Australian History
Tuesday, October 17, 1854. : Amidst the unrest which eventually led to the Eureka rebellion, the Eureka Hotel is burnt to the ground during a riot.
The Eureka Hotel at Ballarat was opened by its owner, James Bentley, in July 1854. Also known as Bentley’s Hotel, it stood on the northeast corner of Eureka Street and Otway Streets, and was a popular place for the diggers on the goldfields to gather after a hard day’s work prospecting.
James Scobie was an unassuming gold miner who came to Australia from Scotland to make his fortune on the Ballarat goldfields. After becoming involved in a fight at the Eureka Hotel, Scobie died on 7 October 1854. An inquest into his death absolved the hotel owner, Bentley, and his staff of any wrongdoing. The miners, however, felt that justice had been thwarted, and held a meeting outside the hotel on 17 October 1854. Tempers flared, a riot ensued and the hotel was burnt to the ground by the diggers. As a result of this, more troopers were sent from Melbourne, and miners were subjected to more frequent licence checks, and more frequent clashes between miners and troopers.
Ten men were arrested over the destruction of the hotel ten days later, but the charges against seven of those arrested were dismissed. Another inquest into Scobie’s death was held a month later, on 18 November, during which Bentley and two of his staff were found guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to three years’ hard labour in the road-gangs. The general dissatisfaction generated by these events was a catalyst in the events leading up to the Eureka stockade of December 3.
Australian History
Monday, October 17, 1949. : Work commences on the Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme, considered one of the wonders of the modern engineering world.
The Snowy Mountains Hydro Electric Scheme is a hydroelectricity and irrigation scheme in Australia, covering about 5,124 square kilometres in southern New South Wales. Considered to be one of the wonders of the modern engineering world, it involves sixteen dams, seven power stations, a pumping station, 145 km of underground tunnels and 80 km of aqueducts. The scheme generates enough electricity to meet roughly 10% of the needs of New South Wales.
The Snowy Mountains Hydro-Electric Scheme was first proposed in 1918, driven by the needs of farmers who wanted to be able to divert the waters of the Snowy River inland for irrigation, rather than having it all simply flow out to sea at the river’s mouth. In 1946, the Federal government, together with the state governments of Victoria and New South Wales, co-operated to investigate the possibilities of such a Scheme. The Government accepted a proposal in 1949 and the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Power Act was passed in Federal Parliament in July 1949. Led by prominent New Zealand engineer Sir William Hudson, the Snowy Mountains Authority came into being on 1 August 1949.
Construction on the massive undertaking began on 17 October 1949. On this day, Governor General Sir William McKell, Prime Minister Ben Chifley and the first Commissioner of the Snowy Mountains Scheme, Sir William Hudson, fired the first blast at Adaminaby. The scheme took 25 years to complete and was built at a cost of $1 billion – well under budget. During construction, over 100,000 men and women from over 30 countries worked on the Scheme, whilst Australians made up most of the workforce. These immigrants contributed significantly to the post-war boom.
Apart from the obvious benefits provided by the electricity and the numerous dams, the Snowy Mountain Hydro-Electric Scheme was significant for raising Australia’s profile as a technologically advanced country. In 1967 and 1997, the American Society of Civil Engineers ranked the Scheme as one of the great engineering achievements of the twentieth century.
World History
Tuesday, October 17, 1961. : Over 200 Algerians in Paris are massacred by police as they march in support of Algeria’s independence from France.
Algeria, in northern Africa, is the second largest nation on the African continent. France invaded the country in 1830 and by the end of the 19th century it was under complete French control. However, during the twentieth century, people of European descent in Algeria had a very tenuous relationship with the Muslim Algerians, who remained outside of French law and control.
In 1954, the National Liberation Front (FLN) launched the terrorist-based Algerian War of Independence. Tensions ran high until, in the early 1960s, the Algerian terrorists began setting off bombs in Paris and randomly killing French policemen. Paris police chief Maurice Papon assured his men that they would be protected against any charges of excessive violence in the crackdown that followed. When the Algerians marched to protest police oppression on 17 October 1961, the Paris police turned their guns on the large protest group. The official death toll released by the police reported 3 dead and 67 wounded. The real figure was over 200.
Papon avoided trial for many years, but in 1998 was found guilty of collaborating in crimes against humanity, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
World History
Wednesday, October 17, 1979. : Mother Teresa, famous for ministering to lepers, the homeless and the poor in the slums of Calcutta, is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on 27 August 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. When she was just 17, she joined the Sisters of Our Lady of Lareto, a Catholic order that did charity work in India. She founded the Missionaries of Charity in 1950, which was a new order devoted to helping the sick, disabled and poor, and continued to tirelessly minister to the world’s most needy people. The Missionaries of Charity now operates schools, hospitals, orphanages, and food centres in over 100 cities worldwide.
On 17 October 1979, Mother Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize “for work undertaken in the struggle to overcome poverty and distress, which also constitute a threat to peace.” She requested that, rather than $6000 being spent on a ceremonial banquet, the funds be redirected to the poverty-stricken in Calcutta. As she received the prize, she was asked, “What can we do to promote world peace?” She replied simply, “Go home and love your family.” Upon Mother Teresa’s death on 5 September 1997, she was given a full state funeral by the Indian Government, an honour normally given only to presidents and prime ministers.
World History
Tuesday, October 17, 1989. : San Francisco, California, is hit by a powerful earthquake which kills 63.
The city of San Francisco, in California, USA, has the fourth-largest population of any city in the state. It is situated near the San Andreas Fault, a major source of earthquake activity in California, and has seen quite a few earthquake disturbances in the last 150 years. One of these occurred on 17 October 1989, when an earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale struck along the fault line near Loma Prieta Peak in the Santa Cruz mountains, approximately 110km to the south. The quake lasted 15 seconds, and could be felt from as far away as Los Angeles (680km away) and Reno, Nevada (340km away).
63 people were killed: this was a relatively low number, given the extent of damage to infrastructure, with collapsed bridges, freeways and buildings, huge cracks in roads, landslides and fires. Over 3,500 people were injured and 100,000 buildings damaged. The damage to bridges and buildings was unexpected, as they had supposedly been built to withstand the force of an earthquake.