Born on this day
Tuesday, May 11, 1926. : Australian actor Frank Thring, famous for his role as Pontius Pilate in the epic movie Ben Hur, is born.
Actor, Theatre manager and Theatre and TV critic Francis William Thring Jr was born on 11 May 1926 in Australia. Son of the Australian movie director Frank Thring Sr, Frank Jr began his stage career in 1945, at age 19. He became actor-manager of his own repertory theatre, the Arrow, in Melbourne but soon afterwards left for London. It was whilst acting on the London stage that he was spotted by Kirk Douglas, who encouraged him to try for roles in Hollywood. Thring is best known for his role in the Hollywood movie epic “Ben Hur”, in which he played Pontius Pilate, dropping the handkerchief to start the famous chariot race. Thring was later cast as Herod Antipas in The King of Kings, and played such Biblical characters with authority and condescension. He played in many more movies, both in America and Australia, but he maintained his base in Australia throughout his career. Thring died on 19 December 1994.
Australian Explorers
Tuesday, May 11, 1813. : Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth set out to cross the Blue Mountains in Australia’s first major exploration venture.
When the First Fleet arrived in New South Wales in 1788, all efforts concentrated on developing farmland and a food supply to support the convict colony. Free settlers also began to arrive, lured by the promise of a better life in the new, young country. This placed considerable strain on New South Wales’s resources, and farmers began to see the need for expansion beyond the Blue Mountains, which had provided an impassable barrier to the west. Many attempts were made to find a path through the Blue Mountains, but their attempts had all focused on following the rivers, which invariably ended up against sheer cliff faces or mazes of impassable gorges.
Gregory Blaxland was a wealthy grazier who had come to Australia in 1806. He stood to gain much by finding a route to new grasslands. Blaxland approached Governor Macquarie about funding an expedition to cross the Blue Mountains. Though Macquarie found Blaxland to be troublesome and discontented, and felt he should be growing grain to feed the colony, he granted approval for the expedition. Blaxland took along two other men: William Lawson, who had arrived in Sydney as an ensign with the New South Wales Corps in 1800, and was a landholder and magistrate with surveying experience; and William Wentworth, the first Australian-born explorer, being the son of a convict mother and an Irish father, a surgeon who had been convicted of highway robbery. Wentworth was to become one of the leading figures of early colonial New South Wales.
Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth departed South Creek, Sydney Cove, on 11 May 1813 with four servants, five dogs and four horses. The route they traversed is essentially still the one used by travellers today. On 31 May they reached Mount Blaxland from where they could see the plains to the west. Beyond the mountains the explorers found a great expanse of open country, which they surveyed. Their exploration was significant for opening up the grazing lands of inland New South Wales.
World History
Saturday, May 11, 1811. : The original Siamese Twins, Chang and Eng Bunker, are born.
Chang Bunker and Eng Bunker were the twin brothers whose condition and birthplace became the basis for the term Siamese twins, or conjoined twins. They were born on 11 May 1811 in Siam, now Thailand, in the province of Samutsongkram. The Bunkers were joined at the sternum by a small piece of cartilage, and it has since been determined that they could have easily been separated, even with the limited surgical techniques of that time. Their livers were fused but independently complete.
In 1829, they were discovered in Siam by British merchant Robert Hunter and exhibited as a curiosity during a world tour. After their contract was fulfilled, they went into business for themselves. In 1839, while visiting Wilkesboro, North Carolina with P T Barnum, the twins were attracted to the town and settled there, becoming naturalised United States citizens, and adopting the surname of Bunker. On 13 April 1843 they married two sisters: Chang to Adelaide Yates and Eng to Sarah Anne Yates. Chang and his wife had ten children; Eng and his wife had twelve. The twins both died on 17 January 1874.
World History
Thursday, May 11, 1995. : Scientists confirm an outbreak of the Ebola virus in Africa.
Ebola is an extremely contagious filovirus – a destructive virus that can be fatal – which causes an acute, highly fatal haemorrhagic fever, that is high fever and massive internal bleeding. It is spread both by airborn particles, and through contact with bodily fluids or secretions of people who have been infected. It kills over 80% of the people it infects. Its incubation period varies from 2 to 21 days and it can kill within 10 days of the onset of symptoms. First discovered in 1976, there is no vaccine and no cure. Treatment consists of balancing the patient’s fluids and electrolytes, maintaining their oxygen level and blood pressure, and treating them for any complicating infections.
On 11 May 1995, scientists confirmed that an outbreak of Ebola had occurred in the city of Kikwit, Zaire. The outbreak killed about 50, including three Italian nuns who had cared for victims. Further outbreaks have occurred in Zaire/Democratic Republic of the Congo in 1995 and 2003, Gabon in 1994, 1995 and 1996, Uganda in 2000, and Sudan again in 2004. A new species was identified from a single human case in Côte d’Ivoire in 1994, Ivory Coast ebolavirus (ICEBOV). In 2003, 120 people died in Etoumbi, Republic of Congo, which has been the site of four recent outbreaks, including one in May 2005.