Australian History
Monday, November 4, 1878. : Police patrols are increased along the Murray River as the manhunt for the Kelly gang intensifies, following the murder of three policemen at Stringybark Creek.
Ned Kelly, Australia’s most famous bushranger, was born in December 1854 in Beveridge, Victoria. Kelly was twelve when his father died, and he was subsequently required to leave school to take on the new position as head of the family. Shortly after this, the Kellys moved to Glenrowan. As a teenager, Ned became involved in petty crimes, regularly targetting the wealthy landowners. He gradually progressed to crimes of increasing seriousness and violence, including bank robbery and murder, soon becoming a wanted man, together with the members of his gang, his brother Dan, Joe Byrne and Steve Hart.
Following a series of robberies in 1878, police hunts for the Kelly Gang intensified. Whilst attempting to track down the gang, three policemen were murdered at Stringybark Creek on 25 October 1878. The ruthless killing of Constable Lonigan, Sergeant Michael Kennedy and Mounted Constable Michael Scanlon resulted in the Kelly gang being declared outlaws. Two hundred police were brought into the area, while aboriginal troopers with tracking skills were brought down from Queensland.
On Monday, 4 November 1878, police patrols were increased along the Murray River, as the gang had been reported in the Chiltern area. However, the gang remained at large, even managing to rob the National bank in the Victorian town of Euroa of about 2000 pounds early in December.
Australian History
Tuesday, November 4, 1930. : Australia’s greatest racehorse, Phar Lap, wins the Melbourne Cup.
Phar Lap, a giant chestnut thoroughbred gelding, standing 17.1 hands high, is regarded by many to be Australia’s and New Zealand’s greatest racehorse. A much loved Australian national icon, he was actually born and bred in Timaru, in the South Island of New Zealand, but never raced in New Zealand.
The name Phar Lap was derived from the shared Zhuang and Thai word for lightning. According to the Museum Victoria, medical student Aubrey Ping often visited the track in Randwick, talking with riders and trainers. He had learned some Zhuang from his father, who migrated to Australia from southern China. He reputedly suggested “Farlap” as the horse’s name. Sydney trainer Harry Telford liked the name, but changed the F to a Ph to create a seven letter word, and split it into two words, so as to replicate the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.
Phar Lap dominated the racing scene in Australia during a long and distinguished career. In the four years of his racing career, he won 37 of 51 races he entered. During 1930 and 1931, he won 14 races in a row. On 4 November 1930, ridden by Jimmy Pike, Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup. He started as the shortest-priced favourite in the history of the race at odds of 8–11, having finished third in 1929.
Phar Lap died in April 1932. A necropsy revealed that the horse’s stomach and intestines were inflamed, and many believed he had been deliberately poisoned. A variety of theories have been propounded through the years. In 2006 Australian Synchrotron Research scientists said it was almost certain Phar Lap was poisoned with a large single dose of arsenic 35 hours before he died, supporting the belief that Phar Lap was killed on the orders of US gangsters, who feared the Melbourne-Cup-winning champion would inflict big losses on their illegal bookmakers.
Phar Lap’s heart was a remarkable size, weighing 6.2 kg, compared with a normal horse’s heart at 3.2 kg. Phar Lap’s heart is now held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. It is consistently the display visitors request most often to see, and pay their respects to the gentle, big-hearted giant of the horse racing world.
Australian History
Friday, November 4, 1932. : Australia’s first Milk Bar is opened.
A milk bar in Australia is a small, local general store, known as a corner store in some places. As well as selling basic groceries and newspapers, early milk bars offered milkshakes, lollies and drinks.
Australia’s first milk bar was opened in Martin Place, Sydney, on 4 November 1932. Called the Black and White 4d Milk Bar, it was established by Greek migrant Joachim Tavlaridis who later adopted the name “Mick Adams”. The milk bar was famous for its milkshakes and for its mechanical cow. Unlike contemporary businesses with table service, it featured a bar counter with limited seats on one side and milkshake makers and soda pumps on the other, harking back to an American influence. The success of the business had a strong influence in making the term “milk bar” known throughout Australia, and even the United Kingdom.
Australian History
Tuesday, November 4, 1930. : Australia’s greatest racehorse, Phar Lap, wins the Melbourne Cup.
Phar Lap, a giant chestnut thoroughbred gelding, standing 17.1 hands high, is regarded by many to be Australia’s and New Zealand’s greatest racehorse. A much loved Australian national icon, he was actually born and bred in Timaru, in the South Island of New Zealand, but never raced in New Zealand.
The name Phar Lap was derived from the shared Zhuang and Thai word for lightning. According to the Museum Victoria, medical student Aubrey Ping often visited the track in Randwick, talking with riders and trainers. He had learned some Zhuang from his father, who migrated to Australia from southern China. He reputedly suggested “Farlap” as the horse’s name. Sydney trainer Harry Telford liked the name, but changed the F to a Ph to create a seven letter word, and split it into two words, so as to replicate the dominant pattern set by Melbourne Cup winners.
