1535 Francisco Pizarro founded the city of Lima in Peru. I only know it through novels like Isaac Goldemberg’s ‘Remember the Scorpion,’ discussed elsewhere on this blog, and many titles from Mario Vargas Llosa. In short order the Spanish extracted so much silver from Peru in pieces of eight that it drove the value of the metal down. In 1551 the first university in the new world was founded there. it figured in the world news today. Yuck.
1788 Captain Arthur Phillip and the First Fleet of 736 British convicts arrived at Botany Bay. These days it is described as The Invasion. What a bedraggled set of invaders they must have been. First in Botany Bay, then Manly Cove, and finally Sydney Harbour.
1778 The English explorer Captain James Cook became the first European to see the Hawaiian Islands. He named them for the First Lord of the Admiralty, Lord Sandwich. Hawaii is our second home.
1912 Robert Scott and party reached the South Pole to discover that Roald Amundsen, the Norwegian explorer, had preceded them by just over a month. It got worse. Not on our itinerary.
1919 Bentley Motors Limited was founded. Seen a few but never been in one.
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