1884 The first fascicle of the Oxford English Dictionary went on sale. It was ‘A-Ant.’ Work had started in 1857. A ‘fascicle’ is an unbound sheaf of pages tied together. Only in 1895 was the name ‘Oxford English Dictionary’ used. The final volume containing ‘Z’ appeared in 1928. Pictured below is editing an entry on a main frame computer. We have consulted it many times in the Complete, the Shorter, the Concise editions, and now online. The copy of the Complete came with a magnifying glass to read the five-point type in the two hefty volumes.
1896 Giacomo Puccini’s ‘La bohème’ was performed for the very first time at the Teatro Regio in Turin, Italy. We saw it recently at the Sydney Opera House and once again were lifted by the music.
1915 Opals were unearthed in Coober Pedy about five hundred miles north of Adelaide. We have known a few. It is the red centre, where the summer temperatures run to 47C and in mid-winter never below 30C. Ugh. No photograph captures the fire in opals.
1920 The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (Gendarmerie royale du Canada [GRC]) was inaugurated by combining the North West Territory Mounted Police with the Dominion constabulary. It required much negotiation with the provinces to divide jurisdictions. The Dominion plod got to wear the red coats. As a tweenager I sent in enough boxtops to buy a square inch of the Yukon where snow, ice, and tundra were discovered.
1981 Trevor Chappell bowled the last ball of the last match of the World Cricket Finals underarm to Brian McKechnie at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The decision by captain Chappell to do this deprived New Zealand of a sporting chance to win. The incident still figures in the popular culture, especially, I am told, in New Zealand where it is evidence of …. [figure it out].
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