Australian Explorers

Saturday, March 13, 1847. :   Kennedy departs Parramatta to trace the course of the Barcoo River, hoping it will lead to the Gulf of Carpentaria in the north.

Edmund Kennedy was born on 5 September 1818, on the Island of Guernsey, in the Channel Islands. He arrived in Australia in 1840, and took up the position of Assistant-Surveyor of New South Wales. Kennedy accompanied Major Thomas Mitchell’s 1845-46 expedition to the interior of Queensland, where he gained much experience in exploration.

In 1847, Mitchell appointed Kennedy to lead a second expedition to trace the course of the Barcoo River in what is now south-western Queensland, in the hope that it would lead to the Gulf of Carpentaria. The expedition left Parramatta on 13 March 1847, and followed the river north to Cooper Creek. This then flowed into the desert, proving it was not linked to the Gulf of Carpentaria. Never one to give up, Kennedy continued southwest, and discovered the Thomson River, on 20 August 1847. When he returned to his depot four weeks later, he was dismayed to find that Aborigines had dug up the expedition’s carefully buried provisions, and mixed 181kg of flour with clay. This prevented Kennedy from continuing his northward trek, and he was forced to return prematurely to Sydney.

Australian Explorers

Saturday, March 13, 1875. :   Giles departs Fowlers Bay on his third expedition to cross the western deserts.

Ernest Giles emigrated to Australia in 1850 and was employed at various cattle and sheep stations, allowing him to develop good bush skills. He made several expeditions in the Australian desert. The first, lasting four months, commenced in August 1872 and resulted in discoveries such as Palm Valley, Gosse’s Bluff, Lake Amadeus, and the first sighting of Mount Olga.

Giles’s next expedition departed in August 1873. On this expedition, Giles was able to approach closer to the Olgas, but his attempts to continue further west were thwarted by interminable sand, dust, biting ants, Aboriginal attack and lack of water. The loss of one of Giles’s companions, Gibson, in April 1874 ended this second expedition, and the party arrived back at Charlotte Waters in July.

Giles was determined to explore the unknown country south of where Warburton and Forrest had explored, reaching Perth in the attempt. On 13 March 1875, Giles departed from Fowlers Bay, heading north first before crossing the western deserts. Although a short expedition, it was a difficult one, initially marked by severe water shortages until the discovery of permanent water holes. Less than a month after his return from this journey, Giles set out again to make an epic crossing through the Great Victoria Desert and back again.

World History

Tuesday, March 13, 1781. :   Seventh planet from the sun, Uranus, is discovered.

Uranus is the seventh planet from the sun, with its mean distance from the sun being 2869.6 million km. A gas giant, it is third largest by diameter and fourth largest by mass. Uranus is made up mostly of rocks and various ices, with only about 15% hydrogen and a little helium. The planet was discovered by William Herschel on 13 March 1781, who reported it on 26 April 1781. Prior to Herschel’s discovery, the planet was mistakenly identified as a star.

Herschel originally named it Georgium Sidus in honour of King George III of Great Britain but when it was noted that sidus means star and not planet, he renamed it the Georgian Planet, a name which was not accepted outside of Britain. Discussions amongst astronomers came up with a variety of names; the name Uranus was proposed by Johann Elert Bode, editor of the periodical, the ‘Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch’. Because the name conformed to the classical mythology-derived names of other known planets, it was readily adopted by the scientific community.

William Herschel is also credited with discovering two of Uranus’s 27 known moons, Titania and Oberon, on 11 January 1787.

World History

Wednesday, March 13, 1996. :   16 children and a teacher are killed by a gunman at Dunblane, Scotland.

Wednesday, 13 March 1996, will be a day long remembered by the people of the small town of Dunblane, Scotland. On that day, unemployed former shopkeeper Thomas Hamilton walked into the gym hall of the primary school, armed with two pistols, two revolvers and 743 cartridges. He then opened fire, killing sixteen children, aged 4-6, and their teacher. He then turned the gun on himself, committing suicide.

Whilst Hamilton’s motives will never be known, a public inquiry into the Dunblane massacre found that Hamilton had been investigated by police following complaints about his behaviour around young boys. Hamilton claimed in letters that rumours about him led to the collapse of his shop business in 1993, and in the last months of his life he complained again that his attempts to set up a boy’s club were subject to persecution by the police and the scout movement.

Hamilton possessed licences for six of his guns; this led to criticism of the police for not questioning his purpose in owning so many. Following the Dunblane massacre, gun laws were tightened and in 1997, it became illegal to buy or possess a handgun.

Internet

Monday, March 13, 1989. :   The concept of the World Wide Web is proposed for the third time, and accepted.

The Internet and World Wide Web have revolutionised modern life. Now, by pressing a few buttons on the computer, all your physical needs and wants can be met. But where and when did it all begin?

In the 1980s, English physicist Tim Berners-Lee was a software consultant at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (better known as CERN). He graduated from the Queen’s College at Oxford University, England in 1976. He built his first computer with a soldering iron and an old television.

On 13 March 1989, Berners-Lee gave his supervisor, Mike Sendall, a document entitled “Information Management: a Proposal”. Tim Berners-Lee and Anders Berglund, both researchers at CERN, saw the need for a system of electronic document exchange. This proposal was an attempt to help make scientific papers readable on a large number of incompatible computer systems. Berners-Lee’s creation was fueled by a highly personal vision of the Web as a powerful force for social change and individual creativity. An open, non-proprietary, and free format for all people to use. Unfortunately, CERN remained unconvinced, and another 2 proposals were shelved as an interesting idea only. It wasn’t until 25 December 1990 that the first successful communication between an HTTP client and server via the Internet was achieved. The realisation of a dream continued to drive Tim for the next 3 years as he tried to convince people to use his invention. Robert Cailliau was a young student staff student at CERN who assisted Tim in his endeavours, and it should be noted that he was instrumental in seeing this now popular medium reach the populace.