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| On this day - 1964 (water speed record) & 1999 (Millennium celebrations); December 31st | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: 31 Dec 2015, 08:06 AM (268 Views) | |
| daib0 | 31 Dec 2015, 08:06 AM Post #1 |
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Thursday, December 31, 1964. : Donald Campbell breaks the world water speed record Donald Malcolm Campbell was born on 23 March 1921 in Horley, Surrey, England. He became the only person to ever break both the world land speed and water speed records in the same year. He broke the land speed record in July 1964 on a Lake Eyre salt flat in northern South Australia, with a speed of 648.72 km per hour. Campbell set seven world water-speed records between 1955 and 1964. The first was at Lake Ullswater on 23 July 1955, where he set a record of 325 km per hour. He continued to break records until the culmination of his attempts, on 31 December 1964 at Dumbleyung Lake, Western Australia, when he reached 444.71 km per hour in his jet-powered boat, Bluebird. Prior to this, he had attempted to break the record at several other locations around Australia, including Lake Bonney, South Australia, where the weather had proved too unpredictable. Campbell's initial attempt at Lake Dumbleyung was thwarted by wild ducks which could not fly away because they were moulting. Winds then whipped up 61cm waves on the lake, preventing any attempt from being made. Campbell was about to move to another lake south of Perth when the weather suddenly calmed, allowing the attempt to be made at Dumbleyung. Campbell was killed three years later while attempting to break his record yet again, this time on Lake Coniston, Cumbria. Just before his Bluebird K7 broke the record, travelling at more than 483 km per hour, the boat's nose lifted and it was catapulted 15m into the air. Campbell was killed instantly as the boat hit the water and disintegrated. His body was not recovered from the wreckage at the bottom of the lake for another 34 years. ![]() --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Friday, December 31, 1999. : Millennium celebrations were held around the world A millennium is a period of one thousand years. Because the Western calendar lacks a year numbered zero and begins instead with the year 1, there are two main viewpoints about naming millennia: whether each one begins on the year ending in '000' (e.g. the years 1000 and 2000) or whether the new millennium commences with the year ending in 001 (e.g. 1001, 2001). Australian Prime Minister John Howard made a point in favour of celebrating the millennium at the end of 2001, and was named "the party pooper of the century" by local newspapers. Regardless of the semantic debate, the majority of millennium celebrations around the world were held on the evening of 31 December 1999. Celebrations began at 1000 GMT as the Chatham Islands, Tonga, Fiji and Kiribati experienced the new millennium first. The millennium arrived last of all in Samoa, 25 hours after arriving in Greenwich. Some people thought that computers would stop working at midnight! ![]() |
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| daib0 | 31 Dec 2015, 08:15 AM Post #2 |
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Inter-Forum Gamemaster!
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Other recent events in history on this day 1999 Russia Boris Yeltsin December 31st , 1999 : Boris Yeltsin resigns as Russian president, Vladimir Putin will take over as acting president 1967 U.S.A. Evel Knievel Dec. 31st , 1967 : Evel Knievel fails in his attempt to jump the fountains at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, Nevada. resulting in concussion that kept him lying in a coma for 29 days with a crushed pelvis and femur, fractures to his hip, wrist and both ankles. 1942 Great Britain Churchill Meets Stalin Dec. 31st , 1942 : Winston Churchill took a plane to Moscow to meet with communist leader Josef Stalin. 1923 Great Britain In London, the BBC first broadcast the chimes of Big Ben. 1900 U.S.A. Indian Lands December 31st , 1900 : Indian Chief, Pac-kee-ka-ma-que, charged that Indian affairs agent H.M. Robek with corruption and theft. Apparently, the tribes had bought 3,000 acres of land with their own money and wanted $50,000 in compensation from the U.S. government. Further back 1862 - U.S. President Lincoln signed an act admitting West Virginia to the Union. 1857 - Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada. 1775 - The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed in the battle. 1711 - The Duke of Marlborough was dismissed as commander-in-chief. 1695 - The window tax was imposed in Britain, which resulted in many windows being bricked up. 1687 - The first Huguenots set sail from France for the Cape of Good Hope, where they would later create the South African wine industry with the vines they took with them on the voyage. |
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