Anniversaries and commemorations come and go daily. Most of us, even the best historians, miss most occasions. If we think of history as events then we are faced with a continually showering in the grains of sand. Nevertheless, we do pick out certain patterns in the remembrance of historical dates. The blog here reminds us of some dates where the local, state, national, and global perspectives entwine.
What Time is It? It is flow of a sandstorm that will on each day compress somewhere into a structure – sandstone, selected and only remembered in the longue durée.
On 12 January 1895, The National Trust is founded in the United Kingdom.
On Friday, 12 January 1945, WWII: The Soviet Union begins the Vistula–Oder Offensive in Eastern Europe against the German Army.
On Tuesday, 12 January 1960, died Nevil Shute (born 1899), writer
On Monday, 12 January 1970, Prime Minister John Gorton announces the number of cannons to be distributed and the locations of these cannons for the Captain Cook celebrations. New South Wales, Canberra and Queensland will each receive one of the six cannons jettisoned by Captain Cook from the Endeavour on the Great Barrier Reef in 1770.
On Monday, 12 January 1970, National Development Minister Reg Swartz announces that an Australian team is in San Francisco drawing up specifications for Australia’s first nuclear power station to be stationed at Jervis Bay.
On Monday, 12 January 1970, Three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer vanishes from Fairy Meadow Beach near Wollongong.
On Friday, 12 January 1990, Most of the remaining 50,000 Armenians are driven out of Baku in the Azerbaijan SSR during the Baku pogrom.
On Wednesday, 12 January 2000, Leonard Fraser is committed to stand trial over the murder of Rockhampton schoolgirl Keyra Steinhardt.
On Tuesday, 12 January 2010, A 7.0-magnitude earthquake occurs in Haiti, devastating the nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince. With a confirmed death toll over 316,000, it is the tenth deadliest on record.
On Monday, 12 January 2015, Government raids kill 143 Boko Haram fighters in Kolofata, Cameroon.
Images Citations in Composite: ID 17208541 © Anhong | Dreamstime.com; ID 35001957 © DiversityStudio1 | Dreamstime.com; ID 156394527 © Gerd Zahn | Dreamstime.com
Neville Buch