This article describes the history of the Australian state of Victoria.

The state of Victoria was originally home to many indigenous nations that had occupied the land for tens of thousands of years. According to Gary Presland Aborigines have lived in Victoria for about 40,000 years, living a semi-nomadic existence of fishing, hunting and gathering, and farming eels.

At the Keilor Archaeological Site a human hearth excavated in 1971 was radiocarbon-dated to about 31,000 years BP, making Keilor one of the earliest sites of human habitation in Australia. A cranium found at the site has been dated at between 12,000 and 14,700 years BP.

Archaeological sites in Tasmania and on the Bass Strait Islands have been dated to between 20,000 – 35,000 years ago, when sea levels were 130 metres below present level allowing Aboriginal people to move across the region of southern Victoria and on to the land bridge of the Bassian plain to Tasmania by at least 35,000 years ago.

During the Ice Age about 20,000 years BP, the area now the bay of Port Phillip would have been dry land, and the Yarra and Werribee river would have joined to flow through the heads then south and south west through the Bassian plain before meeting the ocean to the west. Tasmania and the Bass Strait islands became separated from mainland Australia around 12,000 BP, when the sea level was approximately 50m below present levels. Port Phillip was flooded by post-glacial rising sea levels between 8000 and 6000 years ago.

Victoria Elizabeth Coren (born 18 August 1972) is a British writer, presenter and champion poker player. Coren writes weekly columns for The Observer and The Guardian newspapers and hosts the BBC Four television quiz show Only Connect.

Coren was born in North London. She is the daughter of the humourist and journalist Alan Coren and the sister of journalist Giles Coren. She is a graduate of St John's College, Oxford, and has said that she regularly stays up until 6 am, 'Smoking, and drinking and gambling. But I like cooking and gardening too, which makes me sound like a very strange mix of an old lady and teenage boy.' When asked about this she stated: 'It is still true. I'll grow up one day, but not quite yet.'

Aged 14, she had a short story published under a pseudonym in Just Seventeen magazine and then won a competition in the Daily Telegraph to write a column about teenage life for their "Weekend" section, which she continued writing for several years.

Her books include Love 16 and Once More, with Feeling, about her attempt (with co-author Charlie Skelton) to make the best hardcore porn movie ever. This came off the back of their jobs reviewing porn films for the Erotic Review—a job which led them to believe that most of what they were watching was terrible and that they could make better films themselves.

Andy Gibb (5 March 1958 – 10 March 1988) was an English singer and teen idol, and the younger brother of Bee Gees Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb.

Andrew Roy Gibb was born in Manchester, England, to Barbara (née Pass) and Hugh Gibb (d. 1992). At the age of six months, Gibb emigrated with his family to Queensland, Australia, settling on Cribb Island just north of Brisbane. He was the youngest of five children and had one older sister, Lesley (b. 1945), and three older brothers, Barry (b. 1946) and fraternal twins Robin (1949-2012) and Maurice (1949-2003). After moving several times around Brisbane and Sydney, Gibb returned to the United Kingdom in January 1967 as his three older brothers began to gain international fame as the Bee Gees.

As a young teenager, Andy began playing at tourist clubs around Spain's coastal Island of Ibiza, and later on the Isle of Man, the birth place of his older brothers, where his parents were living at the time. Andy formed his first group, Melody Fayre (named after a Bee Gees song) which included local island musicians John Alderson (guitar) and John Stringer (drums). The group was managed by Gibb's mother Barbara. The group had regular bookings on the small island's hotel circuit. His first recording (in early 1974) was a Maurice Gibb composition called "My Father Was a Reb" on which Maurice also produced and played. It was not released.

Victoria Principal (born January 3, 1950) is an American actress, author and businesswoman best known for her role as Pamela Barnes on the CBS night-time TV drama Dallas from 1978 to 1987.

Principal was born in Fukuoka, Japan, the eldest daughter of United States Air Force sergeant Victor Principal, after whom she was named and who was then stationed in Fukuoka. Her paternal grandparents were emigrants from Italy, originally surnamed Principale. Her mother, the former Bertha Ree Veal, was born in Georgia and was of English descent. Because her father was in the US military, they moved often; she grew up in London, Puerto Rico, Florida, Massachusetts, and Georgia, among other places. She attended 17 different schools, including studying at the Royal Academy of Ballet while her family was stationed in England.

She began her career in TV commercials, appearing in her first at age five. After graduating from South Dade Senior High School in 1968, she enrolled at Miami-Dade Community College, intending to study medicine. However, months before completing her first year of studies, she was seriously injured in a car crash while driving home from the library. The other driver was convicted of drunk driving and served jail time. Principal spent months in recovery and was faced with the prospect of having to take her first year of studies over again. After a period of serious introspection, she drastically changed her life by moving to New York City to pursue her acting career, and shortly thereafter to Europe. She studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London, and then in 1971 moved to Los Angeles.

Queen Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was the monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death. From 1 May 1876, she used the additional title of Empress of India.

Victoria was the daughter of Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the fourth son of King George III. Both the Duke of Kent and the King died in 1820, and Victoria was raised under close supervision by her German-born mother Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. She inherited the throne at the age of 18, after her father's three elder brothers had all died without surviving legitimate issue. The United Kingdom was already an established constitutional monarchy, in which the Sovereign held relatively few direct political powers. Privately, she attempted to influence government policy and ministerial appointments. Publicly, she became a national icon, and was identified with strict standards of personal morality.

She married her first cousin, Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, in 1840. Their nine children and 26 of their 34 grandchildren who survived childhood married into royal and noble families across the continent, tying them together and earning her the nickname "the grandmother of Europe". After Albert's death in 1861, Victoria plunged into deep mourning and avoided public appearances. As a result of her seclusion, republicanism temporarily gained strength, but in the latter half of her reign, her popularity recovered. Her Golden and Diamond Jubilees were times of public celebration.