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Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
Timeline of Events
1616
10.25.1616
Dutch sea-captain Dirk Hartog makes second recorded landfall by a European on Australian soil, at the later-named Dirk Hartog Island off the Western Australian coast.
1770
4.19.1770
Captain James Cook sights the eastern coast of Australia.
4.29.1770
James Cook arrives at and names Botany Bay, Australia.
8.21.1770
James Cook formally claims eastern Australia for Great Britain, naming it New South Wales.
8.22.1770
James Cook's expedition lands on the east coast of Australia.
1787
5.13.1787
Captain Arthur Phillip leaves Portsmouth, England, with eleven ships full of convicts (the "First Fleet") to establish a penal colony in Australia.
1788
1.18.1788
The first elements of the First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England to Australia arrives at Botany Bay.
1808
1.26.1808
Rum Rebellion, the only successful (albeit short-lived) armed takeover of the government in Australia.
1813
5.11.1813
In Australia, William Lawson, Gregory Blaxland and William Wentworth lead an expedition westwards from Sydney. Their route opens up inland Australia for continued expansion throughout the 19th century.
5.31.1813
In Australia, Lawson, Blaxland and Wentworth, reached Mount Blaxland, effectively marking the end of a route across the Blue Mountains.
1829
5.2.1829
After anchoring nearby, Captain Charles Fremantle of the HMS ''Challenger'', declares the Swan River Colony in Australia.
1834
3.18.1834
Six farm labourers from Tolpuddle, Dorset, England are sentenced to be transported to Australia for forming a trade union.
1835
8.30.1835
Melbourne, Australia is founded.
1838
6.10.1838
Myall Creek Massacre in Australia: 28 Aboriginal Australians are murdered.
1852
10.11.1852
The University of Sydney, Australia's oldest university, is inaugurated in Sydney.
1854
12.3.1854
Eureka Stockade: In what is claimed by many to be the birth of Australian democracy, more than 20 gold miners at Ballarat, Victoria, Australia are killed by state troopers in an uprising over mining licences.
1859
6.6.1859
Australia: Queensland is established as a separate colony from New South Wales (Queensland Day).
1861
5.13.1861
The Great Comet of 1861 is discovered by John Tebbutt of Windsor, New South Wales, Australia.
1865
7.31.1865
The first narrow gauge mainline railway in the world opens at Grandchester, Australia.
1869
11.11.1869
The Victorian Aboriginal Protection Act is enacted in Australia, giving the government control of indigenous people's wages, their terms of employment, where they could live, and of their children, effectively leading to the Stolen Generations.
1877
5.17.1877
The Victorian Football League of Australia is founded.
1887
1.21.1887
Convert 465 of rain falls in Brisbane, a record for any Australian capital city.
1892
6.11.1892
The Limelight Department, one of the world's first film studios, is officially established in Melbourne, Australia.
1899
1.22.1899
Leaders of six Australian colonies meet in Melbourne to discuss confederation.
2.2.1899
The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.
2.2.1899
The Australian Premiers' Conference held in Melbourne decides to locate Australia's capital city, Canberra, between Sydney and Melbourne.
1900
12.18.1900
The Upper Ferntree Gully to Gembrook Narrow-gauge (2 ft 6 in or 762 mm) Railway (now the Puffing Billy Railway) in Victoria, Australia is opened for traffic.
1901
1.1.1901
The British colonies of New South Wales, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, Tasmania and Western Australia federate as the Commonwealth of Australia; Edmund Barton is appointed the first Prime Minister.
5.9.1901
Australia opens its first parliament in Melbourne.
1903
1.9.1903
Hallam Tennyson, 2nd Baron Tennyson, son of the famous poet Alfred Tennyson, becomes the second Governor-General of Australia.
1909
6.15.1909
Representatives from England, Australia and South Africa meet at Lord's and form the Imperial Cricket Conference.
1913
3.12.1913
Canberra Day: The future capital of Australia is officially named Canberra. (Melbourne remained temporary capital until 1927 while the new capital was still under construction.)
1914
9.11.1914
Australia invades New Britain, defeating a German contingent at the Battle of Bita Paka.
12.23.1914
World War I: Australian and New Zealand troops arrive in Cairo, Egypt.
1915
12.20.1915
World War I: Last Australian troops evacuated from Gallipoli.
1918
12.17.1918
Culmination of the Darwin Rebellion as some 1000 demonstrators march on Government House in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia.
1923
10.31.1923
The first of 160 consecutive days of 100 degrees at Marble Bar, Australia.
1930
5.24.1930
Amy Johnson lands in Darwin, Northern Territory, becoming the first woman to fly solo from England to Australia (she left on May 5 for the 11,000 mile flight).
1931
1.7.1931
Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight (from Australia to New Zealand) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.
1.22.1931
Sir Isaac Isaacs is sworn in as the first Australian-born Governor-General of Australia.