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On this day in history.

1773
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The British Parliament passed the Tea Act, designed to save the British East India Company by granting it a monopoly on the North American tea trade.
 
1857
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A revolt by Sepoys at Meerut started the Indian Mutiny by Indian soldiers serving in the British Army.
 
1941
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Rudolf Hess, deputy leader of Nazi Germany, flew a small plane to Scotland and parachuted to the ground in a bizarre attempt to negotiate a peace settlement with Britain. After interrogation he was jailed for life.
 
1919
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The first scheduled commercial air service in Britain began from Manchester to Southport.
 
1998
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The political wing of the republican IRA backed the Good Friday peace agreement
 
1775 Second Continental Congress convenes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, issuing paper currency for the first time
 
1801 First Barbary War: The Barbary pirates of Tripoli declare war on the United States of America
 
1940 Winston Churchill succeeds Neville Chamberlain as British Prime Minister at the head of a coalition government
 
1869 The Golden Spike is driven, completing the first US Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Summit, Utah, connecting the Central Pacific Railroad with the Union Pacific
 
1873, yesterday: The Austrian stock market crashed, precipitating the Panic of 1873 and the subsequent Long Depression of 1873-1899, which was the first death of capitalism.
 
When the spike was driven, the rail network was not connected to the Atlantic or Pacific it was from Omaha to Sacramento.
 
It was across the toughest bit. There were already railoads out Omaha.

What you have to look at is the terrain between there and Sacramento. It's all mountains and desert and at the time almost completely unpopulated.
 
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Andy_Ross said:
It was across the toughest bit. There were already railoads out Omaha.

What you have to look at is the terrain between there and Sacramento. It's all mountains and desert and at the time almost completely unpopulated.
Click to expand...
Apart from the mountains not much different to the one we built across the Nullabor then lol
1700km of sand and dirt, unpopulated apart from a few Aboriginal tribes (a few thousand in total at the time covering an area about the size of Alaska!!!)

At the time of the track being laid, there was literally no way across Australia- everything went by ship from the east coast to the west coast and viceversa... the only actual connection was a single telegraph line, not even any roads....

Although there was a mess for a long time (and still is in parts of the country) with three different gauges in use depending on which state you were in lol. At one time, they had a gauge changing stop in SA which went from narrow gauge (WA trains-3 ft 6 in) to SA broad gauge (5 ft 3 in)- they lifted the carriages with screwjacks (steam driven) and changed bogies- with the passengers still inside!!!
Victoria also had broad gauge, but any passengers/goods traveling from Vic to NSW had to change rains for a long time because NSW used standard gauge (4 ft 8.5 in) while if traveling north to Queensland meant another train change at the border to a narrow gauge Qld train!!!
:yikes:

At the time each state was actually an independent British colony, but each was self governing, hence the mismash of conflicting gauges.... even after Federation in 1901, the tracks were already laid and so many parts of the then new Australian nation still had to contend with the existing infrastructure in place...
 
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HMS Sheffield sinks while under tow. The first RN warship sunk by enemy action since 1945. We could see the smoke from the fires aboard after it was hit.
 
1985
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Fifty six spectators died and more than 200 were injured in a fire in the wooden stands at Bradford City stadium
 
1812
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British Prime Minister Spencer Percival was assassinated in the House of Commons, apparently mistaken by his killer, bankrupt broker John Bellingham, for someone else
 
330 Newly built city of Constantinople (Byzantium) dedicated to Emperor Constantine the Great, becomes the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire
 
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