TODAY IN HISTORY

TODAY IS MONDAY, JULY 30, 2018 On this day in history: 1502 - Christopher Columbus landed at Guanaja in the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras during his fourth voyage.

1768 - James Cook receives sealed secret orders prior to his first journey in the Endeavour.

1945 - The USS Indianapolis was torpedoed by a Japanese submarine. The ship had just delivered key components of the Hiroshima atomic bomb to the Pacific island of Tinian. Only 316 out of 1196 men aboard survived the attack. 1967 - Arthur Stace, the man who chalked “Eternity” on Sydney footpaths for 37 years, dies.

1980 - Vanuatu gains independence.

1980 - Israel’s Knesset passes the Jerusalem Law

1981 - As many as 50,000 demonstrators, mostly women and children, took to the streets in Łódź to protest food ration shortages in Communist Poland.

1987 - Indian troops arrived in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, to disarm the Tamil Tigers and enforce a peace pact.

1991 - In China, construction began on the Oriental Pearl Radio & TV Tower.

1997 - The Alpine Way above Thredbo, NSW, collapses, causing a landslide that kills 18, but ends with the amazing rescue of Stuart Diver. 2000 - Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt were married. 2001 - Lance Armstrong became the first American to win three consecutive Tours de France.

2003 - In Mexico, the last ‘old style’ Volkswagen Beetle rolled off an assembly line. 2006 - The world’s longest running music show Top of the Pops is broadcast for the last time on BBC Two. The show had aired for 42 years. 2012 - A train fire kills 32 passengers and injures 27 on the Tamil Nadu Express in Andhra Pradesh, India. 2012 - A power grid failure in Delhi leaves more than 300 million people without power in northern India.

2014 - One hundred and fifty people are trapped after a landslide in Maharashtra, India; 20 are killed.