off him and his syndicate as trespassers on crown land. Like many of the men who held positions of authority during Australia’s colonial years, Bourke adhered to the doctrine of ‘terra nullius’, which declared that the land in Australia belonged to no one, and that the natives could therefore not sell or trade any part of it.
Despite the attempts at government intervention, the foundling settlement remained. As it grew, Governor Bourke sent a Commissioner to report on its development. In the Commissioner’s report he referred to the settlement as ‘Bearbrass’. Following a later inspection, the name ‘Glenelg’ was suggested by the Colonial Secretary. On 9 March 1837, Governor Bourke named the flourishing settlement ‘Melbourne’ after the British Prime Minister of the day. By the end of April, the proposed Melbourne city plan by Sydney surveyor Robert Hoddle was lodged at the government survey office in Sydney. This 1837 street layout has been dubbed the Hoddle Grid, and covers the area from Flinders Street to Queen Victoria Market, and from Spencer Street to Spring Street.
Australian History
Monday, March 9, 1857. : South Australia holds its first elections, but an unusually large number of informal votes are submitted.
Explorer Matthew Flinders was the first European to investigate the possibilities for settlement on South Australia’s coast, doing so in 1802. The South Australian Colonisation Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1834, and the first settlers arrived in 1836. The colony of South Australia was officially proclaimed on 19 February 1836 in England, the proclamation was made on 28 December that year.
South Australia’s first elections as a self-governing colony was held on 9 March 1857. There were no political parties or policy platforms; the candidates standing for election submitted letters to newspapers summarising their beliefs and records of public service. 57 candidates stood for the 36 places spread across 17 multi-member seats for the House of Assembly, while 18 members were elected to represent the Colony for the Legislative Council. It was estimated that fewer than a quarter of eligible voters took advantage of the opportunity to have their say.
Unfamiliar with the system, many voters accidentally submitted informal votes when they crossed out the names of the candidates they did not support. This was largely because, on the morning of the elections, the South Australian Register stated the following:
“We need not dwell upon the importance of the duty which every true colonist has to perform today; all we urge upon him is that he should well weigh the merits of the various candidates … and then … scratch out the bad names with a good bold hand.”
Australian History
Wednesday, March 9, 1870. : Granny Smith, who gave her name to the Granny Smith apple, dies.
Granny Smith is a variety of apple with green skin and tart flesh, originating in Australia around 1865 from a chance seedling propagated by Maria Ann Smith, aka Granny Smith. Granny Smith was born Maria Ann Sherwood in Peasmarsh, Sussex, England, sometime in late 1799. The daughter of an agricultural labourer, she later married a farm labourer. They emigrated to New South Wales in 1838 after being recruited by government agents looking for people with agricultural skills. They settled in the district of Ryde, Sydney, which was an intensive fruit growing area. The Granny Smith apple came about when ‘Granny’ Smith discovered a seedling apple, which had developed from the remains of some French crab apples grown in Tasmania, growing by a creek on her farm. It was not commercially developed in her lifetime, but the apple continued to be cultivated by local orchardists.
Maria Ann Smith died on 9 March 1870 and was buried in St. Anne’s cemetery, Ryde, where her headstone can still be seen. The year after her death, in the 1891 Castle Hill Agricultural and Horticultural Show, the ‘Granny Smith seedlings’, as they were known, were awarded the prize for the best cooking apples.
World History
Friday, March 9, 1945. : The US firebombs Tokyo, killing 100,000.
When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941, they underestimated the ramifications it would have for their own country, and for the outcome of WWII. Bombings by the US of Japan were carried out from 1942 to 1945. The first firebombing over Japan was on Kobe on 3 February 1945, and the first attempt on Tokyo was on the night of February 23–24 when 174 B-29s destroyed around 3 km² of the city. The US declared the raid a success and planned a follow-up raid, bigger and more deadly.
Around 5:34pm on 9 March 1945, 334 Superfortress B-29 bombers took off from Saipan and Tinian. They arrived at Tokyo at 12:15am on March 10 and dropped approximately 1,500 metric tons of bombs, destroying around 41 km² of Tokyo. Between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history. Only 243 American airmen were lost.
World History
Tuesday, March 9, 1976. : 43 are killed in northern Italy in the world’s worst cable car accident.
A cable car, or aerial tramway, consists of one or two fixed track cables, a loop of cable known as a haulage rope and two passenger cabins. The fixed cables provide support for the cabins. The haulage rope, by means of a grip, is solidly connected to a wheel set that rolls on the cables. The haulage rope is usually driven by an electric motor and, being connected to the cabins, moves them up or down the mountain. Cable cars are popularly used in the Alpine regions of Europe.
The world’s worst cable car accident occurred on 9 March 1976 in Italy, in the ski resort of Cavalese near Trento, in the Dolomite mountains. The steel cable snapped, causing the carriage to plunge 213 metres down a mountainside. A 3,000 kg overhead carriage assembly then fell on top of the cabin, crushing it, resulting in the deaths of 43 people, including 15 children. There was just one survivor, a 14-year-old girl who was taken to hospital in a critical condition with internal injuries.
There was no safety system in place when the suspension line snapped because the construction company considered such an accident impossible at the time of construction, ten years previously. As a result of the subsequent investigation, four lift officials were jailed for faulty operation and maintenance.