TODAY IN HISTORY

1497

Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama sails from Lisbon with four vessels. He ultimately opens a sea route from western Europe to Asia via the Cape of Good Hope.

1799

Matthew Flinders leaves Port Jackson in the sloop Norfolk to explore the coast to the north.

1805

Judge Advocate Richard Atkins writes to governor Philip Gidley King that as Aborigines are believed to have neither religion nor morals, they cannot give evidence in a case of law.

1822

Poet Percy Bysse Shelley dies, aged 29, when his boat capsizes in a storm off the coast of Italy.

1853

US Commodore Matthew Perry arrives in Japan’s Uraga Harbour with two armed frigates in an attempt to force the country to trade with the West after more than 200 years’ seclusion.

1862

A group of sailors form the Australian Yacht Club in Sydney. It later becomes the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron.

1904

Sydney streets are lit by electricity when Pyrmont Power House is officially switched on by Lord Mayor Samuel Lees.

1947

US army announces that it has recovered remains from an unidentified flying object, at Roswell New Mexico.

1963

Margaret Smith becomes the first

Australian woman to win the Wimbledon Women’s Singles tennis championship.

2008

SAS signaller Sean McCarthy, 25, is killed by an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan.

2018

American pop idol and actor Tab Hunter dies at the age of 86. He hit number one on the US charts with Young Love.