20 October all day til midnight

 1862 The rails sang as the first official train rocked up to Sandhurst aka Bendigo from Melbourne. 

1899 The World's Oldest Blogger , young Olive Riley, was found in the cabbage patch at Broken Hill, and she commenced blogging to promote the idea that "one is not too old for the internet"

All About Olive

1900 Aussies off to war. New South Wales, Victoria and South Australia sent naval contingents as part of a British empire force deployed against anti-western Chinese secret societies.

1939 Compulsory military training Six weeks after Australia entered the Second World War, Menzies announced the reintroduction of compulsory defence training, to take effect on 1 January 1940. Unmarried men aged 21 were required to undergo 3 months training with the militia.

1966 Australia was formally Blessed when the POTUS, LB Johnson, popped in for a chinwag with Harold Holt (before he did the bolt)

1973 The Sydney Opera House was flung opened with gay abandon by the late great Elizabeth II.

1987 Everyone had their tits in a tangle. The Black Monday stock market crash caused the All Ordinaries Index to fall 25%, the single biggest one day drop in the market's history.

1989 The Grafton bus crash occurred, resulting in 21 people killed and 22 injured when a tourist bus collided with a semi-trailer on the Pacific Highway near Grafton.

2023 They didn't care to hear about the plague anymore...

Or some such.