49 years ago today, Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically handed over land to the Gurindji people after the eight-year Wave Hill walk-off, a landmark event in the history of Indigenous land rights in Australia. Though initially interpreted merely as a strike against working and living conditions, the primary demands of the 200 or so Gurindji stockmen and house servants who had downed tools in the summer of 1975 were for the return of some of the traditional lands of the Gurindji people, which had covered approximately 3,250 square kilometers (1,250 sq miles) of the Northern Territory before European settlement. READ more about this historic day… (1975)
Though highly symbolic, the handing over of land was one of the main events leading to the passing of the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976. This legislation allowed Indigenous Australians to apply for freehold title to traditional lands. commemorated in a 1991 song by Paul Kelly and an annual celebration.
The event was later celebrated in the song “From Little Things Big Things Grow”, written by Paul Kelly and Kev Carmody in 1991, and Freedom Day is celebrated in August of each year at Kalkarindji, a former cattle ranch, to commemorate the strike.
In 2016, the Gurindji were formally granted the modern version of freehold title to the land. Each year on the Freedom Day Festival, more than 1000 people travel from around Australia to recreate the route taken by the families who went on strike at Wave Hill.
MORE Good News on this Day:
- The first transatlantic telegraph cable was inaugurated by U.S. President Buchanan who exchanged greetings with UK’s Queen Victoria (1858)
- Dominican Republic gained freedom after four-year war against Spanish Annexation (1865)
- First female students admitted to the (Imperial) Tōhoku University of Japan (1913)
- Sports Illustrated was first published by Time Inc (1954)
- Britain granted independence to Cyprus (1960)
- Ringo Starr replaced Pete Best to become the drummer for The Beatles (1962)
- Thousands of people worldwide began a two-day celebration of the “harmonic convergence,” a planetary alignment with the Sun, Moon, and six planets, which believers marked as the start of a new, more enlightened age (1987)
64 years ago today, Air Force Captain Joe Kittinger parachuted from space after climbing in a balloon to 102,800 feet (31,330 m). He set four historical records over New Mexico: highest parachute jump, highest balloon ascent, longest free-fall (four minutes), and fastest speed by a human without an aircraft.
The former Vietnam War fighter pilot and prisoner of war for 11 months, he was participating in research about high altitude bailouts.
The Tampa-born retired Colonel, who later wrote an autobiography, fell for 19 miles and reached a maximum speed of 614 miles per hour (988 km/h).
Many years later, at the age of 84, Joe participated in the 2012 Red Bull Stratos project as capsule communicator, directing Felix Baumgartner on his record-breaking 39-kilometer (24 mi) free-fall from Earth’s stratosphere. WATCH him talk about the experience… (1960)
Also, Happy 66th Birthday to the incomparable Madonna. Over the last 12 years, the singer-songwriter–actress has opened her wallet to help revitalize Detroit in her home state of Michigan, and built 10 primary schools in Malawi, where she has adopted several children and supported other charity initiatives. She has also started many businesses (cosmetics, fashion, fitness, and a pub), directed acclaimed films, and has earned more money touring than any other solo artist overall. Having sold more than 300 million records worldwide, Madonna has been recognized as the best-selling female recording artist of all time worldwide. According to Billboard, she is the most successful solo act on its Hot 100 song chart, second overall behind the Beatles. (1958)
And 55 years ago today Neil Young joined Crosby, Stills, and Nash on stage for the first time, playing at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago—a collaboration that would continue on and off for the next 30 years. Young was originally offered a position as a sideman, but agreed to join only if he received full membership, and the group—winners of the 1969 Grammy for Best New Artist—was renamed Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. At the show, they mentioned they were going to someplace called Woodstock the next day, but they had no idea where that was.
The band’s second show at the massive Woodstock festival was a “baptism by fire,” with a crowd of famous performers looking on from offstage prompting Stills to say, “This is only the second time we’ve performed in front of people. We’re scared shitless!” Soon after, their recording of the Joni Mitchell song, Woodstock, along with other hits like Teach Your Children and Our House on the debut album, Déjà Vu in 1970, sealed their prominence in rock history. Later that year, Young released his third solo album, After the Gold Rush, which featured, his former bandmate from Buffalo Springfield, Stephen Stills.
Neil Young refused to be filmed on stage that day, but played on this performance, with historic footage of the festival in a montage over the recording… WATCH Wooden Ships from Woodstock… (1969)
On this day in 2008 and 2009, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt broke the Olympic all-time record for the 100-meter sprint with a time of 9.69s, and then the world record at the Berlin World Athletics Championships of 9.58s. On August 5th in 2012, Usain Bolt broke his own Olympic record during the 100-meter sprint in London; which was a shame it couldn’t also fall on August 16th.
A large controversy and interest was spawned in the wake of Bolt’s record-breaking sprint in 2008, as he slowed down when it became clear he was going to win, holding his arms out to his sides. As well as drawing criticism from officials believing it to be disrespectful showboating, it drew considerable interest from scientists who went about drafting analyses and studies on the potential time that Bolt could have set if he hadn’t slowed down.
Hans Eriksen and his colleagues Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics at the University of Oslo, predicted a sub 9.60s time. Considering factors such as Bolt’s position, acceleration, and velocity in comparison with second-place-finisher Thompson, the team estimated that Bolt could have finished in 9.55±0.04 s.
Bolt proved those calculations spectacularly correct the following year in Berlin, where he set the record which still stands today, a sub 9.60 time of 9.58 seconds.
On the last day of the Berlin Championships, the Governing Mayor of Berlin, Klaus Wowereit, presented Bolt with a 12-foot high section of the Berlin Wall in a small ceremony, saying Bolt had shown that “one can tear down walls that had been considered as insurmountable.” The nearly three-ton segment was delivered to the Jamaica Military Museum in Kingston. WATCH the sprint below…
98 years ago today, the Migratory Bird Treaty was signed between the U.S. and Canada. It read that the King of England and the United States “being desirous of saving from indiscriminate slaughter and of insuring the preservation of such migratory birds as are either useful to man or are harmless, have resolved to adopt some uniform system of protection which shall effectively accomplish such object.” It has been expanded to more or less include Mexico, Japan, and Russia, and protects over 800 species.
Both countries similarly expanded their versions of the treaty in later decades to include measures to protect tracks of land as migratory bird sanctuaries, the first of which were Bird Rocks and Bonaventure Island & Percé Rock sanctuaries, both established in 1919, in Quebec. This was paired in the U.S. with the National Wildlife Refuge system, one of the finest examples of public land management on Earth. (1916)
Other Notable Birthdays: James Cameron, Director of Titanic, Aliens, Avatar, and The Terminator series (66); Timothy Hutton, Actor–Ordinary People (62); Steve Carell, Actor and comedian–The Office (60)
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