1792 Captain George Vancouver landed at the site that is now Vancouver though Wikipedia does not mention him in the entry on the city. He had earlier claimed King George Sound near Albany Western Australia for the crown. Been to Rain City many times over the ages.
1912 Ottawa. The Chateau Laurier hotel opened. Its builder and owner was Charles Hays who had drowned a week earlier while travelling home the event on the Titanic. I stayed there once at a conference. Was it named for the incumbent Prime Minister, Wilfred Laurier? Does Mr Hays haunt it? Has the plumbing changed since 1912?
1923 From Appleton WI Harry Houdini freed himself from a straightjacket while suspended forty feet in the air upside down. He had toured Australia in 1910. He spent much of the latter part of his career debunking spiritualists and mediums who were defrauding the public. In do doing he clashed with Arthur Conan Doyle.
1931 The separate territories of North Australia and Central Australia were re-united as the Northern Territory. It had been entire until 1926 when it was split to make the vast real estate more manageable but sustaining two administrative centres (Darwin and Alice Springs) proved too expensive in the Great Depression. It has remained a vast singular entity since. We have been to Darwin twice and enjoyed it a lot and there is talk of visiting Alice Springs one day for the night sky.
1991 Bois Yeltsin was elected president of the Russian Federation. Sales of vodka increased. Now who does he remind me of today….? Is it President Tiny?
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