1768 In London retired cavalry sergeant-major Philip Astley staged the first modern circus by doing trick riding in a tight concentric circle that allowed him to do things otherwise impossible. That went well and he added other acts and built an amphitheatre. He took his troupe on tour to France. The term ‘circus’ comes from the circular track via Roman circuses or circuits.
1799 British Prime Minister William Pitt the Younger introduced income tax to fund war with Napoleon’s France.
1868 In Fremantle the Hougoumont, the last ship to transport convicts to Western Australia. WA was founded in 1829 by free settlers. The shortage of labour for the work to be done led the setters to petition London for convicts who began to arrive in June 1850.
1909 The British Nimrod Expedition with Ernest Shackleton reached a the farthest South latitude (88°23′ south) then recorded about 90 miles from South Pole when the weather made it impossible to continue.
2007 Apple Inc. CEO Steve Jobs demonstrated the iPhone. That is barely a decade ago. More than one billion have now been sold. After a Nokia, after a Sony Ericsson, after an HP, I switched to an iPhone 3 and never looked back.
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