From battling Aborigines to Abba’s arrival, this is the history of March 3
ON this day in history men die in clashes with Aborigines, Graham Kennedy horrifies television viewers with his crow call and Abba mania hits Sydney.
Today in History
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ON this day in history men die in clashes with Aborigines, Graham Kennedy horrifies television viewers with his crow call and Abba mania hits Sydney.
1789: Convicts from the Brick Fields (now Chippendale) set off to Kamay (now Botany Rd) to steal spears and fishing tackle from Aborigines. One man is killed and seven wounded when the Eora attack.
1815: Following piracy in the Mediterranean, the United States declares war on the Bey of Algiers. After the American threat to bomb Algiers, hostilities end swiftly in August 1815.
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1816: Sydney Hospital, or the Rum Hospital, is completed, built by private contractors in exchange for a monopoly to import rum.
1816: Several white men cross the Nepean River to recover goods stolen by Aborigines. Blacks meet them and kill four.
1869: The last “full-blood’’ male Aborigine in Tasmania, William (“King Billy’’) Lanney, dies aged 34. His body is spirited away and mutilated for scientific study.
1878: A peace treaty is signed at San Stefano, ending the Russo-Turkish War, freeing Balkan states from Turkish rule and giving Bulgaria independence after 500 years of Ottoman rule.
1885: A contingent of 758 soldiers leaves Sydney, amid fanfare, for Sudan to fight Muslim fundamentalists under the Mahdi. The Australians will see little action.
1918: The second of two treaties of Brest-Litovsk ends hostilities between the Central Powers and Soviet Russia in World War I.
1942: About 70 people die in Japanese air raids on Broome and Wyndham.
1975: Entertainer Graham Kennedy horrifies television regulators by making a crow call sounding like the F-word on his 9pm Nine network show.
1977: Hysteria sweeps more than 20,000 Abba fans as the Swedish pop group play in the rain at Sydney Showground to start their only Australian tour.
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