Portal:Australia/Anniversaries/May

These are the selected anniversaries for May that appear on the Australia portal. The "edit" links edit the portal subpages that are displayed as sections here.

May 1

1770 – Having died of tuberculosis on April 30, Forby Sutherland is buried at Kurnell, New South Wales, becoming the first British subject buried in Australia.
1802 – Explorer Matthew Flinders becomes the first European to climb the You Yangs, a series of granite ridges above the Werribee Plain in Victoria.
1891 – The first May Day marches in Australia are held at Barcaldine, Queensland, in support of a shearers' strike.
1946 – The Pilbara strike commences with 800 Aboriginal pastoral workers walking off stations in the Pilbara and Kimberley regions of Western Australia.
1997 – HM Prison Pentridge (entrance gates pictured) in Coburg, Victoria, the site of the last execution in Australia, closes after 145 years of operation.

Edit May 1 anniversaries • May 1 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 2

1829 – Captain Charles Fremantle claims the entire west coast of Australia in the name of George IV of the United Kingdom, establishing the Swan River Colony.
1964 – At the 1964 Tasmanian state election, the incumbent Australian Labor Party under Premier Eric Reece maintains its position, winning 19 out of the 35 seats available.
1980 – New Zealand-born cricketer Clarrie Grimmett, an inaugural inductee of the Australian Cricket Hall of Fame, dies in Adelaide, South Australia.
1997 – Neurophysiologist Sir John Eccles (pictured), the winner of the 1963 Nobel Prize for Medicine, dies at his home in Tenero-Contra, Switzerland.
2005 – Construction engineer Douglas Wood is kidnapped in Baghdad, Iraq.

Edit May 2 anniversaries • May 2 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 3

1804 – In the Australian frontier wars, Aborigines attack the newly-established settlement at Risdon Cove, in what is now Tasmania.
1820 – John Joseph Therry and Philip Conolly, the first appointed Roman Catholic priests in Australia, arrive in Sydney, New South Wales.
1840 – New Zealand is officially proclaimed a separate colony from New South Wales.
1970 – Queen Elizabeth II opens a new international passenger terminal at Sydney Airport (pictured), in Mascot, New South Wales.
2010 – Merv McIntosh, a three-time winner of the Sandover Medal as the best player in the West Australian Football League (WAFL), dies in Perth, Western Australia, at the age of 87.

Edit May 3 anniversaries • May 3 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 4

1826 – English-born bushranger Matthew Brady and cannibal Thomas Jeffries are hanged at the Campbell Street Gaol in Hobart, Van Diemen's Land.
1912 – The play On Our Selection, written by Bert Bailey and Edmund Duggan and based on the work of Steele Rudd (pictured), is first performed in Sydney, New South Wales.
1942 – The five-day Battle of the Coral Sea, fought between the Imperial Japanese Navy and Allied naval and air forces, commences in the Coral Sea, between Australia and the Solomon Islands.
1960 – Comedian and television presenter Andrew Denton is born in Sydney, New South Wales.
1986 – The four-day Australian Anarchist Centenary Celebrations, commemorating the foundation of the Melbourne Anarchist Club, conclude in Melbourne, Victoria.

Edit May 4 anniversaries • May 4 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 5

1865 – Bushranger Ben Hall is ambushed and shot dead by police near Goobang Creek, New South Wales.
1882 – Geologist and explorer Sir Douglas Mawson is born in Shipley, England.
1906 – The first electric trams begin operations in Melbourne, with the opening of a service from St Kilda to Brighton.
1947 – Sixteen people are killed and 38 injured when a crowded picnic train derails (wreckage pictured) near Camp Mountain, Queensland.
1998 – Four Royal Australian Navy sailors die from carbon monoxide poisoning after a fire aboard HMAS Westralia.

Edit May 5 anniversaries • May 5 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 6

1839 – Explorer John Batman, one of the key figures in the foundation of Melbourne, dies in Melbourne at the age of 38.
1917 – Irish-born Daniel Mannix becomes the Catholic Archbishop of Melbourne, Victoria, succeeding the deceased Thomas Carr.
1910 – George V (pictured), becomes King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, including Australia, after the death of his father, Edward VII, in London.
1950 – The Australian Labor Party, under Premier Robert Cosgrove, maintains its incumbency at the 1950 state elections in Tasmania.
2006 – Singer Grant McLennan, one of the founders of the indie rock band The Go-Betweens, dies of a heart attack in Brisbane, Queensland, at the age of 48.

