Over two-thirds of the members, and all the serving MPs, of the Liberal Party joined this party, led first jointly by Steel and the SDP leader Robert Maclennan, and later by Paddy Ashdown ( 1988 – 99 ), Charles Kennedy ( 1999 – 2006 ), Sir Menzies Campbell ( 2006 – 07 ) and Nick Clegg ( incumbent ).

* 1931 – Guy Menzies flies the first solo non-stop trans-Tasman flight ( from Australia to New Zealand ) in 11 hours and 45 minutes, crash-landing on New Zealand's west coast.

Menzies was first educated at a one-room school, then later at private schools in Ballarat and Melbourne ( Wesley College ) and studied law at the University of Melbourne, graduating in 1916.

Elizabeth II | Queen Elizabeth II with Menzies at an official function during her first visit to Australia in 1954

This was the first " television election " and Menzies, although nearly 70, proved a master of the new medium.

Menzies ' was the first appointment made after this.

His attitude towards the Commonwealth and the Federal was shaped by his first premiers ’ conference in 1965 when Prime Minister Menzies negotiated with the Victorian premier Henry Bolte to achieve an extra grant of funds for Victoria at the expense of the other states and closed the conference before the other Premiers could object.

She had a busy official role from 1932 to 1939 and, following her husband's death, stood for Parliament herself, becoming Australia's first female Member of the House of Representatives, and later first woman in Cabinet, joining the Menzies Cabinet in 1951.

In January 1940, Menzies dispatched potential leadership rival Richard Casey to Washington as Australia's first " Minister to the United States ".

Menzies first documented the tree on Vancouver Island in 1791.

Menzies was its first President.

Dame Enid Lyons later went into politics in her own right, in 1943 becoming the first woman to sit in the House of Representatives, and later the first woman Cabinet Minister in the Menzies ' Liberal government.

Bradman first met Jessie Martha Menzies in 1920 when she boarded with the Bradman family, to be closer to school in Bowral.

Though the film was not well received, William Cameron Menzies won the first Academy Award for Best Art Direction in 1928 for this film and Tempest, though the award was then called " Interior Decoration.

In October 1941, Arthur Coles and Alexander Wilson, the two independent MPs who had been keeping the Coalition ( led first by Menzies, then by Fadden ) in power since 1940, joined Labor in defeating Fadden's budget and brought the government down.

In Ian Fleming's first draft of Casino Royale, Moneypenny's name was originally " Miss ' Petty ' Pettaval ", which was taken from Kathleen Pettigrew, the personal assistant to MI6 director Stewart Menzies.

Soon after the war, Menzies was promoted to lieutenant-colonel of the Imperial General Staff, General Staff Officer, first grade.

A year later North Korea invaded South Korea and in 1951, during the Korean War, the Liberal government of Robert Menzies tried to ban the Communist Party of Australia, first by legislation that was declared invalid by the High Court, then by referendum to try to overcome the constitutional obstacles to that legislation, but the referendum was narrowly defeated.

At first his leadership went rather well, and he campaigned successfully against Menzies ' attempt to amend the Constitution to ban the Communist Party.

Menzies claims that the knowledge of the winds, currents, and sea conditions that he gained on this voyage was essential to reconstructing the 1421 Chinese voyage that he discusses in his first book.

In 2002, Menzies published his first book: 1421: The Year China Discovered the World.

Specimens of Brodiaea were first collected by Archibald Menzies, botanist to the Vancouver Expedition, in 1792.

After eight years in opposition, the Coalition won the federal election of December 1949 and Menzies began his record-setting second term as Prime Minister.

* April 28 – Robert Menzies ' Liberal Party government in Australia is re-elected for a second term.

** The Australian government of Robert Menzies is re-elected for a sixth term.

( He was the only prime minister to be knighted during his term of office until Robert Menzies in 1963 ; various others were knighted after leaving the office ; Sir Earle Page was already a knight when he briefly became prime minister in 1939.

