HMS Beagle, with Charles Darwin on board, drops anchor off the Chonos Archipelago

HMS Beagle was a ship that played a crucial role in Charles Darwin’s groundbreaking scientific journey, leading to the development of his theory of evolution by natural selection. The Beagle was a Royal Navy survey ship, originally designed for naval hydrographic surveys. It was a relatively small ship, a brig-sloop, with a length of about 90 feet (27 meters).

In 1831, the Beagle set sail on its most famous voyage, captained by Robert FitzRoy. Charles Darwin, a young naturalist at the time, was invited to join the expedition as the ship’s naturalist. The primary purpose of the journey was to conduct coastal surveys of South America, particularly in the regions of Tierra del Fuego and Patagonia.

The voyage, which lasted almost five years from 1831 to 1836, took the Beagle to various locations, including the Galápagos Islands, Tahiti, Australia, and the Cape of Good Hope. Darwin collected a vast amount of specimens and made detailed observations of the flora, fauna, geology, and indigenous peoples in these regions.

One of the most significant stops during the journey was the Galápagos Islands. Darwin’s observations of the unique wildlife on these islands, including the distinctive finches, tortoises, and other species, played a crucial role in the development of his theory of evolution. The idea of natural selection, where species with advantageous traits have a better chance of survival and reproduction, emerged from his studies and observations during the Beagle voyage.

Darwin’s work, later published as “On the Origin of Species” in 1859, revolutionized the understanding of life on Earth and remains one of the most influential scientific theories in history. The HMS Beagle, though initially a naval survey ship, became synonymous with this transformative scientific journey and its role in shaping the theory of evolution.

U.S. President Jimmy Carter authorizes legislation giving $1.5 billion in loans to bail out the Chrysler Corporation

A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand, killing all 11 people on board

Alfonso IV becomes King of Portugal

The Senate trial in the impeachment of U.S. President Bill Clinton begins.
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A hot air balloon crashes near Carterton, New Zealand. All 11 people on board are killed.

On 7 January 2012, a scenic hot air balloon flight from Carterton, New Zealand, collided with a high-voltage power line while attempting to land, causing it to catch fire, disintegrate and crash just north of the town, killing all eleven people on board.

An inquiry into the accident by the Transport Accident Investigation Commission concluded that the balloon pilot made an error of judgement when contact with the power lines became imminent, trying to out-climb the power lines rather than using the rapid descent system to drop the balloon quickly to the ground below. Toxicology analysis of the balloon pilot after the accident tested positive for tetrahydrocannabinol, suggesting he may have been under the influence of cannabis at the time of the crash, which ultimately led to the error in judgement. The crash was the sixth accident in ten years the TAIC had investigated which involved key people testing positive for drugs or alcohol, and the commission has called for the government to enact stricter measures in regards to drug and alcohol use in the aviation, marine and rail industries.

The crash was the deadliest air disaster to occur in mainland New Zealand since the July 1963 crash of New Zealand National Airways Corporation Flight 441 in the Kaimai Ranges, and the deadliest crash involving a New Zealand aircraft since the November 1979 crash of Air New Zealand Flight 901 into Mount Erebus. As of September 2016, it is the deadliest ever ballooning disaster in New Zealand, and the fourth deadliest worldwide, surpassed only by the balloon crash in Australia in 1989 that killed 13, the balloon crash in Texas in 2016 that killed 16 people, and the 2013 crash in Egypt that killed 19 people.

The balloon was a Cameron A-210 model, registered ZK-XXF and named Mr Big. The envelope was manufactured in the United Kingdom in 1997, and was initially used in the United Kingdom before being purchased and imported into New Zealand by Early Morning Balloons Ltd in 2001. The basket and burner system, capable of carrying ten passengers plus pilot, were manufactured in 1989 and were previously used with a Thunder and Colt 160A envelope before the envelope was retired at the end of its useful life.

The balloon took off at 6:38 am from its launching area in Carterton, a town of 4100 people in north-eastern Wellington Region, on a 45-minute scenic flight over the Carterton area, carrying ten passengers. The Masterton-based pilot was one of New Zealand’s most experienced balloon pilots, with more than 10,000 hours flying time, and was the safety officer for the “Balloons over Wairarapa” hot air balloon festival, held annually in March around the Carterton and Masterton area. The ten passengers were all from the greater Wellington Region: two husband-and-wife couples from Masterton and Wellington, a couple from Lower Hutt, a boyfriend and girlfriend from Wellington, and two cousins from Masterton and Paraparaumu. At the time, the weather was clear, with sufficient light and little wind. Data collected from weather stations at six nearby vineyards confirmed that the wind was mostly calm with occasional gusts up to 11.4 kilometres per hour from the north-east.

The accident occurred around 7:20 am, when the balloon was attempting to land after completing a partial figure-8 flight pattern over the Carterton area. The pilot had indicated to the chase team he was likely to land near Somerset Road, a rural through road just north of Carterton in the locality of Clareville. At first the balloon was heading north-east over Somerset Road, around 700 metres east of the road’s intersection with State Highway 2. Around 400 metres north of Somerset Road, the balloon reversed direction and headed back towards the road. The two chase vehicles, carrying some of the family members of the passengers, positioned on the road ready to assist with the landing.

