1824 - Captain Gordon Bremer lands on Melville Island (North Australia), establishing a post which he named Fort Dundas, and took possession in the name of George IV. Captain Barlow was left in charge, but the settlement was abandoned three years later.
1841 - Hanged at Berrima, Patrick Curran, bushranger, for attempted murder of constable Patrick McGuire at the Black Range, Molonglo, and violation of Mary Wilsmore at Bungendore.
1845 - Ernest Favene, the Australian explorer and writer of "The History of Australian Exploration, 1788-1888," is born.
1851 - First ever polling day for Tasmanian Members of Parliament.
1863 - Hanged at Perth Gaol, Joseph White, for violation of 13 year old Jane Rhodes, at Greenough on 18 August 1863; and Teelup, for the murder of Charles Storey at Jacup on 23 July 1861.
1878 - Hanged at Campbell Street Gaol, Tasmania, Richard Copping, for the murder of Susannah Stacey at Bream Creek.
1889 - Responsible government is proclaimed in Western Australia.
1890 - Marine engineers refuse to join in the maritime strike in Brisbane.
1899 - Hanged at Derby Gaol, Western Australia, Lillimara, for murder of Thomas Jasper on 17 March 1897 on Oscar Range Station, Fitzroy Crossing.
1903 - Justice Cooper appointed Chief Justice of Queensland.
1905 - Nelson centenary celebrations held in Brisbane.
1914 - The first draft of troops leave Australia for Egypt.
1915 - The Australian Red Cross Missing and Wounded Enquiry Bureau is established. Miss Vera Deakin, daughter of ex-Prime Minister Alfred Deakin, establishes the Australian Red Cross Missing and Wounded Enquiry Bureau in Cairo. The Missing and Wounded Enquiry Bureau handled many thousands of enquiries from Australian families seeking information on wounded and missing soldiers during the First World War.
1916 - The 5th Australian Division entered the Western Front line near Flers on the Somme. By October the Somme battlefield had become a waste of mud-bound craters.
1919 - Ross Smith, Keith Smith, Sergeants J. M. Bennett, and W. H. Shiers leave England on their great aerial flight to Australia.
1920 - National Union of Railwaymen decide to strike unless the miners' claims are granted or negotiations resumed.
1924 - Greater Brisbane Bill passed by Queensland Parliament.
1925 - W. N. Gillies (Premier) and W. J. Dunstan appointed lay members of new Board of Trade and Arbitration.
1925 - W. McCormack chosen as Premier of Queensland by the Labor Caucus.
1944 - HMAS Australia damaged by Kamikaze aircraft. The Japanese first used special air units (Tokko-tai) to undertake suicide attacks on warships in the Allied fleet supporting the American landings on Leyte in the Phillipines.
1972 - The Snowy Mountains Scheme was completed. It remains the largest engineering project undertaken in Australia
1972 - The Snowy Mountains Scheme was completed. It remains the largest engineering project undertaken in Australia
1978 – Civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.
1986 – Death of Lionel Murphy, Attorney-General in the Government of Gough Whitlam, and a Justice of the High Court of Australia, aged 64.
2002 – Two people die in the Monash University shooting.
2014 - Australia’s 21st Prime Minister, Edward Gough Whitlam, dies.
* * * * *
Sources:
- Australian War Memorial
- Parliament of Tasmania
- South Australian Historians
- This Day in History
- Anniversaries To-Day (1933, October 21). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 8.
- To-day's Yesterdays (1933, October 21). The Daily Telegraph (Sydney, NSW : 1931 - 1954), p. 6.
- To-day's Anniversaries (1931, October 21). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 10 (FIRST EDITION).
- Today's Anniversaries (1930, October 21). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 8 (5 O'CLOCK CITY EDITION).
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