Choose Life Australia

 
Filed on 10 June 2017 in Food For Thought category. Print This Page

2017

Just in case – like me – you’re a little slow to recognise 2017 as an incredibly special anniversary year…

1517 Reformation, Martin Luther posting his 95 theses on door of Wittenberg Castle Church

1817 birth of Bible Society https://www.eternitynews.com.au/australia/special-year-for-the-bible-in-2017/

1867 discovery of ancient ruins of City of David by Sir Charles Warren of British Royal Engineers, commissioned by the Palestine Exploration Fund chartered by Queen Victoria. See http://www.itsgila.com/headlinerswarren.htm for an exciting read

1917 WW1 Europe and Russia
Flanders offensive. Third Battle of Ypres.
Battle of Bullecourt, 3,300 Australian casualties on one day 11 April including my Uncle Ernest (Dalziell), aged 19 http://www.chooselifeaustralia.org.au/life/anzac/  76,000 Australian casualties for the year.
Battle of Stalingrad

1917 USA enters WW1
1917 Battle of Beersheba, Charge of the 4^th Australian Light Horse Brigade
1917 Liberation of Jerusalem General Allenby http://www.firstworldwar.com/source/jerusalem_allenby1.htm

1917 Balfour Declaration re “establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people”

1942 WW2 75^th anniversaries of
Fall of Singapore
Attack on Pearl Harbour
Bombing of Darwin
Battle of the Coral Sea https://anzacday.org.au/ww2-the-battle-of-the-coral-sea “the battle that saved Australia” and then the Battle of Midway

1967 Six-Day war and re-unification of Jerusalem

Also see
http://www.awmlondon.gov.au/battles/beersheba
http://www.aph.gov.au/About_Parliament/Parliamentary_Departments/Parliamentary_Library/pubs/rp/rp1617/Quick_Guides/AnzacDayAnniversaries
http://anzacportal.dva.gov.au/ for magnificent posters (which I have)

Yes, of course it’s incomplete. You will note I have only picked 50^th 75^th 100^th 150^th 200^th 500^th and ones of particular significance to Australia, to Christians and to Jerusalem, not leaving any space for the 40^th anniversary of Star Wars (sniff!). I’m stopping now otherwise I’ll spend all day on this remarkable history…

Enjoy, be sobered, also thankful and rejoicing. It helps to set a better context for 2017 with its national and international strife and uncertainties. We can be thankful. (Lizzie pointed out this perspective.)

Lachlan Dunjey 10 June, 2017.

(Remember to paste links into browser if link doesn’t work – they’re all safe.)

2017 appendix

1917 Kokoda Campaign. Yes, another historic Australian campaign. For classic stories including the native ‘Fuzzy Wuzzy Angels’ see this wonderful booklet
Up the Track with JESUS – Reflections on KOKODA for Men by David Rowsome
https://dmrowsome.files.wordpress.com/2015/04/up-the-track-with-jesus-reflections-on-kokoda.pdf

1917 Halifax Disaster: a maritime disaster in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. A French ship laden with high explosives collided with another causing a large explosion that devastated a part of Halifax. Approximately 2,000 people were killed and an estimated 9,000 others were injured. The blast was the largest man-made explosion prior to the development of nuclear weapons, releasing the equivalent energy of roughly 2.9 kilotons of TNT. Excerpted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halifax_Explosion