Born on this day
Tuesday, November 29, 1898. : C S Lewis, author of the ‘Narnia’ series of books, is born.
C S Lewis was born Clive Staples Lewis on 29 November 1898, in Belfast, Ireland. As a young teenager, he abandoned the Christian faith with which he was raised, but returned to it when he was in his thirties. Lewis taught as a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford, from 1925 to 1954, and later became the first Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Literature at the University of Cambridge and a fellow of Magdalene College, Cambridge.
After embracing Christianity, Lewis’s first novel was “Pilgrim’s Regress”, an unorthodox take on John Bunyan’s “Pilgrim’s Progress”, but which was based on his own experiences with his departure from and return to Christianity. Following this, Lewis penned the science-fiction “Space” trilogy, comprising “Out of the Silent Planet”, “Perelandra” – also known as “Voyage to Venus” – and “That Hideous Strength”. Other Christian fiction followed, including “The Screwtape Letters”, in which an elderly demon, Screwtape, instructs his nephew, Wormwood, via a series of letters on the best ways to secure the damnation of a particular human. Lewis also wrote numerous theological works on Christianity. Although he became an Anglican upon his return to Christianity, he was greatly influenced by his Roman Catholic friend J R R Tolkien, writer of “Lord of the Rings”.
Among Lewis’s best-known works are the Narnia Chronicles, a series of seven fantasy novels for children, which describe the adventures of children who visit a magical land called Narnia. The novels effectively incorporate some elements of Christian theological concepts in ways that are easily understood by children and adults alike. Although C S Lewis died on 22 November 1963, the Narnia Chronicles remain as popular as ever still today.
Australian Explorers
Saturday, November 29, 1823. : Oxley anchors off Pumicestone Channel to explore western Moreton Bay.
On 23 October 1823, Surveyor-General John Oxley set sail from Sydney to travel north along the coastline. His aim was to find a suitable settlement for convicts who had not been reformed, but continued to re-offend. Reaching Port Curtis (Gladstone), Oxley rejected the harbour as unsuitable, due to its many shoals and mangrove swamps. Oxley returned south and entered Moreton Bay, where he anchored off Pumicestone Channel, now Pumicestone Passage, on 29 November 1823.
From here, Oxley set out in a smaller boat to chart the western shores of Moreton Bay. On 2 December 1823, he came across the entrance to the Brisbane River, which ticket-of-leave convict timber-getters Parsons, Pamphlett and Finnegan had already discovered by accident.
Australian History
Wednesday, November 29, 1876. : The Queensland flag is officially adopted.
Queensland began as the colony of the Moreton Bay District. It was founded in 1824 when explorer John Oxley arrived at Redcliffe with a crew and 29 convicts to begin a settlement on the Redcliffe Peninsula. This settlement, which was later dubbed Humpybong by the indigenous people for its ‘dead huts’, was abandoned less than a year later when the main settlement was moved 30km away, to the Brisbane River. The new settlement was given the name of Brisbane, after the Brisbane River which Oxley had explored earlier.
In 1859, Queen Victoria signed Letters Patent declaring that Queensland was now a separate colony. Queensland was the last of the states to be separated from New South Wales. In 1869, Queen Victoria proposed that each of the colonies in Australia adopt a flag, which should consist of a Union flag with the state badge in the centre. Queensland had no badge at that time, so one needed to be designed. William Hemmant, then Queensland Colonial Secretary and Treasurer designed the badge, which is officially described as “On a Roundel Argent a Maltese Cross Azure surmounted with a Royal Crown”.
The flag of Queensland, with the new badge, was introduced on 29 November 1876. As well as the badge, the flag featured the Imperial Crown, also known as the Tudor Crown, an emblem that changes in accordance with the ruling Monarch. Queen Victoria used the Imperial Crown, as did Edward VII and George VI, whilst George V and Elizabeth II used the St Edward’s Crown. If the next ruling Monarch were to revert to the Imperial Crown when he ascends the throne, then the Queensland flag would change again.
Australian History
Monday, November 29, 1948. : Australian Prime minister Ben Chifley launches the first mass-produced Australian car, the Holden FX.
“Made in Australia, For Australia”.
These are the words spoken by Australian Prime Minister Ben Chifley when he launched the Holden FX on 29 November 1948. The real name of the Holden FX is 48/215. ’48 was the year it started production, and 215 indicated a Standard Sedan. The name “FX” originated as an unofficial designation within Holden after 1953, and was a reference to the updated suspension of that year.
The Holden company began as ‘J.A. Holden & Co’, a saddlery business in 1856, and moved into car production in 1908. By 1926, Holden had an assembly plant in each of Australia’s mainland states, but due to the repercussions of the great Depression, production fell dramatically, from 34,000 units annually in 1930 to just 1,651 units in 1931. In that year, it became a subsidiary of the US-based General Motors (GM).
