A history of marriage in Australia

On 13 August 2004, in a debate punctuated by rage and tears, the Senate passed a Howard government amendment to the Marriage Act banning same-sex marriages.

Exactly 45 years earlier, on 13 August 1959, in the midst of debating Australia’s first national Marriage Act — the one Howard later amended — the House of Representatives erupted at the news an Aboriginal woman had been denied permission to marry — via redwolf.newsvine.com