ON THIS DAY
1854 Goldminers near Ballarat fly the Southern Cross flag, burn their licences and vow to protect anyone arrested for being without a licence. The next day the riot act is read and miners begin building a stockade at the Eureka Lead.
1864 US troops massacre hundreds of native Cheyenne who had surrendered to them at Sand Creek, Colorado.
1917 An egg thrown from the crowd knocks the hat off prime minister Billy Hughes as he was making a speech at Warwick railway station. Hughes later decides to set up a federal police force.
1930 Prime Minister James Scullin, in London for the Imperial Conference, meets King George V and obtains his reluctant agreement to the appointment of an Australian, Isaac Isaacs, as governor-general.
1942 Injured Sydney RAF pilot Rawdon Middleton, returning to England from a bombing raid, dies as his plane crashes into the sea after fuel runs out. He is awarded the VC for letting seven crew members bale out before the crash.
1948 Prime Minister Ben Chifley launches General Motors- Holden’s first family motor car off the assembly line at Fisherman’s Bend, Melbourne.
1967 Australia’s first satellite is launched at Woomera rocket range. It holds instruments from the Weapons Research Establishment.
1981 US actress Natalie Wood (above) drowns after a yacht party.
1997 Washington: About 28,000 couples participate in a marriage affirmation ceremony officiated by the Reverend and Mrs Sun Myung Moon, founders of the Unification Church.
2006 Black Hawk chopper crash on HMAS Kanimbla kills Captain Mark Bingley, while SAS trooper Joshua Porter is reported missing, presumed dead.