Australian History Timeline (Part 2)

Events 201 - 400 of 594

• 1942-03-17 US General Douglas MacArthur arrives in Australia to become supreme commander
• 1942-05-04 Battle of Coral Sea begins (1st naval battle fought solely in air) between Japanese, US and Australian navies and air forces
• 1942-10-09 Statute of Westminster 1931 passed by the Australian parliament, formalises Australian autonomy
• 1942-10-26 Fourth day of battle at El Alamein: Australian breakthrough
• 1942-10-27 5th day of battle at El Alamein: heavy battles/Australian advance
• 1942-10-30 8th day of battle at El Alamein: new Australian assault
• 1942-11-23 Japanese bombing of Port Darwin, Australia
• 1942-12-11 Australian Dutch guerrilla troops evacuated to Timor near Australia
• 1943-02-06 1st Spitfire in action above Darwin, Australia, Mu Ki-46 shot down
• 1943-03-03 Battle of the Bismarck Sea: Australian and American air forces devastate Japanese navy convoy
• 1943-05-14 Australian Hospital Ship Centaur sinks off the coast of Queensland after being struck by torpedo fired by Japanese submarine; 268 of 332 medical personnel and civilian crew aboard die
• 1943-09-11 US & Australian troops join in Salamaua, New Guinea
• 1945-05-01 Australian and Dutch troops land on Tarakan, off the coast of Borneo
• 1945-06-09 -10] Australian troops land in Brunei Bay, North Borneo
• 1945-08-08 England & Australian Services draw 4th Victory Test

• 1945-11-13 Australian Services draw 1st Victory Test against India
• 1946-05-01 Start of the three-year Pilbara strike by indigenous Aboriginals in Western Australia for better wages and conditions [1]
• 1947-07-22 -8°F (-13°C), Charlotte Pass, NSW (Australian record)
• 1947-11-01 UN trusteeship for Nauru granted to Australia, NZ & UK
• 1947-12-26 British transfer Heard & McDonald Islands (Indian Ocean) to Australia
• 1948-05-15 Australia scores 721 runs in one day v Essex, world record
• 1948-07-27 Australia set 404 to win v England at Headingley
• 1949-01-26 Australia's Nationality and Citizenship Act 1948 comes into force granting Australian citizenship and nationality to all people born or naturalised in Australia including First Nations people
• 1950-06-08 Sir Thomas Blamey becomes the only Field Marshal in Australian history.
• 1951-09-01 US, Australia and New Zealand sign the ANZUS mutual defense treaty
• 1951-09-02 Australia, NZ & US sign ANZUS-pact

