926 Caliphate of Cordoba was established by Emir Abd-ar-Rahman III. It occupied all of Southern Spain. We have been to Cordoba.
1547 Ivan (the Terrible) IV crowned himself the Czar of Russia in the Assumption Cathedral in Moscow. We have seen this church within the walls of the Kremlin. Sergei Einstein’s movie about Ivan is memorable.
1793 Port Jackson, NSW, the supply ship Bellona arrived carrying the first group — thirteen in number — of free setters to arrive in Australia. They were granted land at what they called Liberty Plains (Strathfield today.)
1883 The Pendleton Act created the professional US Civil Service. It is discussed elsewhere on this blog in connection with a biography of Chester Arthur. It was one of the most significant achievements on the Nineteenth Century. Regrettably, it has largely been forgotten.
1909 Australian geologists Douglas Mawson and Edgeworth David become the first people to reach the magnetic South Pole. The Edgeworth Davis building was a feature of the University of Sydney campus for fifty years until the wrecker came to the ball. I have been fascinated by Antarctic museums in Christchurch and Hobart.
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