1836: Charles Darwin reaches Sydney

173 years ago Charles Darwin sailed into Sydney Harbour.

Aboard the HMAS Beagle, Darwin made a brief stopover as part of a wider voyage that influenced his seminal work - On The Origins of Species.

To commemorate the occasion, the federal government has announced $100,000 for two events to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth on 12 February 1809.

The money will go towards a conference of international experts in evolutionary theory in Melbourne next month.

And a festival in November to celebrate of the 150th anniversary of the publication of - On the Origin of Species.

see also National Museum

Garden views

New Years Day

Sydney harbour view

thanks Angus

Odetta: 1930 - 2008

American folk singer and civil rights activist Odetta has died. She was 77.Her manager, Doug Yeager, gave a rousing statement to the press following her death: "May Odetta's luminous spirit and volcanic voice from the heavens live on for the ages. Her voice will never die."

Odetta was considered one of the most influential folk singers of her generation, inspiring musicians such as Joan Baez and Bob Dylan. She was always politically active, performing the slavery song Oh Freedom during the 1963 march on Washington, where Martin Luther King Jr gave his historic "I Have a Dream" speech.

In a 2007 interview she paid tribute the long-dead singers who first gave voice to the old blues and ballads and slavery songs she sang. “Those people who made up the songs were the ones who insisted upon life and living, who reaffirmed themselves,” she said. “They didn’t just fall down into the cracks or the holes. And that was an incredible example for me.”

Odetta was due to perform at Barack Obama's inauguration ceremony in January 2009.