• 1952-10-03 1st British nuclear test during Operation Hurricane at Monte Bello Island, Australia, UK becomes the world's third nuclear nation
• 1953-10-14 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Emu Field, Australia
• 1953-10-26 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Emu Field, Australia
• 1954-03-08 Herb McKinley sets quarter mile record of 0:46.8 in Melbourne, Australia
• 1954-04-24 Australia & USSR break diplomatic relations
• 1955-05-19 Atkinson & Depeiaza make 347 stand for 7th wkt WI v Australia
• 1955-06-15 Australia score 8-758 v West Indies at Kingston, their best ever
• 1955-11-03 Australia takes control of Cocos Islands
• 1955-11-23 Britain transfers the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean to Australia
• 1956-05-16 Great Britain performs nuclear Test at Monte Bello Is Australia
• 1956-09-10 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
• 1956-09-27 Great Britain commences 'Operation Buffalo' testing four nuclear fission bombs at Maralinga, South Australia
• 1956-10-04 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga Australia
• 1956-10-11 1st Pakistan v Australia Test 95 runs scored on 1st day
• 1956-10-11 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
• 1956-10-17 Pakistan defeat Australia by nine wickets at 1st attempt
• 1956-10-22 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
• 1957-09-14 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
• 1957-09-25 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga, Australia
• 1957-10-09 Great Britain performs nuclear test at Maralinga Australia
• 1958-10-01 Britain transfers Christmas Island (south of Java) to Australia
• 1959-01-30 Australia 1-200 1st day 4th Test v England, Adelaide Oval
• 1959-03-17 Australia & USSR restore diplomatic relations
• 1959-04-21 Alf Dean using a rod & reel hooks a 2,664lb, 16' 10" great white shark off the coast of Ceduna, Australia
• 1959-09-23 Australia's first passenger roll on/roll off diesel ferry, the MS Princess of Tasmania makes her maiden voyage across Bass Strait
• 1960-01-14 The Reserve Bank of Australia is established
• 1961-07-08 Fred Trueman takes 5-0 in 24 balls to rip through Aussies
• 1962-09-28 Paddington tram depot fire destroys 65 trams in Brisbane, Australia.
• 1962-11-22 7th British Empire Games and Commonwealth Games open in Perth, Australia
• 1963-01-12 Spin bowler Bobby Simpson takes 5-57 for Australia v England
• 1963-09-18 USSR orders 58.5 million barrels of cereal from Australia
• 1964-02-10 Australian destroyer HMAS Voyager sinks after colliding with aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne, killing 82
• 1964-07-28 England all out 611 in reply to Australia's 8-656 Match a draw
• 1964-10-26 Eric Edgar Cooke becomes last person in Western Australia to be executed.
• 1965-04-29 Australian government announces it would send troops to Vietnam
• 1965-07-14 Australian Ronald Clarke runs world record 10k (27:39.4)
• 1965-11-08 Vietnam War: US, Australian and New Zealand forces launch Operation Hump, a search-and-destroy operation near Bien Hoa in South Vietnam
• 1966-01-26 The Beaumont Children go missing from Glenelg Beach near Adelaide, South Australia.
• 1966-02-14 Australian currency is decimalised, and decimal currency postage stamps introduced
• 1966-10-15 Australia bans Troggs' "I Can't Control Myself" as "terribly obscene"
• 1966-10-23 Australian Jack Brabham is first to win F1 World Drivers Championship and International Cup for Constructors Championship in the same year; 2nd in season ending Mexican Grand Prix at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez
• 1967-02-03 Ronald Ryan, the last person to be executed in Australia, is hanged in Pentridge Prison, Melbourne
• 1967-05-27 Australians vote in favor of a constitutional referendum granting the Australian government the power to make laws to benefit Indigenous Australians and count them in the national census
• 1967-05-29 Australian Paul McManus water skis barefoot for 1:30:19
• 1967-12-17 Harold Holt, Prime Minister of Australia, vanishes in mysterious circumstances while swimming near Melbourne
• 1967-12-19 Prime Minister of Australia Harold Holt is officially presumed dead (after being swept out to sea swimming two days earlier)
• 1968-01-24 Operation Coburg begins, an Australian and New Zealand military action during the Vietnam War
• 1968-01-31 Nauru (formerly Pleasant Island) declares independence from Australia
• 1968-06-24 Australia all out for 78 v England at Lord's
• 1968-10-14 6.8 earthquake wrecks Australian town of Meckering, rupturing all nearby major roads and railways

• 1969-01-29 Sheahan & Connolly hang on for exciting draw Australia v West Indies
• 1969-06-02 Australian aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne slices US destroyer USS Frank E Evans in half, killing 74 (South Vietnam)
• 1969-12-14 Bishen Bedi takes 7-98 (career-best) v Australia at Calcutta
• 1970-01-23 Australia's 1st amateur radio satellite (Oscar 5) launched (California)
• 1970-03-10 South Africa cricket team complete 4-0 series drubbing of Australia in South Africa, in the country's last official international cricket test for 22 years
• 1970-04-21 The Principality of Hutt River (previously Hutt River Province) secedes from Australia - it remains unrecognised by Australia or other nations
• 1970-12-11 Start of the 1st Test match at the WACA, Australia v England
• 1971-01-05 1st one-day international, Australia v England at the MCG

