TODAY IN HISTORY

70

A Roman army, under the general Titus, breaches the walls of Jerusalem after a long siege.

1099

Crusaders seize Jerusalem and massacre its Muslim and Jewish inhabitants — the result of the first Christian crusade.

1869

Margarine is patented by chemist Hippolyte Mege-Mouries in Paris. He won a contest held by Emperor Napoleon III to find a suitable substitute for butter for the French navy.

1912

The Commonwealth Bank opens its first branches, with PM Andrew Fisher making the first deposit, of 1, at its Melbourne HQ.

1964

Australia’s first national newspaper, The Australian, begins publication in Canberra

1965

An unmanned space probe, Mariner 4, launched by NASA in 1964, flies by Mars and sends close-up pictures of its surface.

1977

Anti-drugs campaigner Donald Mackay, 43, vanishes, apparently murdered, from his home town of Griffith.

1997

Fashion designer Gianni Versace, 50, is shot dead outside his Miami Beach mansion in Florida by gay serial killer Andrew Cunanan, 27.

2007

Two Australians training Iraqi police die in a road ambush near Baghdad. One, Brendan Hurst, is a former police officer, the other, Justin Saint, an ex-army officer They were working for a private contractor.

2019

The bodies of Australian man Lucas Fowler and his American girlfriend Chynna Deese are found near their van on a roadside in a remote area of British Columbia in Canada, sparking a manhunt for the killers.