Edit May 6 anniversaries • May 6 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 7

1815 – Governor Lachlan Macquarie selects the site of the town of Bathurst, New South Wales.
1908 – Australia's first coat of arms (pictured) is granted by King Edward VII.
1931 – Members of the Nationalist Party and the Australian Party merge to form the United Australia Party, the predecessor of the current Liberal Party.
1942 – During the Battle of the Coral Sea, carrier forces from the Imperial Japanese Navy and the United States Navy exchange airstrikes in the Coral Sea, located between Australia and the Solomon Islands.
1969 – Athlete Russell Short, the winner of six gold medals at the Summer Paralympic Games, is born in Poowong, Victoria.

Edit May 7 anniversaries • May 7 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 8

Lachlan Macquarie, 5th Governor of New South Wales

1809 – Lachlan Macquarie (pictured) is appointed to replace William Bligh Governor of New South Wales, with William Patterson governing until Macquarie's arrival in the colony.
1948 – Margaret McIntyre, the first female member of the Parliament of Tasmania, assumes the seat of Cornwall in the Legislative Council.
1963 – Anthony Field, a founder of The Wiggles, is born in Kellyville, New South Wales.
1970 – An estimated 100,000 people participate in protests against Australia's involvement in the Vietnam War,
1972 – Darren Hayes, the frontman of the pop duo Savage Garden, is born in Brisbane.
2011 – Lionel Rose, a WBC bantamweight world champion boxer and the 1968 Australian of the Year, dies in Warragul, Victoria, aged 62.

Edit May 8 anniversaries • May 8 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 9

1900 – The Sierra Nevada is wrecked off Portsea, Victoria; 23 lives are lost.
1901 – The first Parliament of Australia opened in the Royal Exhibition Building in Melbourne.
1927 – The federal government moved to Canberra from Melbourne with the opening of the Provisional Parliament House.
1980 – Swimmer Grant Hackett is born.
1985 – Melbourne criminal Christopher Dale Flannery disappears without trace, presumed murdered.
1988 – New Parliament House is opened on Capital Hill by Queen Elizabeth II.
1991 – Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody is released.

Edit May 9 anniversaries • May 9 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 10

AK-47 assault rifle

1824 – Opening of Supreme Court in Tasmania.
1972 – Homosexual Law Professor George Duncan "drowns" in the Torrens River, Adelaide.
1996 – Prime Minister John Howard announces gun controls in the wake of the Port Arthur massacre.
1996 – Floods in southern Queensland & northern New South Wales kill 5 people & causes more than AUD$55 million in farm losses

Edit May 10 anniversaries • May 10 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 11

1938 – Two jockeys are killed in a racing incident at Morphettville Racecourse.
1982 – The High Court upholds the Racial Discrimination Act 1975 in Koowarta v Bjelke-Petersen.
1989 – Rosemary Follett became the first Chief Minister of the Australian Capital Territory and the first female leader of any Australian state or territory.

Edit May 11 anniversaries • May 11 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 12

1865 – Bushranger John Gilbert shot dead near Binalong, New South Wales.
1997 – Susie Maroney become the first person to swim the Florida Straits from Cuba to the United States.
2003 – Governor General Peter Hollingworth stands down following accusations that he had attempted to cover up several instances of sexual abuse in the early 1990s during his tenure as Archbishop of Brisbane.

Edit May 12 anniversaries • May 12 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 13

1787 – The First Fleet leaves Portsmouth, England, for New South Wales, with the intention of establishing the first European settlement in Australia.
1861 – John Tebbutt, of Windsor, New South Wales, discovers what would become known as the "Great Comet of 1861".
1932 – Sir Philip Game, the Governor of New South Wales, dismisses the Labor Party government of Jack Lang (pictured), the Premier of New South Wales.
1962 – Paul McDermott, the comedian, performer, and television host, is born in Adelaide.
1965 – Following the 1965 state election, Bob Askin is sworn in as Premier of New South Wales, leading for the first time a coalition of the Liberal Party and the Country Party.
2012 – A resident of Old South Head Road, Sydney, Don Ritchie, who successfully intervened in at least 160 suicide attempts at The Gap, dies aged 86.

