Town Plans Big Celebration for Wrong Year

Charleville, Australia, had a huge shindig prepared for the town's 150th anniversary. Then they realized that they were three years too late. Mayor Annie Liston says some locals believed the town of 5,000 people was officially recognized in 1868, but a check of Queensland state records revealed that the correct year was 1865, the BBC reports. She says the confusion was compounded by disagreements among local historians about the date—and by the fact that many town records were lost in a flood years ago.

Liston says the anniversary party had been planned for more than a year, and it will go on despite the mix-up the Telegraph reports. "We'll still celebrate what we missed out on, the 150, so we'll have to do something around the 153rd," she says. "We don't really need an excuse for a party." (More Australia stories.)