ON THIS DAY
1484
Pope Innocent VIII issues a papal bull (letter) condemning witchcraft. He later sends inquisitors to try those accused of the practice, leading to burning of “witches”.
1791
Austrian composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, 35, dies in Vienna.
1909
George Taylor makes Australia’s first glider flight at Narrabeen in a craft he designed and built himself. His wife Florence then makes a flight, becoming the first woman to fly in Australia. Four days later, Colin Defries makes Australia’s first powered flight.
1924
Percy Christmas (above) opens Australia’s first Woolworths in Sydney’s Imperial Arcade.
1925
More than 60,000 fans watch as a banked concrete motor speedway opens at Maroubra; it is demolished in
1934.
The US ends 14 years of alcohol prohibition as Utah becomes the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment. Three-quarters of the states had to ratify it for the amendment to pass.
1934
Turkey’s parliament gives women the right to vote and to be elected amid liberal reforms of the modern state’s founder Kemal Ataturk.
1938
Landscape artist Albert Namatjira opens his first solo exhibition, at the Fine Art Society Gallery in Melbourne.
1952
A lethal smog begins blanketing London, causing thousands of deaths.
1992
Sydney criminal Edward “Jockey’’ Smith, 50, dies in a gunbattle outside a hotel near Ballarat with police, who tried to question him about a stolen car.
1996
Independent senators Brian Harradine and Mal Colston agree to vote for a bill to privatise a third of Telstra, ensuring the bill passes.
2006
Fijian military chief Commodore Frank Bainimarama overthrows the government in the country’s fourth coup in 20 years.