January 26 Birthday
January 26 is Australia Day, commemorating the arrival of the First Fleet at Sydney Cove in 1788. Eleven ships carried 736 convicts, 17 children of convicts, 211 marines, and 27 marines' wives and children. They had sailed from Portsmouth eight months earlier. Captain Arthur Phillip raised the British flag and claimed the land for the Crown. The convicts had been sentenced to transportation for crimes as minor as stealing a loaf of bread. For many, it was effectively a death sentence — disease and starvation killed hundreds in the first years. For Indigenous Australians, January 26 is Invasion Day or Survival Day. The continent had been inhabited for at least 60,000 years before Phillip's flag. The celebration of the founding date remains contested, and the debate about changing it grows louder each year. In 1905, the Cullinan Diamond was discovered at the Premier Mine in South Africa. At 3,106 carats — about 1.37 pounds — it remains the largest gem-quality diamond ever found. It was presented to King Edward VII for his sixty-sixth birthday. The diamond was cut into nine major stones and ninety-six smaller ones. The largest, the Cullinan I or Great Star of Africa, is 530 carats and is set in the Sovereign's Sceptre with Cross, part of the British Crown Jewels. The Cullinan II is set in the Imperial State Crown. The South African government has requested their return, along with the Koh-i-Noor, calling them stolen colonial property. The Apollo Theater opened on this day in 1934 in Harlem, in a building that had been a burlesque hall and a theater. Frank Schiffman, a Jewish immigrant from the Lower East Side, leased it and began booking Black performers. The Apollo's amateur night launched the careers of Ella Fitzgerald, Billie Holiday, James Brown, Michael Jackson, and Stevie Wonder. The theater was one of the few venues where Black performers could play to integrated audiences in mid-century America. It remains a Harlem institution. Wayne Gretzky, born this day in 1961, is the only athlete in any team sport to have his number retired league-wide. He holds or shares 61 NHL records, including 2,857 career points — the next closest player has 1,921. He was not fast, not strong, and not a great shooter. He said, "I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been." Eddie Van Halen, also born this day, invented guitar tapping — playing the fretboard with both hands — and changed the sound of rock music permanently. People born on January 26 fall under the zodiac sign of Aquarius. The birthstone is Garnet and the birth flower is Carnation. Historical events on January 26 include 1788: First convict fleet arrives at Botany Bay, Australia (Australia Day), 1905: Cullinan Diamond discovered (3,106 carats, largest gem-quality diamond ever), 1934: Apollo Theater opens in Harlem. Famous people born on January 26 include Douglas MacArthur (1880), Wayne Gretzky (1961), Eddie Van Halen (1955).