Australian History
Saturday, May 16, 1891. : Henry Lawson’s iconic poem, “Freedom On the Wallaby”, is published for the first time.
The phrase “on the wallaby track” is an Australian term which has come to epitomise the freedom of being “on the road” with no ties and no specific, predetermined destination in mind. However, its meaning was originally somewhat different.
The term comes from a poem written by Henry Lawson in 1891 in response to the government’s use of soldiers to end the Australian Shearers’ Strike which occurred in Queensland earlier that year. Entitled “Freedom on the Wallaby”, the poem was first published by William Lane on 16 May 1891 in the Brisbane newspaper ‘The Worker’.
When “Freedom on the Wallaby” was read out in the Queensland Legislative Council two months later, there were calls for Lawson to be charged with sedition. Not only did the poem mention lines such as “fly a rebel flag” and “sing a rebel song”, but it was also a clear statement against the use of force to overthrow the shearers’ protests.
Australian History
Thursday, May 16, 2002. : The last ANZAC veteran of the Gallipoli campaign dies.
ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. Every year Australians and New Zealanders commemorate ANZAC Day to remember the troops landing on 25 April 1915 at Gallipoli on the Turkish Aegean coast. On that day, 16 000 Australian and New Zealand (ANZAC) troops landed at Gaba Tepe, which later became known as Anzac Cove, as part of a campaign to capture the Gallipoli Peninsula. As news of the war continued to filter back to Australia, more young men presented themselves as recruiting offices around Australia. One of these was Alec Campbell.
Alec Campbell enlisted in July 1915, giving his age as 18 years 4 months, although he had, in fact, been born in February 1899. He had the required permission from his parents to enlist, even though he was well below the legal age. Campbell was assigned to the 8th Reinforcements and sailed from Adelaide a month later, on the SS Kyarra. Due to illness among the troops, and exceptionally rough seas, Campbell’s battalion did not land at Gallipoli until November 1915. The men faced freezing weather, with a blizzard sweeping through on their allocated “bath day” in late November; consequently, Campbell was admitted to the 4th Field Ambulance on 8 December with influenza. Shortly after he returned to the 15th Battalion, the group was evacuated from Gallipoli.
Campbell suffered many more illnesses in the following months, including jaundice, mumps, palsy, and paralysis of the right side of the face. Because of his ongoing health issues, he was recommended for discharge. His service with the Australian Imperial Forces officially ended on 22 August 1916.
Campbell went on to live a full life, working in a variety of trades, marrying twice and fathering nine children. He became the president of the Australian Workers Union branch in Tasmania in 1942; learnt to sail and competed in at least six Sydney to Hobart Yacht Races; completed an economics degree; worked tirelessly to assist World War II veterans; and worked for the Heart Foundation until he retired at 80. Nonetheless, he is best remembered for being Australia’s last living link with the Gallipoli campaign. He was awarded numerous medals, among them the 1914-15 Star; the British War Medal; the Victory Medal; the Anzac Commemorative Medallion in 1967; the Gallipoli Star in 1990, which was given as part of the 75th Anniversary of Gallipoli celebrations; the 80th Anniversary Armistice Remembrance Medal in 1999; and the Centenary Medal in 2002.
Alec Campbell died of pneumonia at the age of 103, on 16 May 2002. Flags flew at half-mast around the country, and he was honoured with a state funeral at St David’s Anglican Cathedral in Hobart.
World History
Friday, May 16, 0583. : Today is the feast day of Brendan the Navigator, one of the early Irish monastic saints.
Brendan the Navigator was born in Ciarraight Luachra, in County Kerry, Ireland, in 484 AD. He was baptised at Tubrid, near Ardfert, by Bishop Erc. As he grew to manhood, he continued to study under Erc, and was ordained a priest in 512. Between the years 512 and 530 St. Brendan built monastic cells at Ardfert, and, at the foot of Brandon Hill, Shanakeel— Seana Cill, usually translated as “the old church”— also called Baalynevinoorach. From here, he set out on his famous seven years voyage for the Land of Delight, or the Garden of Eden.
