Australian Explorers
Tuesday, October 1, 1844. : German explorer Ludwig Leichhardt sets out from the Darling Downs to travel northwest to Port Essington.
Friedrich Wilhelm Ludwig Leichhardt was born on 23 October 1813, in Trebatsch, Prussia, which is now Brandenburg, Germany. Passionate about the natural sciences, he came to Australia in 1842, where he promptly undertook to explore the continent and gather botanical and geological specimens.
On 1 October 1844, Leichhardt commenced his first expedition, leaving from Jimbour Station on the Darling Downs to find a new route to the tiny military outpost of Port Essington in the north, not far from where Darwin now stands. Leichhardt was not a good bushman, lacked skills of organising his party, and often became lost. One man was killed by aborigines on the marathon expedition, and numerous horses and supplies were lost. Leichhardt reluctantly discarded his extensive collection of botanical specimens, as there were too many to carry. His journey of nearly 5,000km took so much longer than expected that a friend of Leichhardt’s composed a funeral dirge for him, expecting to never see him again. However, Leichhardt reached Port Essington in December 1845.
Australian History
Tuesday, October 1, 1850. : Australia’s first university, the University of Sydney, is founded.
The University of Sydney is Australia’s oldest university. Located in Sydney’s inner city, the university has expanded to establish a number of campuses around Sydney, as well as the One Tree Island Research Station on the Great Barrier Reef.
The University of Sydney’s progressive ideas were due largely to the influence of statesman William Charles Wentworth. Wentworth believed that students should be admitted based on their academic aptitude, rather than class or religion, as was the case in England. Born to a convict woman on the Second Fleet, Wentworth was educated in England, as his father was Dr D’Arcy Wentworth, whose patron and kinsman was Lord Fitzwilliam. William Wentworth understood the limitations of a society based on class. As a “Currency Lad”, one of the first children born into the colony of New South Wales, Wentworth enjoyed his status as different from the “English ascendancy,” and was an outspoken nationalist, determined to gain civil rights for those who, like himself, were very much in the minority. As well as being a leading figure in the establishment of the first university in any of the colonies of Australia and Oceania, Wentworth was also instrumental in establishing the first real system of state primary education in New South Wales.
Founded on 1 October 1850, The University of Sydney opened its doors to students in 1852, and the first degrees were awarded in 1856. In 1881, it became one of the first universities in the world to allow women to enrol.
Australian History
Tuesday, October 1, 1935. : Heinz & Company in Australia begins producing tinned baked beans.
The process of canning food was developed by Frenchman Nicolas Appert in the 1790s, and patented by Englishman Peter Durand in 1810. Initially, an average worker could expect to produce four cans every day, but technology has progressed significantly since then.
From 1814, canned foods began to be sent from Britain to its outlying colonies, and the first tinned goods reached Australia in 1815. Australia’s first canning operation commenced in 1846, when Sizar Elliot opened a small canning factory in Sydney’s Charlotte Place, now Grosvenor Street. Australia’s early explorers relied considerably on canned foods during their journeys.
Canning operations in Australia quickly spread, and by 1869, Queensland manufacturers were exporting over one million kilograms of tinned meat annually, while SPC in Shepparton, Victoria, produced almost half a million cans of fruit in 1917. Ardmona began producing tinned fruit in 1925, while the Edgell & Sons factory at Bathurst first started canning asparagus in 1926. Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce, still a favourite of many Australians today, was first produced by Heinz & Company on 1 October 1935.
Australian History
Thursday, October 1, 2009. : Australia’s population passes 22 million.
By world standards, Australia is a very young country. It is the second-youngest country to have been settled by Europeans, with the youngest being New Zealand. On 1 October 2009, Australia’s population reached a new milestone, exceeding 22 million. Australian Demographic Statistics indicated that this figure was reached at 1:58pm. The country’s national birth rate had increased from 1.7 to 1.9 in the previous four years. Immigration had also contributed 63% of the previous year’s population growth of 2.1 per cent.
By comparison, at the same time, the world’s largest city, Tokyo, had a population in excess of 33 million.
World History
Thursday, October 1, 1908. : The first Model T Ford is introduced to the American public.
The Model T Ford, also known as the Tin Lizzie, was an automobile produced by Henry Ford’s Motor Company from 1908 through to 1928. Ford had first attempted to develop a reliable, inexpensive car for the average American market in 1903. His success with this venture came with the introduction of the Model T Ford to American consumers on 1 October 1908. Ford managed to retain the car as affordable for everyone by employing new and revolutionary mass production methods, with completely interchangeable parts. When first introduced, the Model T cost only $850, and was available only in black.
Although only 11 cars were produced in the first month, by 1914, the assembly process had become so streamlined that it took only 93 minutes to assemble a car. Improved assembly line technique and volume brought the price of the Model T down to about $300 by the 1920s. Model T cars ceased being produced by May 1927, but motors continued to be produced until August 1941.
World History
Thursday, October 1, 1942. : Little Golden Books publishes its first set of children’s books.
The concept of Little Golden Books was conceived in the early 1940s by George Duplaix, head of the Artists and Writers Guild and his assistant, Lucille Ogle. They wanted to develop a line of full-colour children’s books, able to be easily handled by children, which were cheap enough for the average consumer. Publishing firm Simon & Schuster helped them develop their product.
The uniform format was to include a spine of plain blue cloth, and inside were to be 44 pages, with 14 pages illustrated in colour and 30 pages in black and white. The first twelve titles were issued simultaneously on 1 October 1942 at a cost of 25c each. These original titles included ‘Three Little Kittens’, ‘The Poky Little Puppy’ and ‘The Little Red Hen’. To date, over two billion Little Golden Books have been printed.
World History
Monday, October 1, 1962. : Two people are killed during riots as America’s first black college student is admitted to the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford.
Civil rights for African-Americans became a prominent issue in the 1950s. In 1954, the United States Supreme Court granted African Americans the right to an equal education. When black students attempted to enter a white school in Arkansas, rioting broke out, and was only quelled by the presence of armed forces.
A similar situation occurred when the first black student, James Meredith, was admitted to the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford on his fourth attempt, on 1 October 1962. Federal forces were stationed in Oxford, and hundreds of extra troops were deployed as violence spilled into the streets. President John F Kennedy was forced to federalise the Mississippi National Guard to maintain law and order, and to mobilise other infantrymen and military police across the state line in Tennessee. Mississippi governor, Ross Barnett, like his Arkansas counterpart in 1957, had previously defied court orders requiring desegregation. Eventually the riots ended, and troops were able to be withdrawn from the town, but not before two people were killed, and 75 injured in the resultant violence.
World History
Wednesday, October 1, 1969. : The Concorde breaks the sound barrier for the first time.
The Concorde was a form of specially designed supersonic air transport. The concept of supersonic aircraft was conceived in the 1950s. During the 1960s, Britain’s Bristol Aeroplane Company and France’s Sud Aviation were simultaneously working on designs, but the anticipated costs of the project were too great to be developed by an individual company: hence, France and Britain decided to work cooperatively. An international treaty between Britain and France was negotiated for the development of the project. The first test flight took place from Toulouse, France, on 2 March 1969.
The sound barrier is the point at which an aircraft moves from transonic to supersonic speed. Air Force Captain Charles “Chuck” Yeager was the first to break the sound barrier, on 14 October 1947. On 1 October 1969, the Concorde broke the sound barrier for the first time. It was the first commercial aircraft to break the sound barrier, but it was not the first passenger-carrying airliner to do so. In August 1961, a Douglas DC-8 broke the sound barrier at Mach 1.012 during a controlled dive while collecting data on a new leading-edge design for the wing.