BORN TODAY: In Cardiff, Wales – Richard ‘Frank’ Trott, rugby union footballer and honorary secretary of Cardiff RFC.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Trott
War at Sea: The British destroy the German cruiser “Dresden” off the coast of Chile. Or, to be more exact, the Germans destroy Dresden, “under close British supervision.”
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/german-cruiser-dresden-sinks
BORN TODAY: in Pichilemu, Chile – Juan Acevedo Pavez, Chilean socialist politician.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Acevedo_Pavez
In the Balkans: as part of the “Third Invasion of Serbia”, now in its third day, the Austro-Hungarians attack the Serbian 2nd Army near Cer Mountain, approximately 100 km from Belgrade.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Kolubara
In London, the French sculptor Auguste Rodin donates eighteen of his sculptures to the Victoria & Albert Museum to honour the French and British soldiers fighting for their countrymen.
“The English and French are brothers; your soldiers are fighting side by side with ours. As a little token of my admiration for your heroes, I decided to present the collection to England. That is all’.
in Perth, Western Australia, the Sunday times newspaper includes a short news story headlined “German debauchery: Orgy with prostitutes” including the German commander’s nonchalant remark to the local burgomaster: “those officers are not the elite of my army”.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/57805088
BORN TODAY: in Vina Del Mar, Chile – Rosita Maria Martha Esther Aldunate del Campo Serrano, the “Chilean Nightingale”, especially popular in Nazi Germany in the 1930s and early 1940s.
http://www.hmv-gramophones.eu/biography/rosita-serrano/
Crime: In Sydney, Australia – armed robbers Ernest Ryan (aka “Shiner”) and Samuel Freeman (aka “Jewey”) rob the payroll delivery at the Eveleigh Railway Workshops. Cab driver Albert Andrews tries, but fails, to overtake the getaway car in his horse drawn wagon.
Science and technology: At 60 00.00’N 000 39.00’E, Captain Brown, acting on behalf of the Fishery Board for Scotland, releases a (scientific) message in a drift bottle. The bottle will not be recovered until April 2012 – nearly 98 years later (a Guinness World Record) -having (apparently) travelled a distance of just 9.5 nautical miles.
http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/1/oldest-message-in-a-bottle
Society and culture: in the Alexander Garden in Moscow, the “Romanov Obelisk” is officially opened, commemorating the 300 year anniversary of the Romanov dynasty in 1913. Later it will be re-styled as a “monument to socialist thinkers”.
http://en.travel2moscow.com/where/visit/monuments/object4712.html
Animal Rights: Carbine, the New Zealand thoroughbred racehorse, Melbourne Cup winner and sire of many later winners, is humanely put down at the age of 29, after suffering a stroke. Today “his skeleton can be seen on display at the Australian Racing Museum and Hall of Fame in Melbourne” [alldownunder.com – “celebrating the things that make Australia unique”].
http://alldownunder.com/australian-race-horse/carbine-wins-melbourne-cup.htm
BORN TODAY:
~ In Vancouver, Canada – Frederick Howard Buller, aeronautical engineer.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frederick_Howard_Buller
~ In London, England – Bernard Raymond Fink, physician.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernard_Raymond_Fink
Arms Race: In Cowes, on Britain’s Isle of Wight, the shipbuilder J.S. White launches the destroyer Almirante Goñi, built for the Chilean Navy, but destined to be purchsed by the British Admiralty (Navy) and renamed HMS Broke after outbreak of World War 1.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HMS_Broke_(1914)
Empire: The “Colac Herald” in Victoria, Australia, reports “enormous attendance” at the Empire Day celebrations which have taken place over the weekend:
“Patriotism reigned supreme on Saturday in Colac in common with other places throughout the British Empire.It is not many years since Empire Day was brought into being, but in a short space of time it has become one of the leading days in the year, when the people have an opportunity of making a display of that love of country which is such an important factor in nation building. Upon patriotism depends the very existence of an empire, for immediately this sense is weakened, so do the foundations upon which nations are built begin to crumble and sooner or later the superstructure will topple down. The sentiment of patriotism is a grand thing in its many aspects. It is through it that the people band together and make enormous sacrifices to keep the land of their fathers safe from attack.” [The Colac Herald, 25th May 1914].
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/74225240?searchTerm=&searchLimits=l-title=241
Ireland: For the third time, the British House of Commons passes the “Government of Ireland Bill” (the “Third Home Rule Bill”) which has on two previous occasions been overturned by the Upper House (the House of Lords – rejecting the first and second bills in 1912 and 1913).
BORN TODAY: At WIgston Barracks, Leicester, England – Reg Twigg, author of “Survivor on the River Kwai, the Incredible Story of Life on the Burma Railway”, who died in May this year – one of the last survivors of the Death Railway.
http://www.andrewlownie.co.uk/authors/reg-twigg/books/survivor-on-the-river-kwai
World Affairs: In Blomfontein, South Africa, the “Women’s Monument” is unveiled, commemorating the death of around 27,000 Boer women and children who died in British concentration camps during the Boer War (1899-1902).
http://www.rememberoursisterseverywhere.com/group/women-s-monument-boer-war-south-africa
Natural Disasters: in the Rio Blanco valley in Patagonia, Chile the Rio Blanco Glacier breaks out of its natural dam and sends a huge flood of water, earth and rocks down the valley below.
Click to access igs_journal_vol02_issue013_pg172-175.pdf
Accidents: – A bad day for the global mining industry…
~ At the Radium Mine in South Australia, 22 year old miner, K Lively, loses a foot in an underground explosion.
~ On the same day, at the Mainsforth coal-mine in County Durham, England, Joseph Aspey, colliery driver, loses an arm in an accident.
~ And at the Vulcan Mine in Colorado an explosion kills “thirty-eight men practically all Americans”.
http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/89956178
http://www.dmm.org.uk/individn/002065.htm
http://www3.gendisasters.com/colorado/3522/newcastle,-vulcan-mine-explosion,-dec-1913
BORN TODAY, in Adelaide, South Australia – Mary Durack, AC DBE, author and historian of Australian settler life. Her works include: Kings in Grass Castles; Sons in the Saddle; Swan River Saga – Life of Pioneer Eliza Shaw; and “The Aborigines in Australian Literature”.
Also, Hilda Fest, a Norwegian lady who at the age of 98 was raped and murdered by 19 year old Christian Haugland, on New Years day 2012.
Society and Culture: King O’Malley, the Australian Minister for Home Affairs, drives home the first surveying stake for what will soon become the City of Canberra, future capital of Australia.
World Affairs: After riots in Japan the government loses the first ever vote of no-confidence and the leader (Katsura) resigns, to be replaced by a former navy admiral. On the same day a massive fire in the city destroys around 1500 homes.
In Nepal, the young king, Tribhuhvan Bir Bikram Shah, not yet 7 years old, is crowned at the Nasal Chowk Hanumna Dhoka Palace in Kathmandu. Apart from a a brief exile in the early nineteen-fifties he will reign in Nepal until his death in 1955.
Arms Race – HMS Eagle is laid down at the Armstong shipyards in Newcastle, UK. Originally contacted for sale to Chile as a super dreadnought class battleship, she is bought by Britain in 1918 for conversion to an aircraft carrier, and will see action in the Battle of Malta before being sunk by German submarine U-73 with a loss of 131 “officers and men” in August 1942.
Science and Technology – the City of Salta, in North West Argentina, converts its 19 year old tram system from horse drawn to electric.
onehundredyearsagotoday 