There is some speculation that during this epic voyage, Brendan reached the Americas; if this is the case, he was one of the first European visitors to the New World, preceding Christopher Columbus by at least nine centuries. Columbus relied on the legends told of St Brendan as part of his argument that it was indeed possible to travel to Asia by crossing the Atlantic.
May 16 is celebrated as the feast day of Brendan the Navigator. Though his exact date of death is unknown, the traditional date of his death is regarded as 16 May 583.
World History
Wednesday, May 16, 1770. : Marie Antoinette marries Louis Auguste, who later becomes King Louis XVI of France.
Marie Antoinette was born in Vienna on 2 November 1755, daughter of the Holy Roman Emperor Francis I and his wife Empress Maria Theresa. When a new peace treaty was signed between Austria and France, it was hoped that a royal marriage would seal the peace. At age fourteen, Marie Antoinette was chosen to marry the dauphin in France, who later became King Louis XVI of France. They married on 16 May 1770.
Marie Antoinette embraced the lavish lifestyle with enthusiasm. She had little regard for the poor and struggling peasants, and spent money frivolously. For her attitude, she became the symbol of the people’s hatred for the old regime during the French Revolution. When the French Revolution began, Marie Antionette supported the old regime. When the National Convention established the French Republic in 1792, Marie Antoinette and the king were imprisoned. Antoinette was beheaded on 16 October 1793.
World History
Sunday, May 16, 1943. : The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, in which the Jews mounted a concerted resistance against the Nazis, ends.
Soon after the Germans occupied Poland in WWII, Nazi troops forced Warsaw’s almost 500,000 Jewish citizens into an 840 acre “ghetto” surrounded by barbed wire. Thousands of Jews were killed by disease or starvation prior to July 1942, and in the 52 days before 12 September 1942, about 300,000 Ghetto residents were sent to the Treblinka concentration camp, where they were exterminated. The Jewish underground movement was established in response to these atrocities.
The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising was a Jewish armed resistance against Nazi Germany attempts to liquidate the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto in occupied Poland during World War II. It was initiated on 18 January 1943, when the first instance of armed resistance occurred against the Germans as they proceeded to begin the second wave of expulsion of the Jews. The Jewish fighters were successful in halting the expulsion after four days, and the ŻOB and ŻZW resistance organisations took control of the Ghetto, building dozens of fighting posts and operating against Jewish collaborators.
The final battle started on the eve of the Jewish Passover, 19 April 1943, as Nazi leader Heinrich Himmler announced that the ghetto was to be cleared out in honour of Hitler’s birthday the following day. Jewish partisans shot and threw grenades at German and allied patrols from alleyways, sewers, house windows, and even burning buildings. The Nazis responded by shelling the houses block by block and rounding up or killing any Jew they could capture. Significant resistance ended on April 23, and the uprising ended on 16 May 1943.
During the fighting approximately 7,000 Jewish residents of the concentration camp ghetto were killed. 6,000 more were burnt alive or gassed in bunkers. The remaining 50,000 people were sent to German death camps, mostly to Treblinka. Approximately 300 Germans and collaborators were killed in the fighting.
World History
Wednesday, May 16, 1990. : Jim Henson, creator of the ‘Muppets’, dies.
Jim Henson was born James Maury Henson on 24 September 1936, in Greenville, Mississippi. His family moved to Maryland when he was a teenager, and it was there that he began creating puppets for a Saturday morning children’s television show. In 1955, he created “Sam and Friends”, a five-minute puppet show for WRC-TV, while attending the University of Maryland, College Park. “Sam and Friends” included an early version of Kermit the Frog, and the success of the segment led to a series of guest appearances on network talk and variety shows. In 1968, the Muppets began appearing on the children’s show “Sesame Street” and from there, their fame grew to eventually include their own television show, and several films.
When Henson died of pneumonia on 16 May 1990, a memorial service for him was watched by millions of viewers around the world. The University of Maryland, College Park, honoured Henson with a permanent tribute on 24 September 2003. A special ceremony dedicated a life-sized statue of Henson conversing with one of his best-known creations, Kermit the Frog, on the college campus.