ON THIS DAY
1836 The survey ship HMS Beagle carries naturalist Charles Darwin into Sydney Harbour.
1879 The Zulu War begins as the British seek to impose control over Zululand in eastern South Africa. Despite early setbacks, British forces defeat the Zulu army after six months.
1897 Isaac Pitman, British educator and inventor of the shorthand system, dies.
1929 A shark mauls Colin Stewart, 14, in waistdeep water on a sandbar 35m off Bondi Beach. He dies in hospital the next day.
1943 Australian and US troops begin the attack on Sanananda in New Guinea in World War II. It will fall on January 18.
1953 For the first time in NSW a woman sits with three men on a jury in the Supreme Court. The NSW Jury Act prevents the publication of the identity of the juror and the woman will be known as “Miss X”.
1962 Australia accepts Indonesian sovereignty over West New Guinea with Prime Minister Robert Menzies saying Australia would respect any Dutch-Indonesia agreement made without duress.
1964 American entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder of Amazon.com, is born.
1976 Crime novelist Agatha Christie (pictured) dies in Devon, aged 85.
1965 The bodies of two missing girls, best friends Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, both 15, from West Ryde, are found partially buried at Sydney’s Wanda beach. The crime remains unsolved.
1970 Cheryl Grimmer, three, disappears from Fairy Meadow beach, NSW. Her parents receive a ransom note but the kidnapper fails to show and the case remains unsolved.