NFHM Blog Challenge Week 4: Month

With August progressing, as is National Family History Month, here is my final post for the NFHM Blog Challenge, and this week the topic is “Month”.

Out of the four weeks of topics (National, Family, History, Month), this has proved the hardest in coming up with something, but as I am a fan of “on this day” history, I have settled for giving an “on this day” history of events that have taken place during the month of August.

Covering Australian related history as well as overseas, some events date back hundreds of years, while others are relatively recent and you’re likely to remember. Some certainly changed the world, while others you probably didn’t even know about. Still I find it fascinating to find out what happens in history, so here’s a little taster of August …

1 August 1831 – New London Bridge is opened, replacing the 600-year-old London Bridge
2 August 1997 – After three days, skiing instructor Stuart Diver is pulled alive from the rubble of the collapsed Thredbo resorts
3 August 1990 – The highest temperature ever known in Britain is recorded in Leicestershire … at 37C
4 August 1906 – Central Railway Station in Sydney is opened.
5 August 1914 – Australia enters World War I.
6 August 1945 – The first atomic bomb is dropped on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.
7 August 1928 – Dingo hunter Frederick Brooks is killed, sparking the Coniston Massacre of Australian Aborigines.
8 August 1789 – The first police force in the convict colony of New South Wales is formed.
9 August 1173 – Construction begins on the Tower of Pisa, which is later to become the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa.
10 August 1844 – Charles Sturt sets out on his final expedition to search for an inland sea in Australia.
11 August 1824 – New South Wales is constituted a Crown Colony.
12 August 1829 – The city of Perth, Western Australia, is founded.
13 August 1888 – John Logie Baird, inventor of television, is born.
14 August 1861 – William Landsborough organises a relief expedition to find missing explorers Burke and Wills.
15 August 1904 – Dalgety is named as the site of the future Federal Capital Territory of Australia
16 August 1995 – Microsoft launches the first version of Microsoft Internet Explorer
17 August 1813 – Matthew Flinders writes to Sir Joseph Banks, outlining his reasons for suggesting New Holland be called Australia, after Banks disapproves of the name.
18 August 1786 – The decision is made in England to colonise New South Wales with convicts from Britain’s overcrowded gaols.
19 August 1839 – Louis Daguerre invents the daguerreotype photographic process, allowing an image to be chemically fixed as a permanent picture.
20 August 1908 – The first successful Australian transcontinental motor car journey is completed.
21 August 1990 – The announcement is made that the Australian 1 cent and 2 cent coins will be withdrawn from circulation.
22 August 1917 – Stockman Jim Darcy dies, causing a chain of events that eventually leads to the founding of Australia’s Flying Doctor Service.
23 August 1617 – The first one-way streets are opened in London.
24 August 1995 – Windows 95 is released by the Microsoft Corporation.
25 August 1944 – Paris is freed after four years of German occupation.
26 August 1835 – Governor Bourke declares John Batman’s treaty with Aborigines, which enabled the founding of Melbourne, to be invalid.
27 August 1970 – The Southern hairy-nosed wombat is adopted as the official faunal emblem of South Australia.
28 August 1894 – Paddlesteamer, the “Rodney”, is burnt by unionist shearers in protest at it being used as a strike breaker.
29 August 1941 – Arthur Fadden, the second of five men who served as Australian Prime Minister during World War II, is sworn into office.
30 August 1853 – The last ship to carry convicts directly from Ireland to Australia arrives in Fremantle.
31 August 1882 – Cricket’s legend of The Ashes is born with the first of two mock obituaries lamenting England’s loss to Australia.

For more “on this day” history, check out the 1000s of entries on the This Day in History website.

One Response to “NFHM Blog Challenge Week 4: Month”

  1. crissouli says:

    I have included your blog in INTERESTING BLOGS in FRIDAY FOSSICKING at

    https://thatmomentintime-crissouli.blogspot.com/2017/08/friday-fossicking-25th-august-2017.html
    Thank you, Chris
    Also included Week 3..loved both.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

2 Shares
Share1
Tweet
Pin1
Share