The first group of German immigrants arrive in South Australia on this day 175 years ago. Lutheran refugees from Prussia on board the "Solway" reach the shores of Kingscote, Kangaroo Island, where they bury the body of one of their own, who had succumbed to pneumonia on the ship two days previously.
Elsewhere in the world, Marie Antoinette, queen of France and wife of Louis XVI, was guillotined (1793, Paris), the Disney Company was founded (1923, Los Angeles), the first non-Italian Pope in 455 years was elected in Rome to head the Catholic Church: the 58 year old Polish Cardinal Karol Wojtyla as Pope John Paul II (1978) and South Africa Bishop Desmond Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Price (1984, Oslo).
Born on this day were the Irish poet and writer Oscar Wilde (1854, Dublin), the first Israeli prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (1886, Plonsk/Poland), German author and winner of the Nobel Price for Literature Gunther Grass (1927, Gdansk/Poland), US actor and former partner of Susan Sarandon, Tim Robbins (1958, West Covina/California) and Melbourne-born Michael Peter Balzary, aka Flea, the co-founder, bassist and songwriter of US Rockband Red Hot Chilli Peppers turns 50. (The readers of Rolling stone magazine voted him #2 of the bast rock bass players of all times.)
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