Australia On This Day

REPEAT: On this day in 1919, boxer George Mendies won the Australian Flyweight Title — and it was a crown he'd defend successfully again and again. Despite this being a period of racism and anti-Semitism, this Jewish-Portuguese-Chinese Australian champion was hugely popular — and his fate was every bit as tragic as those of Les Darcy and Dave Sands.

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REPEAT: On this day 111 years ago, two scientific giants spent a couple of hours hanging out and talking shop in Sydney. One had invented the telephone. The other's inventions had made it possible for men to fly.

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REPEAT: On this day in 1920, Raymond Longford's classic silent film On Our Selection had its Australian premiere in Brisbane. This was a bush saga that defied expectations thanks to a new cinematic approach. Hear all about it in today's episode.

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REPEAT: On this day in 1931 Australia was shocked by news of an Adelaide crime, as much for its sheer brutality as for the cold and calculating way the killer had tried to cover his tracks.

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REPEAT: On this day in 1950, Australia learned that its driest and most inhospitable region had become a huge inland sea — and that it was being explored by the only white man who'd successfully made a living in the Lake Eyre area.

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REPEAT: On this day in 1942, the battle for the Kokoda Track began — just as the long and lonely war of a brave Australian coastwatcher came to its end in another part of New Guinea. Con Page isn’t a name that’s widely known – but it should be.

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REPEAT: 81 years ago today the Battle of Britain was raging. Among those taking on the Nazis in Spitfires was a handful of young Australian pilots on secondment to the RAF. On this day in that desperate time, Brisbane-born Gordon Olive made his mark with his first confirmed Luftwaffe kill — setting himself on the path to becoming one of our few Battle of Britain Spitfire aces.

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REPEAT: On this day in 1960, Australia was shocked by our first skyjacking, when a disgruntled young man pulled out a sawn-off .22 rifle and a gelignite bomb on TAA Flight 408 from Sydney to Brisbane. With 49 lives in the balance at 20,000 feet, everything came down to a split-second decision by a brave crew member.

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REPEAT: On this day in 1940, wartime Australia was appalled by the dictatorial powers claimed by Sir Keith Murdoch. The media mogul had just been appointed as Director General of Information by Prime Minister Menzies, but the control he wanted over newspapers, radio and cinema had politicians and newspaper editors comparing him to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

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REPEAT: On this day 89 years ago, 1000 Cairns citizens marched on a camp of 100 unemployed men. A pitched and bloody battle ensued that left 80 people injured. Who was to blame? When cases came to trial, the verdicts were surprising.

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