• 1971-10-02 Homing pigeon averages a record 133kph in an 1100km race in Australia
• 1972-01-26 Aboriginal Tent Embassy protest for land rights begins on the lawn of Parliament House, Canberra, Australia. Longest continuous protest for indigenous rights in the world.
• 1972-08-24 Dennis Amiss scores 1st one-day int century, 103 v Australia
• 1972-12-05 Australia Labour party wins parliamentary election
• 1973-12-01 Australia grants self-government to Papua New Guinea
• 1974-09-27 Australian National Gallery buys W de Kooning's "Woman V" for $850,000
• 1974-12-25 Cyclone Tracy virtually destroys Darwin, Australia
• 1975-01-19 Triple J begins broadcasting in Sydney, Australia.
• 1975-03-01 Colour television transmissions begin in Australia.
• 1975-09-16 Papua New Guinea gains independence from Australia (National Day)
• 1975-11-11 Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam removed from office by Governor General Sir John Kerr - 1st elected PM removed in 200 yrs

• 1975-12-08 Radio station 4ZZZ begins transmitting in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia at 105.7 FM; frequency changes to 102.1 FM in 1978
• 1975-12-13 Australian Federal Election - Liberals with coalition under Malcolm Fraser win largest ever parliamentary majority
• 1976-02-05 Australia complete 5-1 series drubbing of West Indies
• 1976-05-19 Gold ownership legalized in Australia
• 1977-01-18 Australia's worst rail disaster occurs in Sydney, killing 83 people
• 1977-12-17 Bobby Simpson scores 176 Australia v India at the WACA, aged 41
• 1978-02-03 Australia beat India 3-2 on 6th day of final test, after India are all out for 445 chasing 493 to win
• 1978-07-01 Northern Territory of Australia becomes self-governing
• 1978-10-08 Ken Warby sets world water speed record at 275.97 knots (511.10 km/h; 317.58 mph) on Blowering Dam, Tumut River NSW, Australia
• 1978-10-21 Australian civilian pilot Frederick Valentich vanishes in a Cessna 182 over the Bass Strait south of Melbourne, after reporting contact with an unidentified aircraft.
• 1979-02-15 Paul Shirley (21) of Australia, sucked a lifesaver for 4 hrs 40 mins
• 1979-03-15 Sarfraz takes 9-86 at MCG as Australia lose 7-5 to lose the Test

• 1979-07-11 US Skylab enters atmosphere over Australia and disintegrates
• 1980-08-17 Azaria Chamberlain disappears, likely taken by a dingo, leading to what was then the most publicised trial in Australian history
• 1981-01-08 India all out 63 in one-day international v Australia
• 1981-01-26 Sandeep Patil scores memorable 174 v Australia at Adelaide Oval
• 1981-02-11 Australia all out 83 v India at MCG chasing 143 to win
• 1981-07-21 Australia set 130 to win, all out 111 at Headingley Willis 8-43
• 1981-11-14 Pakistan all out 62 v Australia at WACA, Lillee 5-18
• 1982-06-23 Himmy, of Australia, weighs in at domestic cat record 20.7 kg (45 lb)
• 1982-09-20 Jalaluddin takes a one-day hat-trick Pakistan v Australia
• 1982-09-30 12th Commonwealth Games open in Brisbane, Australia
• 1983-02-16 The Ash Wednesday bushfires in Victoria and South Australia claim the lives of 75 people in one of Australia's worst ever fires