Phar Lap dominated the racing scene in Australia during a long and distinguished career. In the four years of his racing career, he won 37 of 51 races he entered. During 1930 and 1931, he won 14 races in a row. On 4 November 1930, ridden by Jimmy Pike, Phar Lap won the Melbourne Cup. He started as the shortest-priced favourite in the history of the race at odds of 8–11, having finished third in 1929.
Phar Lap died in April 1932. A necropsy revealed that the horse’s stomach and intestines were inflamed, and many believed he had been deliberately poisoned. A variety of theories have been propounded through the years. In 2006 Australian Synchrotron Research scientists said it was almost certain Phar Lap was poisoned with a large single dose of arsenic 35 hours before he died, supporting the belief that Phar Lap was killed on the orders of US gangsters, who feared the Melbourne-Cup-winning champion would inflict big losses on their illegal bookmakers.
Phar Lap’s heart was a remarkable size, weighing 6.2 kg, compared with a normal horse’s heart at 3.2 kg. Phar Lap’s heart is now held at the National Museum of Australia in Canberra. It is consistently the display visitors request most often to see, and pay their respects to the gentle, big-hearted giant of the horse racing world.
Australian History
Friday, November 4, 1932. : Australia’s first Milk Bar is opened.
A milk bar in Australia is a small, local general store, known as a corner store in some places. As well as selling basic groceries and newspapers, early milk bars offered milkshakes, lollies and drinks.
Australia’s first milk bar was opened in Martin Place, Sydney, on 4 November 1932. Called the Black and White 4d Milk Bar, it was established by Greek migrant Joachim Tavlaridis who later adopted the name “Mick Adams”. The milk bar was famous for its milkshakes and for its mechanical cow. Unlike contemporary businesses with table service, it featured a bar counter with limited seats on one side and milkshake makers and soda pumps on the other, harking back to an American influence. The success of the business had a strong influence in making the term “milk bar” known throughout Australia, and even the United Kingdom.
World History
Saturday, November 4, 1922. : The entrance to King Tutankhamen’s tomb is discovered.
Egypt’s King Tutankhamen was the son of King Akhenaten, who lived from 1353 to 1337 BC. He was born around 1347 BC and died in his late teens. His tomb lay undiscovered for over 3300 years until a team of British archaeologists, led by Howard Carter, discovered a step leading to the tomb on 4 November 1922. The step was hidden in the debris near the entrance of the nearby tomb of King Ramses VI, in the Valley of the Kings. Twenty-two days later, Carter and his crew entered the tomb itself, eventually discovering a stone sarcophagus containing three coffins, fitted within each other. Inside the final coffin, which was made out of solid gold, was the mummified body of King Tutankhamun.
The tomb also contained hundreds of objects, elaborately decorated and covered in gold, that the Egyptians believed would be needed by the king in his afterlife. These rich artifacts are now housed in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The walls of the burial chamber were painted with scenes of his voyage to the afterworld. The find was considered particularly significant, not only for the remarkable preservation of the mummy and the treasures, but for the fact that most of the Egyptian kings’ tombs were believed to have already been found.
World History
Sunday, November 4, 1956. : Soviet troops invade Hungary in a massive dawn offensive.
Hungary had been subjected to Soviet occupation since 1944. On 23 October 1956, a group of students began a peaceful demonstration in Budapest, demanding an end to Soviet occupation and the implementation of “true socialism”. This was the beginning of the Hungarian Uprising. The next day, commissioned officers and soldiers joined the demonstration on the streets of Budapest, pulling down the statue of Stalin. On October 25, the Soviets responded by firing on the protestors in Parliament Square with tanks. Newly elected Hungarian leader Imre Nagy promised the Hungarian people independence and political freedom, and the demonstrations increased in response.
On 4 November 1956, Soviet troops invade Hungary in a massive dawn offensive. Over 1000 tanks rolled into Budapest, and troops were deployed throughout the country. Nagy appealed to the UN and Western governments for protection, but his pleas were largely ignored as other crises occupied the attention of the west. Thousands of Hungarians were killed and injured, and the demonstrations were quelled. Nagy and others involved in the uprising were captured, secretly tried and executed in June 1958. It was not until 1991, with the collapse of communism across Europe, that Soviet troops finally withdrew from Hungary.
World History
Saturday, November 4, 1995. : Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is assassinated.
Yitzhak Rabin was born on 1 March 1922. He was the first Israeli-born Prime Minister of Israel, and the fifth Prime Minister, serving first from 1974 until 1977 and again in 1992 until his death in 1995. Even though Israel and Jordan had long maintained good relations in secret, theoretically the two countries were in a state of war. Rabin was instrumental in negotiating formal peace with Jordan. He and Jordan’s King Hussein formally made peace at a ceremony in Wadi Araba on the Israeli-Jordanian border, on 26 October 1994. Rabin was awarded the 1994 Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts to create peace in the Middle East.
On 4 November 1995, Rabin was shot three times at close range by a gunman as he left a peace rally in Tel Aviv. The gunman, extreme right-wing activist Yigal Amir, was quickly arrested, and ultimately received a life sentence in prison. The day on which Rabin died was designated a national memorial day in his honour, and many public places now bear his name.