Post-World War II Australia was a time when only one in eight people owned an automobile, and many of these were American styled cars. Prior to the close of World War II, the Australian Government put into place initiatives to encourage an Australian automotive industry. Both GM and Ford responded to the government, making proposals for the production of the first Australian designed car. Although Ford’s outline was preferred by the government, the Holden proposal required less financial assistance. Holden’s managing director, Laurence Hartnett, wished to develop a local design, but GM wanted an American design. Compromises were made, and the final design was based on a previously rejected post-war proposed Chevrolet. Thus, in 1948, the Holden was launched – the first mass-produced Australian car.
Although the automobile’s official designation was the 48/215, it was marketed as the “Holden”. This was to honour Sir Edward Holden, the company’s first chairman and grandson of J.A. Holden, who established the original Holden saddlery. Other names that were considered included the ‘Austral’, ‘Woomerah’, ‘Boomerang’, ‘Melba’, ‘GeM’, ‘Emu’ and even the ‘Canbra’, a name derived from Australia’s capital city. The original retail price was AU£760.
Australian History
Sunday, November 29, 1970. : Recreated goldfields town, Sovereign Hill in Victoria, is officially opened.
In August 1851, the Australian state of Victoria had its first gold strike at Sovereign Hill near Ballarat, in the same month it gained its independence from the NSW colony. While the Ballarat goldfields were rich and promising, the real goldrush began when gold was discovered at Mt Alexander, 60km northeast of Ballarat, and close to the town of Bendigo.
Nowadays, Sovereign Hill offers a re-creation of life on the goldfields and in a gold mining town. Officially opened on 29 November 1970, Sovereign Hill is an interactive outdoor museum which covers some 25 hectares on the southern outskirts of Ballarat. The town has been recreated with historic authenticity, complete with antiques, confectionery and foods, machinery, books, documents, livestock and other animals, carriages and other transport, all appropriate to the 1850s goldrush era. Visitors to the site can pan for alluvial gold, which can still be found in Sovereign Hill’s Red Hill Gully Creek.
World History
Thursday, November 29, 1314. : King Philip IV, who orders the suppression of the Knights Templar, dies in a hunting accident.
King Philip IV, also known as Philip the Fair, was born sometime during the year 1268. His nickname referred to his fair hair and blue eyes, and generally pleasing appearance, rather than any sense of justice. On the contrary, Philip had ambitions for France to be the major power in the empire, and to that end, he sought the resources owned by others. This included the Jews, whom he expelled from France after taking their properties, the Italian bankers (Lombards) and the wealthy Knights Templar.
On 13 October 1307, Philip IV ordered the arrest of the entire order of Knights Templar in France, and had their possessions confiscated. The knights were put on trial and were tortured to extract confessions of sacrilegious practices, including heresy and witchcraft. Many were burnt and tortured, and under duress, admitted to a variety of heresies, admissions which were later retracted as being forced admissions.
Philip IV died on 29 November 1314, whilst out on a hunting expedition. It is believed he suffered a cerebral haemorrhage or stroke, possibly as a result of a fall from his horse.
World History
Monday, November 29, 1847. : Missionary physician Marcus Whitman and thirteen others are killed by Native Americans in Washington state.
Marcus Whitman was an American physician and missionary in Oregon, born in 1802. As a young man, Whitman was interested in becoming a minister, but studied medicine instead. In 1835 he travelled with missionary Samuel Parker to present-day north-western Montana and northern Idaho, to minister to the Native American bands of the Flathead and Nez Percé. Two years later he returned to live with the Indians, after marrying Narcissa Prentiss, a teacher of physics and chemistry. Whitman and Narcissa established several missions along their journey and their own settlement, Waiilatpu, near the present-day city of Walla Walla, Washington. The settlement was in the territory of both the Cayuse and the Nez Percé tribes of Native Americans. Marcus farmed the land and utilised his medical skills, while Narcissa set up a school for the Native American children.
In 1843, Whitman organised the first large caravan of wagon trains along the Oregon Trail, opening it up to more settlers. The influx of white settlers brought to the region diseases to which the Indians had not developed immunity: in 1847, measles killed many of them. Whitman was unsuccessful in treating many of them, and his attempts to administer the measles vaccine resulted in more deaths. The recovery of many white patients resulted in the belief among the Native Americans that Whitman was causing the death of his Indian patients. To avenge the deaths, Cayuse tribal members murdered Marcus and Narcissa Whitman in their home on 29 November 1847, along with twelve other white settlers in the community.
World History
Thursday, November 29, 1990. : The United Nations Security Council passes ‘Resolution 678’, authorising military intervention if Iraq does not withdraw its forces from Kuwait by 15 January 1991.
In the early hours of 2 August 1990, 100,000 Iraqi troops backed by 300 tanks invaded Kuwait in the Persian Gulf. US economic aid to Iraq had inadvertently allowed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein to amass weaponry which was then deployed for the invasion. The United Nations acted immediately to implement economic sanctions against Iraq. Over the ensuing months, a series of UN Security Council and Arab League resolutions were passed regarding the conflict. One of these was Resolution 678, passed on 29 November 1990. This ordered Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait by 15 January 1991, and authorised the use of force via military intervention if Iraq did not comply.
Iraq had not complied by January of the following year, so a coalition force of armies from 34 nations, led by the United States, set out to free Kuwait. The Gulf War lasted around 6 weeks, and resulted in a decisive victory for the coalition forces.