• 1983-09-26 Australia II wins America's Cup yacht race - 1st non-US winner
• 1983-10-31 Ron Grant completes a 217 day, 8,316 mile run around Australia
• 1984-02-01 Bob Hawke's Australian Labor government re-instates universal healthcare as Medicare [1]
• 1984-06-08 Homosexuality is declared legal in the state of New South Wales, Australia
• 1984-09-28 1st floodlit ODI outside of Australia (India v Aust, New Delhi)
• 1985-01-02 Leg-spin bowler Bob "Dutchy" Holland takes 4/90 for match figures of 10/144 as Australia beats the West Indies by innings in 5th Test in Sydney; Windies take series, 3-1
• 1985-02-17 1st day/night game at the MCG, Australia v England
• 1985-08-20 Hanspeter Beck of South Australia, finishes a 3,875 mile, 51 day trip from Western Australia to Melbourne on a unicycle
• 1985-10-06 Marita Koch of E Germany sets 400m woman's record (47.6) in Australia
• 1985-10-15 Shelley Taylor of Australia makes fastest swim ever around Manhattan Island, doing it in 6 hours 12 minutes 29 seconds
• 1987-12-30 Australia hang on for draw v New Zealand at MCG, 1 wkt left 17 runs short
• 1988-01-26 Australian 200th anniversary parade of tall ships in Sydney Harbour
• 1988-04-30 World Exposition, Expo 88 opens in Brisbane Australia
• 1988-05-09 Australia's new parliament house is opened by Queen Elizabeth II in Canberra
• 1988-08-22 Australia unveils 1st platinum coin (Koala)
• 1988-12-06 Merv Hughes takes 13 wickets v WI at the WACA but Australia lose
• 1988-12-28 John Tarrant, 1st Australian born Zen teacher, receives Dharma Transmission
• 1988-12-29 Victorian Post Office Museum in Australia closes
• 1989-01-26 Test debut of Mark Taylor, Australia v West Indies, Sydney
• 1989-02-01 The Western Australian towns of Kalgoorlie and Boulder amalgamate to form the City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.
• 1989-02-16 William Hayden becomes Governor-General of Australia
• 1989-08-13 2 hot-air balloons crash at Alice Springs, Australia, 13 killed
• 1989-12-16 Geoff Marsh completes 355* for WA against South Australia
• 1989-12-28 Earthquake at Newcastle Australia, 11 die
• 1990-05-04 Pakistan beat Australia by 36 runs to win Austral-Asia Cup, Sharjah
• 1990-07-01 In Victoria, Australia, helmetless bike riding becomes illegal
• 1991-01-15 Elizabeth II signs letters patent that allows Australia to institute its own Victoria Cross, the first Commonwealth realm to do so
• 1991-04-06 Subhana, becomes 1st Australian woman to become a Zen teacher

• 1992-01-01 Bush is 1st US President to address Australian Parliament
• 1992-06-03 Landmark Australian High Court Mabo Decision: recognizes Torres Strait Islanders ownership of Murray Island, rendering terra nullius a legal fiction
• 1993-01-26 West Indies defeat Australia by one run in 4th Test at Adelaide
• 1993-02-16 Western Australia's and Australia's first woman Premier, Carmen Lawrence, is voted out of office.
• 1993-03-13 Australian Federal elections: Australian Labor Party headed by Paul Keating re-elected for a fifth term
• 1993-05-21 Robin Smith scores 167 in England Texaco Trophy loss v Australia
• 1993-10-06 Sydney Australia Stock Market index above 2000, for 1st time
• 1994-01-07 South Africa beat Australia in the Sydney Test by 5 runs
• 1994-10-02 Pakistan defeat Australia by one wicket in Karachi Test

• 1995-10-03 1st first-class match at Hurstville Oval, Sydney (NSW vs Western Australia)
• 1995-12-10 Muralitharan takes 2-224 in Australian innings of 5-617
• 1996-03-11 John Winston Howard becomes the 25th Prime Minister of Australia. His term in office is the second longest in Australian history, ending December 3, 2007.
• 1996-04-10 Fastest wind speed ever recorded (not a tornado) 408 km/h (220 kn; 253 mph; 113 m/s) during tropical cyclone Olivia on Barrow Island, Australia
• 1996-04-28 In Australia's worst massacre in modern history, Martin Bryant shoots and kills 35 in Port Arthur, Tasmania. Leads to a compulsory gun buy back program and major changes to gun control laws.

