ON THIS DAY
1498: Christopher Columbus, on his third voyage to the New World, arrives at the island of Trinidad.
1886: Death of Franz Liszt, Hungarian composer and pianist.
1928: MGM releases their first talking motion picture, White Shadows in the South Seas.
1944: US troops break through the German lines around the Normandy beachhead, opening the way to liberating the rest of France.
1964: US Ranger 7 spacecraft transmits to Earth first close-up pictures of the moon.
2013: Australia’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) recommends criminal charges against Labor figures Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald.
Birthdays: Evonne Goolagong Cawley, Australian tennis champion (1951-); JK Rowling, British author of Harry Potter books (1965-).