For generations of Australians, the number 05 still means one man. Today marks exactly 20 years since we lost Peter Brock, while September 8 has also witnessed some big moments in Australian and world history.
On September 8, 2006, Australian motor racing legend Peter Brock died while competing in the Targa West rally in Western Australia. He was 61.
Two decades later, the affection for the man known as the King of the Mountain remains extraordinary.
Brock won the Bathurst 1000 a record nine times and became inseparable from Holden, Mount Panorama and an era when families planned an entire Sunday around watching the Great Race.
Today, new exhibitions are marking the anniversary, including a $12 million collection of famous touring cars at The Bend in South Australia featuring Brock’s 1978 Bathurst-winning Torana A9X.
Bathurst’s National Motor Racing Museum is also opening a new exhibition celebrating his life and career.
On September 8, 1951, Australia joined dozens of nations in signing the Treaty of Peace with Japan in San Francisco.
Japan had surrendered six years earlier, but the treaty laid the foundations for formally ending the postwar occupation and restoring Japan’s relations with the Allied powers. and helped reshape Australia’s relationship with its former wartime enemy.
On this day in 1966, American viewers saw the first broadcast episode of Star Trek.
William Shatner’s Captain Kirk and Leonard Nimoy’s Mr Spock would become cultural icons, while the series spawned movies, spin-offs and generations of devoted fans.
Comedy legend Peter Sellers, remembered for The Pink Panther and Dr. Strangelove, was born on September 8, 1925.
Country music great Patsy Cline was born in 1932, while Australian-raised superstar Pink celebrates her 47th birthday today.
Were you a Brocky fan? Maybe you owned a Holden, watched him conquer Bathurst or remember exactly where you were when the terrible news came through in 2006. Share your Peter Brock memories with us.
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