• 1997-03-24 Australian parliament overturns world's 1st & only euthanasia law
• 1997-05-01 Tasmania becomes the last state in Australia to decriminalize homosexuality
• 1997-05-12 Australian Susie Maroney becomes first to swim from Cuba to Florida
• 1997-07-30 Eighteen lives are lost in the Thredbo Landslide in New South Wales, Australia
• 1997-09-30 John Howard's Australian government gun buy back scheme ends with more than 640,000 firearms compulsorily acquired, including many newly illegal semi-automatic rifles and shotguns
• 1998-06-01 Australian Susie Maroney becomes first person to swim from Mexico to Cuba across shark and jellyfish-infested waters of the Yucatan Straits; swims 123-miles in 38 hours 33 minutes in a cage
• 1999-01-22 Australian missionary Graham Staines and his two sons are burned alive by radical Hindus while sleeping in their car in Eastern India
• 1999-04-14 A severe hailstorm strikes Sydney, Australia causing A$1.7 billion in insured damages, the most costly natural disaster in Australian history
• 1999-11-06 Australians vote to keep the British monarch as their head of state in the Australian republic referendum.
• 2000-09-11 Activists protest against the World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne, Australia.
• 2001-07-05 Australia and East Timor sign an agreement to share royalties from oil and natural gas production in the Timor Sea, which separates the two countries
• 2001-08-29 Goodwill Games V opens in Brisbane, Australia; this is the final edition of the event
• 2001-09-12 Ansett Australia, Australia's first commercial interstate airline, collapses due to increased strain on the international airline industry leaving 10000 people unemployed.
• 2002-05-14 Ten members of the Darwin-based Network Against Prohibition invade the Legislative Assembly of the Northern Territory of Australia.
• 2003-01-18 A bushfire kills 4 people and destroys more than 500 homes in Canberra, Australia.
• 2003-05-28 Peter Hollingworth becomes the first Governor-General of Australia to resign his office as a result of criticism of his conduct
• 2004-09-09 Bomb explodes outside the Australian embassy in Jakarta, killing 10 people
• 2005-12-11 Cronulla riots: thousands of white Australians demonstrate against ethnic violence, resulting in a riot against anyone thought to be Lebanese (and many who were not) in Cronulla Sydney. These are followed by ethnic attacks on Cronulla.
• 2006-01-01 Sydney, Australia swelters through its hottest New Year's Day then on record with the temperature peaking at 45 degrees celsius, sparking bush fires and power outages
• 2006-03-15 18th Commonwealth Games open in Melbourne, Australia
• 2006-03-20 Cyclone Larry makes landfall in eastern Australia, destroying most of the country's banana crop.
• 2006-12-22 Australian archaeologist Sue O'Connor finds first evidence of modern humans in Jerimalai cave, near Lene Hara cave in East Timor
• 2007-03-23 Burnley Tunnel catastrophe occurs in Melbourne, Australia
• 2007-03-24 The Australian Labor Party is reinstated after the New South Wales state elections.
• 2007-03-31 In Sydney, Australia, 2.2 million people take part in the first Earth Hour.
• 2007-06-08 Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia is hit by the State's worst storms and flooding in 30 years resulting in the death of nine people and the grounding of trade ship, the MV Pasha Bulker
• 2007-07-01 England bans smoking in all public indoor spaces: with the ban already in force in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, this means it is illegal to smoke in indoor public places anywhere in the UK. Australia implements a similar ban.
• 2007-10-25 The first Airbus A380 passenger flight, operating for Singapore Airlines, with flight number SQ 380, flying scheduled service between Singapore and Sydney, Australia.

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