30 Years on - The Chamberlain Dingo Mystery

On 29 October 1982 Lindy Chamberlain was convicted for the murder of her daughter Azaria in August 1980 at a campsite near Uluru. Her claims that a dingo had taken the baby were not believed and she was sentenced to life imprisonment.

Dingo on Fraser Island, photo: Sam Fraser-Smith

All appeals remained fruitless until in 1986 pieces of Azaria's clothing were found in a dingo den inside the national park. Lindy was released from prison and later cleared of all charges against her. A final and fourth coronial inquest in June 2012 ruled that the baby's death was caused by a dingo and after 32 years the death certificate was amended accordingly.

Elsewhere in the world, Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni" was performed for the first time in Prague, while the First Fleet was en route to Botany Bay (1787), the International Red Cross was formed in Geneva (1863), Ned Kelly was sentenced to hang in Melbourne (1880), after Egypt nationalised the Suez Canal, Israel invaded Sinai, starting the "Suez Crisis" (1956), Cassius Clay, later known as Muhammad Ali, won his first professional fight (Louisville/Kentucky, 1960), the first computer-to-computer-link was established on ARPANET, the precursor to the internet (1969) and Meat Loaf released the "Bat Out Of Hell" (1977).

Henry III, aka Henry the Pious, Holy Roman Emperor, and King of Germany, Burgundy and Italy was born on this day 995 years ago. Also born on this day were Nazi Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels (1897), British blues rock guitarrist Peter Allen Greenbaum, aka Peter Green of Fleetwood Mac fame (London, 1946) and Dutch goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar (Voorhout/Netherlands, 1970).
Conradin, last member of the Hohenstaufen dynasty, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, last Duke of Swabia, together with Frederick of Baden was executed on this day, just 16 years of age (Naples/Italy, 1268).