Add Your Piece of History… 30th July

• On this day in 1768.  James Cook receives sealed secret orders prior to his first journey in the Endeavour.  Entitled “Secrete Instructions for Lieutenant James Cook Appointed to Command His Majesty’s Bark the Endeavour 30 July 1768.  The instructions commanded Cook to find the Great South Land, a ‘Land of great extent’ that was believed to exist in the Southern hemisphere.  Although the continent of Australia had been discovered by the Dutch in the early 1600’s, it was not thought to be “Terra Australis Incognita”, or the mysterious “Unknown Southern Land”.  Cook was instructed ‘…. to proceed to the Southward in order to make discovery of the Continent above-mentioned until you arrive in the latitude of 40 degrees, unless you sooner fall in with it’.  He was then ordered ‘with the Consent of the Natives to take possession of Convenient Situations in the Country in the Name of the King of Great Britain’.  Cook, was awarded the power to consign any indigenous inhabitants of the Great South Land under the King of England’s authority.

 

• On this day in 2003.  The final original VW Beetle automobile is produced.  The final original VW Beetle (No. 21,529,464) was produced at Puebla, Mexico.  The final car was immediately shipped off to the Volkswagen company’s museum in Wolfsburg, Germany.  During the Beetle’s production which commenced in 1938 and ended in 2003, over 21 million Beetles in the original design were made.

 

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

 

 

 

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