Born on this day

Monday, September 9, 1754. :   Captain William Bligh, known best for his role in the mutiny on the ‘Bounty’, is born.

William Bligh was born in Plymouth, south-west England, on 9 September 1754. He was only 8 when he first went to sea. At age 22, he was chosen to join Captain Cook’s crew on the ‘Resolution’, and became commander of the ‘HMAV Bounty’ eleven years later.

Bligh was commissioned to collect breadfruit plants at Tahiti, as the fruit was a cheap staple diet for feeding slaves. The famous mutiny on the Bounty occurred after Bligh left Tahiti on his way to the Caribbean. After enjoying many months of the free Tahitian lifestyle, as well as the company of the women, many of Bligh’s crew were reluctant to return to the strict discipline of life on board the ship under Bligh’s command. Master’s Mate Fletcher Christian led the mutiny, with the support of a small number of the ship’s crew. Bligh and many of his supporters were provided with a 7m launch, a sextant and enough provisions to enable them to reach the closest ports, but no means of navigation. Bligh chose not to head for the closer Spanish ports, which would have slowed down the process of bringing the mutineers to justice, but instead completed a 41-day journey to Timor. From here, he stood a better chance of communicating quickly to British vessels which could pursue the mutineers.

Bligh became Governor of New South Wales in 1805, but another mutiny, the Rum Rebellion, caused him to be imprisoned from 1808 to 1810. He was exonerated in 1811, after which he returned to England.

Born on this day

Tuesday, September 9, 1890. :   Colonel Harland Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, is born.

Harland Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana, USA, on 9 September 1890. As his father died when he was young, and his mother had to work to support her children, Sanders learned to cook for his family. He worked a variety of jobs through his youth, until he finally acquired a service station in Corbin, Kentucky, where he began to cook chicken for patrons. As his popularity grew, he was employed as a chef in a motel and restaurant, where he began perfecting the recipe that would eventually become a household name. He used the same 11 herbs and spices which are used in KFC today, and his use of a pressure cooker enhanced the process by ensuring quicker cooking, which helped seal in the flavour. Sanders was made an honorary Kentucky colonel in 1935 by Governor Ruby Laffoon.

Australian History

Friday, September 9, 1803. :   The “Lady Nelson” arrives in Van Diemen’s Land, now Tasmania, in preparation for the first British settlement.

The first European to discover Tasmania was Dutch trader Abel Tasman in November 1642. Tasman discovered the previously unknown island on his voyage past the “Great South Land”, which he later called “New Holland”. He named the island “Antony Van Diemen’s Land” in honour of the High Magistrate, or Governor-General of Batavia.

After the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip claimed the entire eastern coast for the British Empire, including Van Diemen’s Land, though it was not yet known to be separate from the mainland. Tasman believed Van Diemen’s Land to be part of New Holland, and it was not until 1798-99 that Matthew Flinders and George Bass proved Van Diemen’s Land to be an island.

In order to offset continuing French interests in southern parts of Australia, Lieutenant John Gordon Bowen was sent to establish the first British settlement in Van Diemen’s Land. The ship “Lady Nelson” arrived at Risdon Cove on 9 September 1803, and Bowen arrived on “The Albion” three days later to establish a settlement on the Derwent River. There were 49 people in the initial settlement party.

BR>Lieutenant-Governor David Collins, who had abandoned the new settlement at Sorrento on Port Phillip Bay due to lack of fresh water, arrived at Risdon Cove a month later. Unimpressed with the site chosen by Bowen, Collins moved the settlement to Sullivans Cove on the Derwent River in 1804. This settlement was later renamed Hobart Town.

Australian History

Monday, September 9, 1839. :   Darwin Harbour, where the city of Darwin now stands, is discovered and named.

The city of Darwin, capital of the Northern Territory, Australia is located on Darwin Harbour. The land was originally occupied by the Larrakia people of the Top End who had already been trading with the Macassans for many years before European settlers came. The first Europeans to the area were Dutch traders who visited Australia’s northern coastline in the 1600s, charting the first European maps of the region.

Darwin Harbour was first discovered by Captain of the HMS Beagle, John Lort Stokes, on 9 September 1839 and named “Port Darwin” after British naturalist Charles Darwin, who had been on the Beagle on a previous journey. The harbour was initially not settled, as Port Essington, 300 kilometres north, was regarded as a more strategic site for settlement and a better prospect to offset any intended French colonisation of Australia’s far north coast. Like other settlements along the northern coastline which preceded it, Port Essington floundered for some years, eventually being abandoned.

After John McDouall Stuart made the first successful crossing of Australia in 1862, this opened the way for the construction of the Overland Telegraph Line from Adelaide to the north coast, opening Australia to direct communication with the rest of the world. Thus, the settlement of Darwin was more successful than previous incursions into settling the north coast as it was to serve a very important link in this communication. Darwin’s first white settlers arrived on 5 February 1869 when George Goyder, the Surveyor-General of South Australia, established a small settlement of 135 men and women. The town was initially named Palmerston after the Prime Minister of Britain, Lord Palmerston, Henry Temple. However, all shipping to the area was consigned to “Port Darwin”. In 1911, when South Australia handed control of its northern half to the Commonwealth of Australia, the name Darwin was officially adopted.

World History

Saturday, September 9, 2000. :   For the first time in history, the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica extends over a populated city.

The Earth’s ozone layer protects all life from the sun’s harmful radiation, by absorbing ultra-violet light. Whilst ozone molecules are constantly being formed and destroyed in the stratosphere, man’s use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) has depleted the ozone layer. CFCs are used as refrigerants, solvents and fire extinguishing agents. Scientific research has found that CFCs release chlorine or bromine when they break down and winds drive the CFCs into the stratosphere, thereby damaging the protective ozone layer. Depletion of the ozone layer has been correlated with higher levels of cancer in humans and animals.

The depletion of the ozone layer is most obvious over the Antarctic, where scientists carefully monitor the size of a hole in the layer. The Antarctic ozone hole was discovered in 1985 by British scientists Joseph Farman, Brian Gardiner and Jonathan Shanklin of the British Antarctic Survey. Since its discovery, the hole has gradually increased in size.

Beginning on 9 September 2000 and continuing to September 10th, the ozone hole covered about 29.7 million square km, about three times larger than the entire land mass of the United States, stretching over a populated city for the first time. Approximately 120,000 residents of Punta Arenas, a city in southern Chile, were exposed to very high levels of ultraviolet radiation. After reaching this peak, the hole then began to slowly shrink again in its usual fashion.