Eyewitnesses saw the balloon climb and drift east towards a ten-metre high 33,000-volt power line running perpendicular to the road, one of the two lines that connected the Clareville zone substation, which supplied Carterton and the surrounding rural area, to the national grid at Transpower’s Masterton substation. The pilot was heard shouting “duck down” as the balloon came in contact with the power line around 85 metres from the road. One of the conductor wires was caught over the top of the pilot’s end of the basket, and the pilot attempted to get the balloon to climb, but the tension of the wire prevented it rising and instead the balloon slid along the conductor. Around 20 seconds later, electrical arcing occurred as the balloon caused a phase-to-phase short circuit, tripping the line and causing the 3800 properties supplied by the Clareville zone substation to lose power. The arcing caused one of the four liquefied petroleum gas bottles supplying the burners to rupture, and a fire subsequently started.

Two of the passengers jumped from the balloon to avoid the fire, falling ten metres to their deaths below. As the fire intensified, it caused the air inside the balloon to heat and force it to rise. Eventually, the conductor wire on the power line snapped, sending the balloon shooting upwards. The fire soon engulfed the whole balloon, and 150 metres in the air, the envelope disintegrated, causing the balloon to fall towards the ground, with the wreckage landing in a field just south of Somerset Road, around 600 metres east of the SH2 intersection.

Emergency services were on the scene within seven minutes but, shortly after they arrived, ambulance staff found that all eleven people had died at the scene, and this was later confirmed by police. The bodies of the two people who jumped from the balloon were located 200 metres from the crash site.

It took two days until 9 January to remove the last victims’ bodies from the crash site. All eleven victims’ bodies were taken to Wellington Hospital to be formally identified.

The wreckage was examined at the scene, before being packed into a shipping container and transported to the TAIC’s secure workshop in Wellington.

Power to the Carterton area was restored shortly after the crash using the remaining subtransmission line and spare capacity in the 11,000-volt distribution network until the damaged line was repaired. The damaged power line conductors were removed from the scene for examination.

A memorial was erected in January 2016 near the site of the disaster.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee is first introduced.

The Jeep Grand Cherokee is a range of luxury SUVs produced by the American manufacturer Jeep. While some other SUVs were manufactured with body-on-frame construction, the Jeep Grand Cherokee has always used a unibody chassis.

The Grand Cherokee’s origins date back to 1983 when American Motors Corporation was designing a successor to the smaller Jeep Cherokee. Three outside designers—Larry Shinoda, Alain Clenet, and Giorgetto Giugiaro—were also under contract with AMC to create and build a clay model of the Cherokee XJ replacement, then known as the “XJC” project. However, the basic design for the Cherokee’s replacement was well under way by AMC’s in-house designers and the 1989 Jeep Concept 1 show car foretold the basic design.

As AMC began development of the next Jeep in 1985, management created a business process that is now known as product lifecycle management. According to François Castaing, Vice President for Product Engineering and Development, the smallest U.S. automaker was looking for a way to speed up its product development process to compete better against its larger competitors. The XJC’s development was aided by computer-aided design software systems making the engineers more productive while new communication allowed potential conflicts to be resolved faster thus reducing costly engineering changes because all drawings and documents were in a central database. The system was so effective that after Chrysler purchased AMC in 1987, it expanded the system throughout its enterprise, thus connecting everyone involved in designing and building products.

The Grand Cherokee thus became the first Chrysler-badged Jeep product. Development work for the new Jeep model continued and Chrysler’s employees were eager for a late-1980s release date; however, CEO Lee Iacocca was pushing for redesigned Chrysler minivans, thus delaying the Grand Cherokee’s release until late-1992 as an Explorer competitor. Unlike the Explorer, the Grand Cherokee utilized monocoque (unibody) construction, whereas the Explorer was a derivative of the Ranger pickup with a separate body-on-frame.

The Grand Cherokee debuted in grand fashion at the 1992 North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Michigan. The vehicle that was driven was a Poppy Red Clear Coat 1993 Grand Cherokee ZJ Laredo with a quartz cloth interior and high-back bucket seats. Then Chrysler president Robert Lutz drove Detroit mayor, Coleman Young, from the Jefferson North Assembly Plant on North Jefferson Avenue via a police escort to Cobo Hall, up the steps of Cobo Hall and through a plate glass window to show off the new vehicle. Sales of the 1993 model year Grand Cherokee began in April 1992.

Production of the Grand Cherokee started shortly afterward in the purpose-built Jefferson North Assembly in Detroit, Michigan. European Grand Cherokees are manufactured in Austria by Magna Steyr. The Grand Cherokee “played a significant part in reviving Chrysler’s fortunes by moving it into the then nascent market for high-margin sports utility vehicles.

Upon its introduction, it was the first USA-manufactured automobile using HFC-134a refrigerant in place of HCFC-12 for the HVAC system.

The Polaris missile is first test launched.

Galileo Galilei makes his first observation of the four Galilean moons.