TODAY IN HISTORY

622

Mohammed begins his flight from Mecca to Medina, marking the start of the Islamic calendar.

1855

Queen Victoria gives assent to an Act of the British parliament to grant a constitution to NSW. The British Act, called the NSW Constitution Act, endorses a similar Act from the NSW parliament. She also endorses the Victorian Constitution Act.

1897

Serial killer Frank Butler hangs in Darlinghurst Jail. He murdered and robbed a string of gold hunters, confessing before the gallows to three killings.

1910

The first flight of a purely Australiandesigned and manufactured propeller-powered aircraft is made by John Duigan at Mia Mia, Victoria.

1918

Tsar Nicholas II and his family are murdered by Bolsheviks.

1935

The world’s first parking meters are installed in Oklahoma City.

1945

The US conducts the world’s first test of an atomic weapon, in the New Mexico desert.

1980

Peter Baldwin, Labor’s left-wing federal MP for Sydney, is brutally bashed at night in his Marrickville home. ALP branchstackers are suspected but the attackers are never convicted.

1986

Tragedy strikes Moura in Queensland when 12 coal miners die in explosions and a cave-in.

2000

The Northside Storage Tunnel, to protect Sydney Harbour from sewage overflows, is finished.

2018

US President Donald Trump meets with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Helsinki. A submissive Trump says that Russia didn’t interfere with the US election.

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