1628 - Captain Francoys Pelsart, in command of the ship Batavia sails from the Texel, Holland, on a voyage for the Southern Hemisphere, with a fleet of 13 vessels. The ships became separated during the voyage, and the Batavia was wrecked on Houtman's Abrolhas, on the Western Australia coast, on 4 June 1629. Pelsart, with some of his crew, eventually reached Java in sloops, and returned in the frigate, Saerdam on 15 September, to find that mutiny had taken place among those left at the scene of the wreck and that 125 of the crew had been murdered. Eight of the mutineers were executed. Two were marooned on the Australian coast and were not heard of again.
1790 - Publicly hanged at Rose Hill, William Harris and Edward Wildblook, for breaking into a house in Rose Hill and assaulted one of the occupants, stole three pounds of beef and one pound of flour, a frock and a book.
1834 - The Battle of Pinjarra occurs in the Swan River Colony in present-day Pinjarra, Western Australia. Between 14–40 Aborigines are killed by British colonists.
1840 - An Order-in-Council excludes New South Wales from the list of penal settlements.
1852 - Hanged at Oatlands, Patrick McMahon, for violation of a child.
1855 - Francis James Gillen, an early anthropologist who studied Indigenous culture was born.
1865 - Hanged at Geelong, Thomas ("Yankee Tom") Menard, for the murder of James Sweeney at Warrnambool.
1875 - The first champagne is produced in Australia by J. T. Fallon of Albury, New South Wales.
1888 - William Bede Dalley, Australian statesman, orator, barrister, dies. He was responsible for the sending of the Soudan Contingent to Egypt following the Khartoum incident. He was the first Australian Privy Councillor.
1890 - Seamen's strike in Brisbane ends.
1894 - The Union Company's S.S. Wairarapa, at midnight, strikes the cliffs of Great Barrier Island, New Zealand, and became a total wreck, heeling over and sinking within four hours. The scene was at the entrance to Hauraki Gulf, 60 miles from Auckland. The loss of live was 127.
1899 - New South Wales, Victorian, and Tasmanian troops leave for the South African War.
1910 - New Anglican cathedral in Brisbane consecrated.
1916 - First conscription referendum. Dismayed by heavy losses at Fromelles and Pozières on the Western Front, Prime Minister W. M. Hughes proposed that conscription be introduced for overseas service. The proposal was defeated. Against: 1,146,198; For: 1,084.918; Informal: 57,483.
1927 - Stuart Stephenson appointed head master of the Brisbane Boys' Grammar School in succession to F. S. N. Bousfield.
1940 - Third Menzies Ministry is formed.
1952 - Death of William Morris "Billy" Hughes, the seventh Prime Minister of Australia, aged 90.
1967 - The official opening of the Victor Richardson gates at the eastern entrance of the Adelaide Oval, South Australia.
1971 - The British satellite Prospero X-3 was launched into space from Woomera, South Australia, making Britain the seventh country with a satellite.
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Sources:
- Australian War Memorial
- South Australian Historians
- Anniversaries To-Day (1933, October 28). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 8.
- Anniversaries To-Day (1935, October 28). Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate (NSW : 1876 - 1954), p. 6.
- On this day (1965, October 28). The Canberra Times (ACT : 1926 - 1995), p. 2.
- To-Day's Anniversaries (1930, October 28). The Telegraph (Brisbane, Qld. : 1872 - 1947), p. 8.
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