Cyclone Tracy was a tropical cyclone that devastated Darwin,
Australia, on 24-25 December, 1974. It was recorded by The Age as
being a "disaster of the first magnitude... and without parallel in
Australia's history." It killed 65 people and destroyed over 70
percent of Darwin's buildings, leaving over 20,000 people homeless.
Most of Darwin's population was evacuated to Adelaide, Whyalla, Alice
Springs and Sydney and many never returned to Darwin. The town was
subsequently rebuilt with newer materials and techniques. Cyclone
Tracy, due to its severity, has entered into Australian popular
culture in a way that no other meteorological event had before, or
has since.
Read the rest of this article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyclone_Tracy
Today's selected anniversaries:
1009 The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a Christian church now
within the walled Old City of Jerusalem, was destroyed by
the "mad" Fatimid caliph Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_the_Holy_Sepulchre)
1851 "Moby-Dick", a novel by Herman Melville, was first
published as "The Whale".
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moby-Dick)
1922 The British Broadcasting Company was founded by a
consortium to establish a network of radio transmitters to
provide a national broadcasting service in the United
Kingdom.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC)
1954 Texas Instruments introduced the first transistor radio.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transistor_radio)
1977 German Autumn: a national crisis revolving around the
kidnapping of Hanns-Martin Schleyer in Cologne and the
hijacking of a Lufthansa airplane to Somalia by the Red
Army Faction (RAF) came to an end when various RAF members
committed suicide in prison and Schleyer was executed in
France. The German government later stated that it would
never again negotiate with terrorists.
(
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Army_Faction)
Wikiquote of the day:
"Try not. Do. Or do not. There is no try." ~ "Yoda" in Star Wars
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
(
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Star_Wars)