Milestones: January 26, 2024

January 26, 2024 Brooklyn Eagle Staff

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STARTED AS A PENAL COLONY — AUSTRALIA WAS ESSENTIALLY FOUNDED ON JAN. 26, 1788, WHEN CAPTAIN ARTHUR PHILLIP LED A FLEET OF 11 BRITISH SHIPS CARRYING CONVICTS to the Southern-Hemisphere landmass then called “New South Wales.” Australia had originally been planned as a penal colony prior to Capt. Phillip’s excursion. Notwithstanding the presence of indigenous peoples, the British government had commissioned Phillip to establish an agricultural work camp for British convicts and appointed him as captain of the HMS Sirius. However, Phillips was not granted much funding and met resistance when trying to recruit farmers to accompany him. Against all odds, Phillips and his fleet of a thousand men prevailed, even against hardship and the inability of the newly planted convicts to run a farm. Their first landing at Botany Bay proved untenable, they moved to Port Jackson. The convicts considered their arrival in Australia to be liberating; and by the time the 19th century began, they had grown prosperous. They chose Jan. 26 as their founding day, celebrating it with much merriment and drinking and it became Australia Day in 1818.

The indigenous Aboriginal people named Jan. 26 differently, though: “Invasion Day.”

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LOVED BEING FIRST LADY — JULIA DENT, WHO WOULD LATER BECOME MRS. ULYSSES S. GRANT AND EVENTUALLY FIRST LADY, WAS BORN ON JAN. 26, 1826, to a slaveholding family in Missouri. During childhood, she was allowed to play with the children of her family’s enslaved servants; but there existed a full system of conditioning in place during that youthful playing. Julia Dent met Ulysses Grant through her brother, Fred; the two young cadets were roommates at West Point which overlooked New York’s Hudson River. Julia and Ulysses fell in love, but it would be four years before they married, while he served in the Army during the Mexican-American War. They were from entirely different backgrounds; as Ulysses’ father was an abolitionist and the family did not own slaves. However, once he married into the Dent family and inherited land in Missouri, Ulysses, too, became involved in slavery.

During her years in the White House, Julia Dent Grant enjoyed entertaining lavishly. The Grants honored King Kalakaua of the Kingdom of Hawai’i during their first State Dinner. In their later years, experiencing a bad turn of fortunes, they wrote memoirs to support themselves financially.

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POPULAR, BUT DISOBEYED TRUMAN — DOUGLAS MacARTHUR, WHO WOULD LATER BECOME U.S. GENERAL AND SUPREME COMMANDER of Allied forces in Southwest Pacific during WWII, was born at Little Rock Army Barracks in Arkansas on Jan. 26, 1880, the son of an army captain. He served during World War I as commander of the Rainbow Division’s 84th Infantry Brigade, leading it in the St. Mihiel, Meuse-Argonne (one of the largest in US military history) and Sedan offensives. An immensely popular military commander, he ran afoul of President Truman during the Korean War over disagreements on how to govern forces while in that nation. MacArthur had the support of both Congress and the general public, and a ruling determined that he had “stretched” but “not violated” a command from the Joint Chiefs of Staff to not speak out on public policy. Truman’s decision to relieve MacArthur of duty was unpopular with the public.

A series of awards have been named after General MacArthur: among them, the General Douglas MacArthur Leadership Awards, presented annually by the United States Army on behalf of the General Douglas MacArthur Foundation.

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PLAYED A GANGSTER AND HELPED THE ALLIES — NOTED ROMANIAN-AMERICAN ACTOR EDWARD G. ROBINSON DIED ON JAN. 26, 1973. Born in 1893 INTO A ROMANIAN-JEWISH FAMILY and originally named Emanuel Goldenberg, he and his family moved to the United States after his brother was attacked in a bullying incident during a pogrom. There, he embarked on a stage and screen acting career that would span half a century. Robinson, who won an American Academy of Dramatic Arts scholarship (and changed his name) made his Broadway debut in 1915 and his film debut the following year. He played gangsters convincingly, although in real life he was a deeply compassionate and courteous man. He also played in Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments,” in “Song of Norway” and in “The Cincinnati Kid,” with Steve McQueen, who had idolized Robinson and wanted them billed together.

Robinson became an outspoken critic of fascism and Nazism during World War II. The Office of War Information gave him a special appointment that utilized his radio talent and multilingual skills to help the Allied forces. He also became an ally of the civil rights movement.

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WORKED ACROSS THE AISLES — POPULAR AND SUCCESSFUL GOVERNOR NELSON A. ROCKEFELLER DIED ON JANUARY 26, 1979. Born as Nelson Aldrich Rockefeller into the family that founded Standard Oil and was committed to philanthropy, young Nelson graduated from Dartmouth and worked in his family’s philanthropies until entering public life. He was elected governor of New York in 1958 and served until December 1973, when he resigned. During his four terms as governor, he was known for working across the aisle, with both Democrats and independents. He established the State University of New York (SUNY) system, with a budget of $464.4 million by the time he left office. Rockefeller also oversaw several major development projects: Empire State Plaza in Albany, Lincoln Center and the World Trade Center, all of which gave jobs to the construction unions.

Rockefeller also advocated for the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and spoke at four churches in Bedford-Stuyvesant, including Nazarene Congregational Church and Cornerstone Baptist Church, praising Dr. King’s ideals, immediately following the civil rights leader’s arrest in October 1960.

See previous milestones, here.