Fascinating story over on ABC News yesterday:
‘It just looked like confetti’ – Australia’s first flag forgotten, found and restored all in 100 years.
Monthly Archives: June 2017
The aftermath of a battle.
The region of Nervesa della Battaglia in northern Italy was retaken from the Austro-Hungarians in June of 1918.
This photograph was taken as Italian forces returned to the region to survey the destruction.
On this day: the St-Hilaire train disaster
On the 29th of June, 1864, a train in Quebec, Canada fell through an open swing bridge and into the Richelieu River.
The worst train disaster in Canadian history, it is thought ninety-nine people died in the crash. The majority of people on board were European immigrants.
The investigation placed the blame for the disaster on Grand Trunk Railway, as the train failed to acknowledge stop signals that would have prevented it from falling through the bridge.
On this day: a Peace Treaty is Signed
The Treaty of Versailles, the most important of the peace treaties to end the First World War, was signed in the Hall of Mirrors in the Palace of Versailles on the 28th of June, 1919.
The war also began on the 28th of June, when Serbian assassin Gavrilo Princip murdered Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria and his wife, Sophie five years before.
The Signing of Peace in the Hall of Mirrors, Versailles, 28th June 1919.
Painted by Irish artist William Orpen
On this day: a protest against communism
Ukrainians in Sydney, Australia march against Russian communism on the 28th of June, 1953. This image appeared in The Canberra Times the following day.
More Ukrainians died under Stalin’s rule than the entire death toll of the Holocaust, with ethnic Ukrainians singled out by Soviet authorities for a genocide barely recognised by the world until the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.
On this day: the Royal Military College, Duntroon.
On the 27th of June, 1911, the Royal Military College, Duntroon – located in what is now Canberra, Australia’s capital city – opened its doors.
The college is the training centre for officers in the Australian Army, and sits adjacent to the Australian Defence Force Academy, which trains members of the Army, Navy, and Air Force.
On this day: the downing of Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870
The recovered wreckage in 2007. X
On the 27th of June, 1980, Aerolinee Itavia Flight 870 disappeared from the sky during a flight from Bologna to Palermo, Italy.
The plane crashed into the Tyrrhenian Sea, killing all eighty-one people on board.
While it was concluded by British investigators that a bomb on the aircraft caused the disaster, to this day Italian officials insist a missile was fired at the plane.
The disaster occurred in the middle of a wave of terrorist acts to hit Italy (such as the Bologna Bombing), fuelled by far left and right-wing groups in the country’s north.
On this day: a pet dog at war
This image of British soldiers playing with their dog in a trench near Gavrelle, France is dated the 27th of June, 1917.
Taking pets and native animal mascots to the trenches was quite common in the First World War, including kangaroos, and Winnie the black bear who inspired Winnie-the-Pooh.
On this day…
26th June 1986: Anti-divorce poster at the Father Mathew Hall in Ireland on polling day for the Divorce Referendum. The referendum failed, and divorce was not legalised until 1995.
A concert in London
World-famous German composer Richard Strauss is seen here in London in June, 1914. The photograph was taken on the 20th; he stands in front of a poster advertising his concert on the 26th.
