● Jan 26 in History

1788 — Governor Arthur Phillip, who led the 11-ship British First Fleet carrying 736 convicts from England, raises the British flag at Sydney Cove, New South Wales, to establish the first penal colony and permanent European settlement in Australia.

1808 — The Rum Rebellion becomes the only successful armed takeover of the Australian government when 400 NSW Corps soldiers arrest Governor William Bligh. Bligh’s stifling of the colony’s rum traffic (hence the name of the rebellion) is but one of their issues. The military rule the colony until January 1 1810, when Major-General Lachlan Macquarie arrives as the new governor.

1875 — George F Green, a dentist from Kalamazoo, Michigan, US, patents the first electric dental drill. It has an electromagnetic motor and is designed for sawing, filing, dressing and polishing teeth.

1905 — The world’s largest diamond, the 3,106.75ct Cullinan, is discovered at Premier Mine in Cullinan by surface manager Frederick Wells. The 530.4ct Great Star of Africa is mounted in the Sovereign’s Sceptre with Cross, the 317.8ct Second Star of Africa in the Imperial State Crown. The other seven major stones are privately owned by Elizabeth II, who inherited them in 1953 from her grandmother, Queen Mary.

1905 — Maria Augusta von Trapp (née Kutschera), Austrian singer, is born in Vienna, Austria-Hungary. Her “The Story of the Trapp Family Singers” is published in 1949. It becomes the inspiration for the 1956 West German film “Die Trapp-Familie”, which in turn inspires the 1959 Broadway musical “The Sound of Music” and its 1965 film version.

1925 — Paul Newman, actor (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”, “The Color of Money”) and race car driver, is born in Shaker Heights, Ohio, US.

1926 — John Logie Baird, Scottish engineer and inventor, demonstrates the first working television system in his laboratory in London.

1928 — Eartha Kitt, singer, dancer, actress, is born Eartha Mae Keith on a cotton plantation near North, South Carolina, US.

1930 — The Indian National Congress declares January 26 the day for Poorna Swaraj (“Complete Independence”), which occurs in 1947.

1950 — India officially becomes a republic.

1945 — Audie Murphy, 19, (later actor, songwriter and rancher) single-handedly holds off an entire company of Germans for an hour at the Colman Pocket in France, then leads a successful counterattack while wounded and out of ammunition. It earns him the Medal of Honor. He becomes one of the most decorated American soldiers of World War 2.