January 26:

1788 : Australia Day

On January 26, 1788, Captain Arthur Phillip guides a
fleet of 11 British ships carrying convicts to the
colony of New South Wales, effectively founding
Australia. After overcoming a period of hardship, the
fledgling colony began to celebrate the anniversary of
this date with great fanfare.

Australia, once known as New South Wales, was
originally planned as a penal colony. In October 1786,
the British government appointed Arthur Phillip
captain of the HMS Sirius, and commissioned him to
establish an agricultural work camp there for British
convicts. With little idea of what he could expect
from the mysterious and distant land, Phillip had
great difficulty assembling the fleet that was to make
the journey. His requests for more experienced farmers
to assist the penal colony were repeatedly denied, and
he was both poorly funded and outfitted. Nonetheless,
accompanied by a small contingent of Marines and other
officers, Phillip led his 1,000-strong party, of whom
more than 700 were convicts, around Africa to the
eastern side of Australia. In all, the voyage lasted
eight months, claiming the deaths of some 30 men.

The first years of settlement were nearly disastrous.
Cursed with poor soil, an unfamiliar climate and
workers who were ignorant of farming, Phillip had
great difficulty keeping the men alive. The colony was
on the verge of outright starvation for several years,
and the marines sent to keep order were not up to the
task. Phillip, who proved to be a tough but
fair-minded leader, persevered by appointing convicts
to positions of responsibility and oversight.
Floggings and hangings were commonplace, but so was
egalitarianism. As Phillip said before leaving
England: "In a new country there will be no slavery
and hence no slaves."

Though Phillip returned to England in 1792, the colony
became prosperous by the turn of the 19th century.
Feeling a new sense of patriotism, the men began to
rally around January 26 as their founding day.
Historian Manning Clarke noted that in 1808 the men
observed the "anniversary of the foundation of the
colony" with "drinking and merriment."

Finally, in 1818, January 26 became an official
holiday, marking the 30th anniversary of British
settlement in Australia. And, as Australia became a
sovereign nation, it became the national holiday known
as Australia Day. Today, Australia Day serves both as
a day of celebration for the founding of the white
British settlement, and as a day of mourning for the
Aborigines who were slowly dispossessed of their land
as white colonization spread across the continent.

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1500 : Pinzon discovers Brazil

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1838 : Tennessee passes nation's first prohibition law

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