Rock Returned to Rightful Owners

On 26 October 1985, the world famous Central Australian monolith Uluru, aka Ayers Rock, was returned to the local Pitjantjatjara Aborigines, the Anangu, on condition that it would be leased back to the National Parks and Wildlife Services for 99 years under joint management.

The fist European to discover the rock was South Australian Surveyor William Gosse in 1873. He named it in honour of the then South Australian Premier Sir Henry Ayers, whereas the aboriginal name is believed to mean either "Great Pebble" or "Meeting Place". It is 348m high, measures over 9km in circumference and is visited by approximately half a million tourists each year. While it is not forbidden to climb the rock, "we prefer that, as a guest on Aṉangu land, you will choose to respect our law and culture by not climbing".  

Elsewhere in the world, Norway gained independence from Sweden (1905), the Battle of Leyte (Philippines) ended with a resounding American victory (1944), the first commercial Boeing 707 flew for PanAm from New York to Paris (1958), the last criminal in Western Australia was hanged (1964), British rock band Queen and David Bowie recorded  the hit single "Under Pressure" (Montreux/Switzerland, 1981) and Jordan and Israel signed a peace treaty (1994).

Prominent birthdays on this day include former French president Francois Mitterand (Jarnac/France, 1916), current US Secretary of State and former First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton (Chicago/Illinois, 1947), Australian country music star (and Nicole Kidman's husband) Keith Urban (Whangarei/New Zealand, 1967) and the first Australian Idol winner Guy Sebastian (Selangor/Malaysia, 1980).