Edit May 13 anniversaries • May 13 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 14

1798 – HMS Nautilus arrives in Sydney, carrying missionaries from the London Missionary Society.
1829 – Aboriginal mission on Bruny Island opened by George Augustus Robinson.
1859 – The Melbourne Football Club, Australia's oldest football club is founded.
1943 – Hospital ship AHS Centaur is sunk by Japanese torpedoes off the coast of Stradbroke Island during World War II, 64 of the 332 armed services personnel on board survived.
1969 – Actress Cate Blanchett is born.
1984 – The one dollar coin is introduced in Australia.
2004 – Hobart woman Mary Donaldson marries Frederick, Crown Prince of Denmark in Copenhagen to become Mary, Crown Princess of Denmark.

Edit May 14 anniversaries • May 14 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 15

Bond University

1982 – In the middle of the Franklin Dam dispute, the Labor government of Harry Holgate is voted out in Tasmania and replaced by the Liberal Party, led by Robin Gray.
1989 – Bond University, the first private university in Australia, opens.

Edit May 15 anniversaries • May 15 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 16

1954 – World champion boxer Jimmy Carruthers retires, undefeated.
1956 – The first post-war British nuclear tests begin in Australia, with Operation Mosaic at Monte Bello Islands, Western Australia.
1983 – NSW Premier Neville Wran steps aside in response to allegations raised by ABC TV program Four Corners that he attempted to influence the NSW Magistracy.

Edit May 16 anniversaries • May 16 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 17

1824 – The Supreme Court of New South Wales is created by Letters Patent.
1928 – The Royal Flying Doctor Service of Australia makes its first official flight from Cloncurry to Julia Creek.
1996 – Bob Bellear is appointed to the District Court of New South Wales, becoming the first Indigenous Australian judge.

Edit May 17 anniversaries • May 17 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 18

Ronald Munro-Ferguson, 1st Viscount Novar

1914 - Ronald Munro-Ferguson, 1st Viscount Novar is appointed the sixth Governor General of Australia.
1974 - John Howard enters Parliament as an Opposition backbencher for the electorate of Bennelong.

Edit May 18 anniversaries • May 18 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 19

1861 – Dame Nellie Melba is born in Richmond, Victoria, Victoria
1942 – The prototype CAC Boomerang, an Australian designed and built fighter aircraft, takes to the air for the first time.
1948 – Federal government announced that Australian rail gauges would be standardised by 1951.
1950 – Cabinet agrees to send forces to aid the British during the Malayan Emergency.
2002 – 19th Prime Minister of Australia, John Gorton, dies aged 90 .

Edit May 19 anniversaries • May 19 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 20

1941 – The Battle of Crete, involving the Australian 6th Division, begins.
1997 – A Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission report calls for an apology for an early government policy of removing Aboriginal children from their parents and placing them in institutions.

Edit May 20 anniversaries • May 20 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 21

1912 – The steamship SS Koombana sinks off Port Hedland during a cyclone killing the 126 passengers.
1962 - The Commonwealth Electoral Act 1962 received assent, granting all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the option to enrol and vote in federal elections.
1972 – Hungarian-born Australian Lazlo Toth attacked Michelangelo's Pietà with a hammer.
1975 – Rugby league footballer and boxer Anthony Mundine is born.
1999 – Eight decaying bodies are found in barrels in a disused bank vault north of Adelaide, marking the beginning of the Snowtown murders case.

Edit May 21 anniversaries • May 21 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 22

1856 – First Parliament of New South Wales opened by the governor, Sir William Denison.
1901 – The foundation stone for St John's Cathedral, Brisbane was laid by the Duke of Cornwall and York, the church celebrated 100 years of construction in 2006, and is only gothic-style stone building under construction anywhere in the world.
1998 – Murray Gleeson is appointed as the eleventh Chief Justice of Australia.