His term as Australian Prime Minister was a record until overtaken by Robert Menzies.

When Menzies succeeded Chifley as Prime Minister in December 1949, his relations with McKell were initially cordial, but they later became firm friends and Menzies even extended his term by 14 months from its initial five years.

McKell retired in May 1953, having had his initial term extended by 14 months by the same Robert Menzies who had decried his appointment.

The term " production designer " was coined by William Cameron Menzies while he was working on the film Gone with the Wind.

The term and credit " production designer ", sometimes used interchangeably with the term and credit " art director ", was coined specifically for Menzies to refer to his being the final word on the overall look of the production, and it was intended to describe his uncanny ability to translate Selznick's ideas to drawings and paintings from which he and his fellow directors worked.

The Prime Minister's XI is played at the oval annually, it was started by Robert Menzies in 1951 and there were six more matches up to 1965 in his term as Prime Minister, the match was brought back in 1984 by Bob Hawke and has been played annually since.

* 1894 – Sir Robert Menzies, twelfth Prime Minister of Australia ( d. 1978 )

This necessarily limited his personal and political impact, especially when compared to his immediate predecessor Sir Robert Menzies, who was Prime Minister for a total of 18 years.

In 1921 Thomas Holt enrolled his sons at Wesley College in Melbourne, where the future Prime Minister Robert Menzies had been a star pupil.

In 1939 Holt's mentor Robert Menzies became Prime Minister after the sudden death of the incumbent Joseph Lyons and the short-term caretaker ministry of Sir Earle Page.

In August 1941, a front-bench revolt forced Menzies to resign as Prime Minister.

He was appointed to the prestigious portfolios of Minister for Labour and National Service ( 1949 – 1958 ; he had previously served in this portfolio 1940 – 41 ) and Minister for Immigration ( 1949 – 1956 ), by which time he was being touted in the press as a " certain successor to Menzies and a potential Prime Minister ".

For much of the night, it looked like Labor might bring down the Menzies government, but a narrow win by Liberal Billy Snedden in Bruce ended any realistic chance of opposition leader Arthur Calwell becoming Prime Minister.

With Menzies ' support, Holt was elected leader of the Liberal Party, thus becoming Prime Minister.

Although all the preparatory work for the decimal changeover had been done while Menzies was Prime Minister, Holt had particular responsibility as Treasurer for currency matters, and he was centrally involved in both the decision to change and its implementation.

Page remained dominant in the party until 1939 and briefly served as an interim Prime Minister between the death of Joseph Lyons and the election of Robert Menzies as his successor, but Page's refusal to serve under Menzies led to his resignation as leader.

When Menzies was forced to resign as Prime Minister, the UAP was so bereft of leadership that Fadden briefly succeeded him ( despite the Country Party being the junior partner in the governing coalition ).

* 1964 – Prime Minister of Australia Robert Menzies opens the artificial Lake Burley Griffin in the middle of the capital Canberra.

Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, ( 20 December 189415 May 1978 ) was an Australian politician and the 12th Prime Minister of Australia.

Menzies is regarded highly in Prime Ministerial opinion polls and is very highly regarded in Australian society for his tenures as Prime Minister.

Animosity developed between Earle Page and Menzies which was aggravated when Page became Acting Prime Minister during Lyons ' illness after October 1938.

Menzies and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill in 1941.

On 18 April, Menzies was elected Leader of the UAP and was sworn in as Prime Minister eight days later.

Added to this was the fact that Menzies had not served in that war, and that as Attorney-General and Deputy Prime Minister, Menzies had made an official visit to Germany in 1938, and like his Opposition at the time, supported Neville Chamberlain's policy of Appeasement.

The Australian historian Professor David Day has suggested that Menzies might have replaced Churchill as British Prime Minister, and that he had some support in Britain for this.

This support came from the British press in the form of Viscount Astor, Lord Beaverbrook and former WW1 Prime Minister David Lloyd George, who were trenchant critics of the autocratic style of Winston Churchill and favoured replacing Winston with Menzies.