Flinders University celebrates its 57th anniversary on Saturday 25 March – remembering the day it was officially opened by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother in 1966.

For almost six decades, Flinders University has been home to brilliant researchers, leading educators and enterprising graduates who challenge the status quo – and the University is now poised for an exciting future after the announcement of new courses and partnerships to embrace nuclear science expertise in the wake of Australia’s AUKUS agreement.

As Flinders University commemorates this significant historial milestone, it’s worth reflecting on what else happened around the world in 1966. The space race between the United States and the Soviet Union was in full flight, with an unmanned Soviet Luna 9 spacecraft making the first controlled rocket-assisted landing on the Moon, while US astronauts John Young and Michael Collins set a world altitude record.

It was also a time of significant cultural change, as The Beatles began recording the Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band album at Abbey Road Studios in London, while The Sound of Music won Best Picture at the 38th Academy Awards. In sport, England won the 1966 World Cup, beating West Germany 4-2 at Wembley after extra time, and the Boston Celtics won its eighth straight NBA title over the Los Angeles Lakers.

Against this turbulent backdrop, Elizabeth, the Queen Mother, was escorted around the fledgling Bedford Park campus for the official opening by Sir George Ligertwood, who chaired the planning committee for Flinders University; Emeritus Professor Sir Mark Mitchell, the first Chancellor of Flinders University; Vice-Chancellor Professor Peter Karmel, and Sir Thomas Playford, Premier of South Australia. In its first year, Flinders University enrolled 382 first-year undergraduates and 35 graduate students.