1.
Australia
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Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It is the worlds sixth-largest country by total area, the neighbouring countries are Papua New Guinea, Indonesia and East Timor to the north, the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu to the north-east, and New Zealand to the south-east. Australias capital is Canberra, and its largest urban area is Sydney, for about 50,000 years before the first British settlement in the late 18th century, Australia was inhabited by indigenous Australians, who spoke languages classifiable into roughly 250 groups. The population grew steadily in subsequent decades, and by the 1850s most of the continent had been explored, on 1 January 1901, the six colonies federated, forming the Commonwealth of Australia. Australia has since maintained a liberal democratic political system that functions as a federal parliamentary constitutional monarchy comprising six states. The population of 24 million is highly urbanised and heavily concentrated on the eastern seaboard, Australia has the worlds 13th-largest economy and ninth-highest per capita income. With the second-highest human development index globally, the country highly in quality of life, health, education, economic freedom. The name Australia is derived from the Latin Terra Australis a name used for putative lands in the southern hemisphere since ancient times, the Dutch adjectival form Australische was used in a Dutch book in Batavia in 1638, to refer to the newly discovered lands to the south. On 12 December 1817, Macquarie recommended to the Colonial Office that it be formally adopted, in 1824, the Admiralty agreed that the continent should be known officially as Australia. The first official published use of the term Australia came with the 1830 publication of The Australia Directory and these first inhabitants may have been ancestors of modern Indigenous Australians. The Torres Strait Islanders, ethnically Melanesian, were originally horticulturists, the northern coasts and waters of Australia were visited sporadically by fishermen from Maritime Southeast Asia. The first recorded European sighting of the Australian mainland, and the first recorded European landfall on the Australian continent, are attributed to the Dutch. The first ship and crew to chart the Australian coast and meet with Aboriginal people was the Duyfken captained by Dutch navigator, Willem Janszoon. He sighted the coast of Cape York Peninsula in early 1606, the Dutch charted the whole of the western and northern coastlines and named the island continent New Holland during the 17th century, but made no attempt at settlement. William Dampier, an English explorer and privateer, landed on the north-west coast of New Holland in 1688, in 1770, James Cook sailed along and mapped the east coast, which he named New South Wales and claimed for Great Britain. The first settlement led to the foundation of Sydney, and the exploration, a British settlement was established in Van Diemens Land, now known as Tasmania, in 1803, and it became a separate colony in 1825. The United Kingdom formally claimed the part of Western Australia in 1828. Separate colonies were carved from parts of New South Wales, South Australia in 1836, Victoria in 1851, the Northern Territory was founded in 1911 when it was excised from South Australia
2.
1903
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As of the start of 1903, the Gregorian calendar was 13 days ahead of the Julian calendar, which remained in localized use until 1923. January 1 – Edward VII is proclaimed Emperor of India, January 19 – The first west–east transatlantic radio broadcast is made from the United States to England. February 11 – The Oxnard strike of 1903 becomes the first time in U. S. history that a union is formed from members of different races. February 15 – Morris and Rose Michtom introduce the first teddy bear in the United States, february 17 – El Yunque National Forest in Puerto Rico becomes part of the United States National Forest System as the Luquillo Forest Reserve. February 23 – Cuba leases Guantánamo Bay to the United States in perpetuity, march 2 – In New York City, the Martha Washington Hotel, the first hotel exclusively for women, opens. March 3 – The British Admiralty announces plans to build a base at Rosyth. March 4 – Beşiktaş J. K. founded, march 5 – The Ottoman Empire and the German Empire sign an agreement to build the Constantinople–Baghdad Railway. March 12 – The University of Puerto Rico is founded, march 14 – The Hay–Herrán Treaty, granting the United States the right to build the Panama Canal, is ratified by the United States Senate. The Colombian Senate later rejects the treaty, april 26 – Atletico Madrid, as well known for professional football club in Spain, officially founded. April 29 – A 30-million-m3 landslide kills 70-90 in Frank, Alberta, april 29 – The 7.0 Ms Manzikert earthquake affects eastern Turkey, leaving 3,500 dead. May 4 – The leading Macedonian Bulgarian revolutionary Gotse Delchev is killed in a skirmish with the Turkish army, may 18 – The port of Burgas, Bulgaria opens. May 24 – The Paris–Madrid race for automobiles begins, during which at least eight people are killed, june 11 – Serbian King Alexander Obrenović and Queen Draga are assassinated in Belgrade by the Black Hand organization. June 14 – The town of Heppner, Oregon, is destroyed by a cloud burst that resulted in a flash flood that kills an estimated 238 people. July 1–July 19 – First Tour de France bicycle race, won by Maurice Garin, july 7 – The British take over the Fulani Empire. July 23 – Dr. Ernst Pfenning of Chicago becomes the first owner of a Ford Model A, july 29 – Explosion of a United States Cartridge Company magazine destroys 70 homes killing 22 residents of Tewksbury, Massachusetts. July 30–August 23 – Second Congress of the All-Russian Social Democratic Labour Party held in exile in Brussels, august 2 – The Ilinden–Preobrazhenie Uprising, organized by the Secret Macedonian-Adrianople Revolutionary Organization, breaks out in the Ottoman provinces of Macedonia and Adrianople. August 4 – Pope Pius X succeeds Pope Leo XIII as the 257th pope, august 10 – Paris Métro train fire takes place. August 25 – The Judiciary Act is passed in the Australian parliament, september – Texas State University in San Marcos, TX opens its doors as Southwest Texas Normal School
3.
Australian federal election, 1903
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Federal elections were held in Australia on 16 December 1903. All 75 seats in the House of Representatives, and 19 of the 36 seats in the Senate were up for election. The election outcome saw a finely balanced House of Representatives, with the three parties each holding around a third of seats − the Protectionists on 26, the Free Traders on 24, additionally, the Watson government was the worlds first Labour Party government at a national level. Independent, Frederick Holder, James Wilkinson Independent, William Trenwith The election saw the Labour party make significant gains outside New South Wales, as a result of Labours gains, the numbers of the three parties in Parliament were very close to equal, leading to unstable governments. Alfred Deakin would describe it as a parliament of three elevens, the Free Trade Party was again led by George Reid. The only significant difference in policy between these parties was on trade issues, the Protectionists sought to protect Australian industry and agriculture by placing tariffs on imports. The Free Traders downgraded the view they had last election of having no tariffs to campaigning on minimal tariffs, the other major party contesting the election was the Labour Party. This election also saw a party, the Tasmanian Revenue Tariff Party gain an MHR. Prior to the 1901 election, the Free Trade Party had been known as the Revenue Tariff Party in some states, however, in 1903 a separate Revenue Tariff Party competed against the FTP in Tasmania. Nevertheless, both of the Revenue Tariff Party members elected joined the Free Trade Party, when the new parliament began sitting. Women were given the vote in all states, following the Commonwealth Franchise Act 1902, like the 1901 election, voting was voluntary and candidates were elected by the First-past-the-post system. Candidates were contesting all 75 House of Representatives and 19 of the 36 Senate seats and this had since changed and there were now single member electorates in both states. The newly created seats were Adelaide, Angas, Barker, Boothby, Grey, Hindmarsh and Wakefield and Bass, Darwin, Denison, Franklin, each state elected six Senators regardless of population. The Senate was elected by bloc voting rather than the current single transferable vote system, half the Senators retired as their terms expired, and there was one casual vacancy. Members in italics did not contest their seat at this election
