March 19th...
1687: Having failed to locate the mouth of the Mississippi River by sea, French nobleman and explorer Robert Cavelier de La Salle, had already led two unsuccessful overland attempts. Unfortunately, his errors in judgment and indecision had created dissention amongst his group. During the third attempt to find the Mississippi on foot, members of his exploration party mutineed and murdered him, near the site of present Navasota, (or possibly Huntsville), Texas, USA.
1796: Admiral Sir Hugh Palliser, 1st Baronet (26th February 1723 - 19th March 1796
(9th March O.S.)), the only son of Hugh Palliser and Mary Robinson, was born at Kirk Deighton, in the North Riding of Yorkshire. He entered the navy in 1735 as a midshipman on HMS Aldborough (commanded by his uncle Nicholas Robinson). Palliser would be an officer by the time of, and during the Seven Years' War and the American Revolutionary War. During the latter he came into a famous dispute with Augustus Keppel over the Battle of Ushant which led to Palliser being court-martialled, although he was subsequently acquitted.
Admiral Palliser died on 19 March 1796 in at his estate in Chalfont St Giles Buckinghamshire, England.
Portrait of Captain Hugh Palliser (1723-1796) - before 1775.
1863: The 'Georgiana', a steamer belonging to the Confederate States Navy during the American Civil War was reputed to be the "most powerful" cruiser in the Confederate fleet, although she never had the opportunity to prove herself in battle.
On her maiden voyage from Scotland where she was built, and loaded with a cargo of munitions, medicines and merchandise (then valued at over $1,000,000), she encountered Union Navy ships engaged in a blockade of Charleston, South Carolina. After sustaining damage from the Union vessels, and with no hope for escape, 'Georgiana' was scuttled by her captain approximately three-quarters of a mile from shore, enabling all hands to escape.
1930: German-built ocean liner SS 'Europa' (later 'Liberté'), one of the two most advanced, high speed steam turbine ocean vessels of the day, made her maiden voyage to New York - taking the westbound Blue Riband from her sister ship, the SS 'Bremen', with the average speed of 27.91 knots and a crossing time of 4 days, 17 hours and 6 minutes.
During the voyage many of her passengers were disturbed from the soot coming out of Europa's low funnels. The problem was corrected by raising the funnels by 15 feet, though decreasing her low profile. After they were raised, there were no more complaints.
'Europa' and 'Bremen', were a part of the international competition for the Blue Riband - which 'Bremen' reclaimed from 'Europa' in June 1933.
SS 'Europa' - Sometime before her maiden voyage.
1932: The Sydney Harbour Bridge is officially opened on Saturday 19th March 1932, after it was 'unofficially' opened a few minutes earlier by a man in military uniform on a horse, slashing the ribbon with his sword and opening it in the name of the people of New South Wales.
Sydney Harbour Bridge, affectionately known as 'The Coathanger'.
1945: The Essex-class aircraft carrier U.S.S. 'Franklin' had manoeuvered to within 50 miles of the Japanese mainland when she came under surprise-attack from a single Japanese aircraft, which dropped out from the cloud-cover and made a low level run on the ship, releasing two semi-armour-piercing bombs.
One bomb struck the flight deck centerline, penetrating to the hangar deck, effecting destruction and igniting fires through the second and third decks, and knocking out the Combat Information Center. The second hit aft, tearing through two decks.
At the time she was struck, 'Franklin' had 31 armed and fueled aircraft on her flight deck, and 22 planes, of which 16 were fueled and five were armed, in the hangar deck. The explosion on the hangar deck ignited the fuel tanks on the aircraft, and exploding gasoline vapour devastated the deck. Only two crewmen survived the fire on the hangar deck. The explosions also jumbled aircraft together on the flight deck above, causing further fires and explosions, including the detonation of 12 "Tiny Tim" air-to-surface rockets.
'Franklin' lay dead in the water, took a 13° starboard list, lost all radio communications, and broiled under the heat from enveloping fires. Many of the crew were blown overboard, driven off by fire, killed or wounded, but the hundreds of officers and enlisted who voluntarily remained saved their ship, which became the most heavily damaged United States carrier to survive the war.
Over 800 crew-members were killed, and an estimated 400+ were injured as a result of the attack.
1965: The wreck of the SS 'Georgiana', (by now) valued at over $50,000,000 is discovered by then teenage diver and pioneer underwater archaeologist E. Lee Spence, exactly 102 years after its destruction. (See '1863' above).