Born on this day
Wednesday, November 8, 1922. : Christiaan Barnard, the cardiac surgeon who performed the world’s first open heart transplant, is born.
Christiaan Barnard was born on 8 November 1922, in Beaufort West, South Africa. After studying and practising medicine in South Africa for many years, in 1956 he travelled to America to study surgery at the University of Minnesota. It was there that he chose to specialise in cardiology. Upon returning to South Africa, he was appointed cardiothoracic surgeon at the Groote Schuur Hospital in 1958. He also lectured at the University of Cape Town, and in 1961 he was made head of cardiothoracic surgery at the university.
Barnard performed the world’s first open heart transplant surgery on 3 December 1967. 55-year-old diabetic and chronic heart disease patient, Louis Washkansky, had his diseased heart replaced with a healthy heart from Denise Darvall, a young woman with the same blood type, who had died in hospital after a car accident. The patient survived the operation, living for eighteen days before succumbing to double pneumonia brought on by the immuno-suppressive drugs he was taking.
Barnard went on to pioneer new techniques, including double transplants, artificial valves and using animal hearts for emergency treatment. Rheumatoid arthritis forced him to retire from surgery in 1983. He died from an acute asthma attack on 2 September 2001.
Australian Explorers
Monday, November 8, 1824. : Explorers Hume and Hovell become the first Europeans to sight the Australian Alps.
Hamilton Hume, born near Parramatta on 19 June 1797, was an Australian-born settler with excellent bush skills. He developed an interest in exploring when he was sent by Governor Macquarie in 1818 to find an overland route south from Sydney to Jervis Bay. On this occasion, accompanied by ex-convict James Meehan, Hume discovered the rich, fertile land of the Goulburn Plains.
As a grazier, Hume was interested in exploring south of the known Sydney area to open up new areas of land, but could not gain Government support for his proposed venture. William Hovell was an English immigrant with little bush experience, a former ship’s captain who was keen to assist Hume’s expedition financially, and accompany him. The expedition was set up, and Hume and Hovell departed Hume’s father’s farm at Appin, southwest of Sydney, in early October 1824.
Although the two men argued for most of their journey, and even for many years after their return, the expedition was successful in many ways. Hume and Hovell were the first to discover the “Hume River”, though it was later renamed by Sturt as the Murray River. On 8 November 1824, they became the first known Europeans to see the Australian Alps. Excited by the sight of the beautiful mountains, Hume wrote in his journal “… a prospect came into view the most magnificent, this was an immence [sic] high Mountain Covered nearly one fourth of the way down with snow, and the Sun shining upon it gave it a most brilliant appearance.”
Australian History
Tuesday, November 8, 1836. : The printing press which is to print South Australia’s proclamation as a British province arrives in the colony.
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia, the only Australian state to have been founded by free settlers, remaining entirely free of convicts during its early history. Adelaide was surveyed and designed by Colonel William Light, first Surveyor-General of South Australia, who also named Holdfast Bay, the site for the earliest landings of pioneers to South Australia.
It was into this port that South Australia’s first printing press arrived. On 8 November 1836, Colonial Secretary and Chief Magistrate Robert Gouger arrived aboard the ship ‘The Africaine’, and settled near the site now referred to as ‘The Old Gum Tree’ at Glenelg North. Also aboard the ‘Africaine’ was Robert Thomas, who had arranged transport of the printing press, a Stanhope Invenit No. 200. It was another two days before Thomas and his family disembarked from the ‘Africaine’, and their luggage, including the press, was offloaded south of the Patawalonga Creek mouth.
Although South Australia was officially proclaimed on 19 February 1836 in England, the proclamation was made on 28 December 1836. Governor Hindmarsh made the announcement at the Old Gum Tree, but the actual proclamation had not yet been printed. On 30 December, Thomas was given orders to prepare for the print run of the proclamation. On 14 January 1837, the first 3 Acts of the new Executive Council of Government were printed, and two days later, 150 sheets were printed – the official “Proclamation Establishment of Government in SA”.
World History
Monday, November 8, 1920. : The first ‘Rupert Bear’ cartoon appears in the “Daily Express”.
Rupert Bear is the longest running cartoon character in the world. Created by artist Mary Tourtel, Rupert Bear, with his distinctive checked yellow scarf and slacks and bright red jumper, was developed in response to the rise of anthropomorphic characters appearing in other newspapers. Rupert made his debut in British newspaper the Daily Express on 8 November 1920 in a story entitled ‘The Adventures of a Little Lost Bear’.
The little bear immediately appealed to readers, and Rupert Bear enjoyed increasing popularity through ensuing decades. The first collection of Rupert cartoons was published as an annual in 1935. By the 1950s, 1.7 million of the Rupert annuals were sold, and even today the Rupert Annual remains one of the top three Annual titles sold worldwide. Possibly Rupert’s greatest achievement was when Beatle Paul McCartney developed the animated ‘Rupert and the Frog Song’, a production which won a British Academy of Film and Television Arts award.
World History
Wednesday, November 8, 1939. : Nazi leader Adolf Hitler survives an assassination attempt.
Adolf Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in Austria. In 1921, shortly after Germany’s humiliating defeat in World War 1, he became leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party, commonly known as the Nazi Party. He then became chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and dictator, or Führer, of Nazi Germany between 1934 and 1945. Hitler was notorious for his heinous massacres of Jews, Romanys and other non-Aryan groups during World War II: these massacres became known as the Holocaust.
Over fifteen attempts were made to assassinate German Nazi leader Adolf Hitler between 1939 and 1945. The attempt on 8 November 1939 was made by George Elser, a Swiss carpenter and watch maker who resented the Nazi control over labour unions. Elser placed a time bomb in a pillar behind the podium where Hitler was to give a speech in the Burgerbrau Beer Cellar. It was due to detonate at 9:20am. Hitler, however, ended his speech at 9:12 and departed suddenly. Eight others were killed and 65 wounded when the bomb exploded, but Hitler was nowhere in sight.
Elser was arrested and detained in Sachsenhausen concentration camp for the duration of the war. He was executed on 16 April 1945, shortly before WWII ended
World History
Sunday, November 8, 1987. : An IRA bomb explodes in Enniskillen, Northern Ireland, killing thirteen.
Enniskillen is the county town of Fermanagh in Northern Ireland, close to the border with the Irish Republic. On 8 November 1987, a bomb exploded during a Remembrance Day service in the town, killing 11 and injuring 63. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declaimed the bombing as “utterly barbaric”. Following the attack, the IRA lost much support its cause may have once engendered.
One of those killed was nurse Marie Wilson: her father Gordon Wilson, who was also injured in the attack, went on to become a leading campaigner for an end to violence in Northern Ireland. However, the tone of his campaign was one of forgiveness for the perpetrators of the tragedy. Ten years later, on Remembrance Day 1997, Gerry Adams, the leader of the IRA’s political wing Sinn Féin, formally apologised for the bombing.