ON THIS DAY

1870: Melbourne Town Hall is opened.

1945: More than 70,000 people in Nagasaki are killed after the US drops a second atomic bomb on the Japanese city in World War II.

1969: Charles Manson’s cult kills actress Sharon Tate and four others in Los Angeles.

1974: Gerald Ford is sworn in as 38th president of the US.

1999: Russian President Boris Yeltsin names Vladimir Putin as his new prime minister.

2004: A steam leak at Mihama nuclear power plant in Japan kills five workers, the country’s worst nuclear-related accident.

2016: Millions of Australians are prevented from filling in the census form after website crashes.

Birthdays: Australian author (Mary Poppins) P.L. Travers (1899-1996); Australian tennis player Rod Laver (1938-); US singer Whitney Houston (1963-2012); Australian actor Eric Bana (1968-).