Add Your Piece of History… 6th June

• On this day in 1827.  Explore Allan Cunningham discovers the Darling Downs.    He was born on the 13th of July 1791 in Wimbledon, England.  As a botanist who came to Australia suffering from tuberculosis, he found that Australia’s climate helped him regain some of his health, and he was keen to discover more of the country he came to love.  On the 6th of June 1827,  Cunningham found a vast area of excellent pastoral land which he named the Darling Downs, in honour of the Governor.  A year later, Cunningham discovered an easier route to the Darling Downs, travelling through the Great Dividing Range from Brisbane, thus was found Cunningham’s Gap.

 

• On this day in 1859.  Today is Queensland Day, marking the day that Queensland separated from the colony of New South Wales.

 

• On this day in 1944.  Allied forces land on the coast of Normandy as D-Day commences.  In the early hours of 6 June 1944, Allied forces began their assault against Hitler’s “Fortress Europe”.  By the end of the day 155,000 Allied troops, including 18,000 paratroopers and glider-borne troops, were in Normandy.  The initial assault involved about 1,300 RAF planes, followed by 1,000 American bombers dropping bombs on targets in northern France.  The United States and Britain each lost about 1,000 troops and Canada lost 355 in the initial stages of D-day.

 

Please feel free to add your piece of history (something personal or general history).

 

Allan Cunningham (1791–1839), English botanist and explorer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

D-Day: The Normandy Invasion (Photo credit: The U.S. Army)