Fremantle Prison was built in Fremantle, Western Australia, between 1851
and 1859 using convict labour. Royal Commissions in 1898 and 1911
instigated some prison reforms, but after World War II, significant
reforms lagged behind those occurring elsewhere in Australia and the
world. Improvements in the late 1960s and early 1970s included an
officer training school, social workers, welfare officers, and work
release and community service programs. Punishments varied over the
years, with flogging and leg irons eventually replaced by lengthening of
sentences and restriction from visitors or entertainment. More than 40
hangings were carried out at Fremantle Prison, which was Western
Australia's only lawful place of execution between 1888 and 1984. There
were major riots in 1968 and 1988; in the second one, guards were taken
hostage, and fire damage totalled $1.8 million (in 1988 Australian
dollars). The prison closed in 1991, replaced by the new maximum-
security Casuarina Prison. Since then, Fremantle Prison has become a
tourist attraction and World Heritage Site.
Read more: <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fremantle_Prison>
_______________________________
Today's selected anniversaries:
1806:
War of the Fourth Coalition: Believing they were massively
outnumbered, the 5,300-man German garrison at Stettin, Prussia (now
Szczecin, Poland), surrendered to a much smaller French force without a
fight.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitulation_of_Stettin>
1888:
King Lobengula of Matabeleland granted the Rudd Concession to
agents of Cecil Rhodes, setting in motion the creation of the British
South Africa Company.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rudd_Concession>
1938:
The radio drama The War of the Worlds, based on the science
fiction novella by English writer H. G. Wells, frightened many listeners
in the United States into believing that an actual Martian invasion was
in progress.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_War_of_the_Worlds_(radio_drama)>
1965:
English model Jean Shrimpton wore a controversially short
minidress to Derby Day at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, Australia
– a pivotal moment of the introduction of the miniskirt to women's
fashion.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_shift_dress_of_Jean_Shrimpton>
1995:
In a referendum, 50.58 percent of voters supported the province
of Quebec remaining a part of Canada, narrowly averting sovereignty.
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_referendum,_1995>
_____________________________
Wiktionary's word of the day:
circumlocution:
1. A roundabout or indirect way of speaking; the use of more words than
necessary to express an idea.
2. A roundabout expression.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/circumlocution>
___________________________
Wikiquote quote of the day:
We think ourselves possessed, or, at least, we boast that we are
so, of liberty of conscience on all subjects, and of the right of free
inquiry and private judgment in all cases, and yet how far are we from
these exalted privileges in fact!
--John Adams
<https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Adams>