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Elvis Presley is promoted to Sergeant in the U.S. Army
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The 2nd Annual Logie Awards are held the Savoy Hotel in Brighton, Victoria
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Neale Fraser wins the men's singles at the Wimbledon championships
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Arthur Calwell becomes leader of the Australian Labor Party.
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Hotels and theatres open for the first time on Anzac Day. Organised sport allowed in the afternoon
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the jet-powered engine was invented. Jet power greatly increased the speed of aircraft, as well as allowing them to stay in the air for prolonged periods of time.
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The last tram runs. Earlier in April, a runaway tram crashed into another tram. Several vehicles, including a bus, were hit by the trams. A conductor was killed and more than 40 people were treated for injuries in the Royal Hobart Hospital.
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Comoulsory national service training for men ends.
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Federal Government directs all future TV commercials to be made in Australia
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Busfhires rage through the Great Divide and the Dandenong Ranges on the edge of Melboune, killing 8 people and destroying hundreds of houses
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The novel Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence is banned from sale
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Last electric tram service runs in Sydney, cease operations, bringing to an end the Southern Hemisphere's largest tramway network.
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Sydney: Woman fined for being "unsuitably dressed" wearing a bikini at Bondi Beach
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Rod Laver wins Men's Singles tennis final at Wimbeldon.
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Four Corners TV current affairs program first screened on ABC TV
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First meeting held of the Non-Aligned Movement. The Soviet Union resumes nuclear testing, escalating fears over the ongoing Berlin crisis.
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Parkes radiotelescope officially opened by the Governor General
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Busfhires rage through the Great Divide and the Dandenong Ranges on the edge of Melboune, killing 8 people and destroying hundreds of houses
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Australia wins 38 gold medals at the 1962 British Empire and Commonwealth Games, held in Perth
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Careful, He Might Hear You by Sumner Locke Elliott is awarded the Miles Franklin Literary Award
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The final section of the Cahill Expressway opens in Sydney.
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NBN Television opens in Newcastle, New South Wales as NBN-3.
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The Southern Aurora arrives from Sydney on the new uniform-gauge line that now links the 2 states
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As Astronaut John Glenn circles the Earth, the city of Perth turns on its lights. "I can see the outline of a town and a very bright light just to the south of it." Glenn dubs Perth "The City of Lights"
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Australia tallest building opens, the 25-storey AMP building
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An agreement is signed between Britain and France to develop the Concorde supersonic airliner.
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The first performance of the Australian Ballet Company in Sydney was of Swan Lake.
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The 1963 Australian visit of Her Majesty The Queen and His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh was filmed by the Commonwealth Film Unit. Much of the 30 minute film is devoted to Canberra and its history as the Queen's visit coincided with Canberra's Jubilee
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Australians could connect more easily by telephone with the rest of the world by International Direct Dialling with the opening of COMPAC, the Commonwealth Pacific cable. This was part of a scheme to connect the British Commonwealth by telephone.
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Australia becomes the first nation to endorse the Nuclear Test Ban Treaty
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First stage of the Ord River irrigation project, the dam at Kununurra, opens
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The CIA's Domestic Operations Division is created.
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Nine Network founded as the "National Television Network"
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Dixie Willis breaks Lyudmila Shevtsova's world record (2:04.3) in the women's 800 metres, clocking 2:01.2 in Perth.
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The Royal Australian Air Force takes delivery of its first two Mirage fighter jets
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Royal Commission into the Voyager disaster opens
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Bernard "Midget" Farrelly wins the first World Surfboard Championship at Manly Beach
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Gladesville Bridge opened – the world's longest concrete arch at the time.
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The Beatles tour Australia
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Queensland Government declares a state of emergency in an attempt to end an industrial dispute at Mt Isa mines.
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The 1-hour stop-motion animated special Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, based on the popular Christmas song, premieres on NBC. It becomes a beloved Christmas tradition, still being shown on television more than 40 years later.
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Swimmer Dawn Fraser is named Australian of the Year
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The Kinks and The Rolling Stones tour Australia
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The first hydrofoil ferry service begins
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The Sydney Symphony Orchestra performs to sell out audience in Tokyo.
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The Premier of Tasmania, Eric Reece, announces the Gordon Power scheme will “result in some modification to the Lake Pedder National Park”, but it was still in development and no further details were revealed
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The ALP deletes "White Australia" from its immigration policy
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Pope Paul VI announces that the ecumenical council has decided that Jews are not collectively responsible for the killing of Christ.
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Gordon Chater wins the Gold Logie
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Joern Utzon quits the construction of the Sydney Opera House
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Decimalisation; the Australian Dollar replaces the Australian pound
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Jack Brabham is named Australian Of The Year
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200 hundred aborigines employed on the Wave Hill cattle station go on strike claiming a wage of $50 a week
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The St George Dragons win their 11th consecutive NSWRL premiership defeating the Balmain Tigers
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The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Menzies resigns after 16 straight years in office. Harold Holt succeeds him
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Australian troops encounter one of the bloodiest episodes yet with the Viet Cong
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90% of white Australians vote in referendum for proposal to count aborigines in the census and to allow the federal government to make special laws for them
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Brisbane: Demonstrations against Queensland Government regulations, which require groups to apply for, and be granted, a permit before holding any public meeting in the city
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The Federal Government announces it will set up the Office of Aboriginal Affairs
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Melbourne: Ronald Ryan is the last man to hang in Australia for the murder of a prison warder while escaping from Melbourne's Pentridge Jail. His execution would result in the abolition of the death penalty.
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Tasmanian bushfires
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Gough Whitlam succeeds Arthur Calwell to become new Leader of the Labor Party
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Canberra: John Grey Gorton sworn in as Australia's 19th Prime Minister after Harold's Holt's disappearance
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Sydney: British comedian Tony Hancock found dead in his flat after overdose of barbiturates and alcohol
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Wimbledon: Rod Laver wins Men's Singles tennis title in the first Open Wimbledon
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Violet Town, Vic: Southern Aurora express passenger train crashes into a goods train from Sydney, killing at least 10 people and injuring 50
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Tokyo: Lionel Rose wins the Bantamweight world boxing championship after defeating Masahiko "Fighting" Harada
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Brisbane: Joh Bjelke-Petersen becomes Premier and leader of the Country Party after the death of Pizzey
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WA: The town of Meckering destroyed by biggest earthquake yet recorded in Australia. The quake measured 6.9 on the Richter Scale
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Vic: Death toll from bushfires across the state reaches 15
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Hong Kong: Ill-fated aircraft carrier HMAS Melbourne cuts an American destroyer in half in the South China Sea, killing at least 56 American sailors
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Melbourne: Police battle 3,000 Vietnam war protesters outside the US Consulate
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Portsea: Prime Minister Harold Holt disappears while swimming in heavy surf south of Melbourne. His body is never found