Edit May 22 anniversaries • May 22 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 23

1889 – Louisa Lawson founded the Dawn Club, which became the hub of the women's suffrage movement in Sydney.
1892 – Frederick Deeming hanged at Melbourne Gaol having been unsuccessfully defended by the lawyer Alfred Deakin. Deeming was accused of committing a series of crimes on three continents—theft, perjury, fraud, bigamy and murder; he used at least 20 aliases.
1912 – Walter Burley Griffin's design for Canberra selected as the winner.
1944 – Birth of John Newcombe, Australian tennis player.
1994 – Police arrest Belanglo State Forest serial killer Ivan Milat at his New South Wales home. Milat is later sentenced to life imprisonment.

Edit May 23 anniversaries • May 23 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 24

1805 – William Bligh is appointed the fourth Governor of New South Wales, he arrives at Port Jackson to replace King on August 6, 1806.
1870 – Port Adelaide Football Club play their first match.
1905 – Empire Day is first celebrated in Australia.
1917 – Australian boxer Les Darcy dies in the United States.
1960 – The Parliament of Victoria authorised Totalizator Agency Boards with the intention to stamp out starting price (SP) betting.
1969 – Keith Payne is the last Australian soldier awarded a Victoria Cross for bravery during the Vietnam War.
2006 – Author Geraldine Brooks wins the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.

Edit May 24 anniversaries • May 24 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 25

1870 – Bushranger Captain Thunderbolt is shot and killed near Uralla by Constable Alexander Walker during a highway robbery.
1930 – Amy Johnson arrives in Darwin, completing the first solo flight by a woman from England to Australia.
1991 – The state election in New South Wales produces a hung parliament. Nick Greiner manages to form a minority government with the support of four Independent MPs.
2005 – Entertainer and Gold Logie winner, Graham Kennedy dies.

Edit May 25 anniversaries • May 25 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 26

1944 – The acting prime minister, Frank Forde announced Australia's intention of embarking on an active postwar immigration policy.
1971 – Qantas subject to an extortion hoax.
1998 – The first National Sorry Day protest held.
2005 – National Sorry Day renamed National Day of Healing

Edit May 26 anniversaries • May 26 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 27

1801 – The French cartographic expedition of Nicolas Baudin sighted Cape Leeuwin.
1967 – Australia holds a referendum approving two amendments to the Australian Constitution relating to Indigenous Australians.
2005 – Schapelle Corby convicted of drug smuggling by an Indonesian court and sentenced to 20 years in gaol, later reduced to 15 and then reverted to 20 years.

Edit May 27 anniversaries • May 27 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 28

1851 – The arrival of two convict ships, the Lady Kenneway with 249 male prisoners and Blackfriars with 260 female prisoners, further turns Tasmanian sentiment against transportation.
1968 – Singer and actress, Kylie Minogue is born.

Edit May 28 anniversaries • May 28 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 29

1788 – Two convicts are killed by Aboriginals at Rushcutter's Bay.
1904 – Cyclist and politician Hubert Opperman is born in the town of Rochester, Victoria.
1956 – Frank Beaurepaire, swimming world record holder, businessman, and former Lord Mayor of Melbourne, dies aged 65.
1975 – The Family Court of Australia is established.
2003 – A hijack attempt on Qantas Flight 1737 between Melbourne and Launceston is thwarted by a flight attendant and passengers.

Edit May 29 anniversaries • May 29 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 30

1911 – The Supreme Court of the Northern Territory is established.
1923 – Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom sign an agreement to share the administration of former German colony Nauru.
1925 – Millicent Preston-Stanley becomes the first woman member of the New South Wales Legislative Assembly.
1928 – Pro Hart born in Broken Hill, New South Wales.
1988 – Expo '88 begins in Brisbane, 18 million visits are made in the six months it is open.
1989 – Ananda Marga member Tim Anderson is arrested on charges related to the 1978 Hilton bombing.
1991 – A television report reveals that Bob Hawke made a secret agreement to hand over the ALP leadership to Paul Keating in 1988.

Edit May 30 anniversaries • May 30 anniversaries on English Wikipedia

May 31

1813 – Gregory Blaxland, William Lawson, and William Wentworth arrive at Mount Blaxland, and having successfully crossed the Blue Mountains for the first time, head back to Sydney.
1886 – The SS Ly-Ee-Moon sinks off Green Cape, New South Wales, with the loss of 71 persons.
1942 – During the Attack on Sydney Harbour, a Japanese midget submarine sinks the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul, killing 21.

Edit May 31 anniversaries • May 31 anniversaries on English Wikipedia