Concrete ships proved a dead weight for US
WHEN metal proved scarce during World War I, the US government turned to building ships from concrete.
Today In History
Plot to blow up Hitler lost its spark in midair
ON March 13, 1943 Adolf Hitler boarded a plane with a bomb aboard, but the plot to kill him fizzled out in the air.
Prince Alfred survived picnic assassination
WHEN a young Prince Alfred attended a beachside picnic in Sydney’s picturesque suburb of Clontarf, it was unthinkable at the time that he faced mortal danger.
Deadly flu epidemic killed millions more than in WWI
THE grandfather of US President Donald Trump in 1918 was an early victim of deadly Spanish flu.
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Star evangelist dogged by scandal after ‘kidnapping’
Ninety years ago today one of the first celebrity disapearances occured, leaving questions that remain unanswered to this day.
Mao’s Red Guards ‘grasped political power out of the barrel of a gun’
THE death toll from the Great Socialist Cultural Revolution, as with the Great March that secured Mao Tse-tung’s control over China in 1949, remains indefinite 50 years after it began on May 16, 1966.
Young man who saw stars
A SMUDGE of light in the sky over Windsor catapulted farmer’s son John Tebbutt (left) to global scientific fame
South Pole conqueror won air race to the North
IN 1926 two expeditions set out to conquer the North Pole by air but only one — the Norge commanded by Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen (left) — could be the true winner
It was all aboard the campaign train for politicians of the past
TODAY’S politicians have it easier on the hustings, compared to pollies past who spent much longer on the campaign trail, such as Harry S. Truman (left), to get them from one baby-kissing moment to the next.
Grundy’s wheel of fortune
REG Grundy, the self-made media mogul, who died at home in Bermuda on Sunday, will be remembered as a major influence on Australian television — from producing local game shows in the ’60s to creating a global media empire.
A Gold Logie is not always a passport to stardom
WHILE a Logie win does wonders for some careers, it is not always a passport to lasting fame, with many nominees and winners fading into obscurity after accepting their gong, such as Nicolle Dickson (left).
Bobby Gibbes had a great sense of adventure
BORN 100 years ago today on his father’s small grazing property near Young, Bobby Gibbes would rise to become one of Australia’s most celebrated fighter pilots.
Clockmaker helped navigators find themselves
FOR centuries navigation and travel by sea was diabolically risky. Eventually English carpenter turned clockmaker John Harrison (left) developed the first marine chronometer which helped shape the world we know today.
Starman Cainer put future in our sights
FOR decades newspaper readers have been turning to Jonathan Cainer’s often cryptic astrology forecasts, but few could have anticipated the poignancy behind his final reading.
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