ON THIS DAY
1810
Governor
Lachlan Macquarie appoints exconvict Andrew Thompson as chief magistrate at the Hawkesbury.
1836
The survey ship HMS Beagle carries naturalist Charles Darwin into Sydney.
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.
1888
NSW is linked by rail to South Australia as a private line, the Silverton Tramway, connects Broken Hill with Cockburn.
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 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.
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.
1965
The bodies of two missing girls, Christine Sharrock and Marianne Schmidt, both 15, are found 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.
1976
Crime novelist Agatha Christie (pictured) dies in Devon, aged 85.