ON THIS DAY

1642: Dutch explorer Abel Tasman sights Tasmanian coast, naming it Van Diemen’s Land.

1963: Lee Harvey Oswald, accused assassin of US President John F. Kennedy, is shot dead in Dallas. 1969: Apollo 12 splashes safely in the Pacific ending second manned mission to the moon.

1990: South Africa’s Pan-Africanist Congress announces it will join with African National Congress in opposing the white-led government.

1991: Freddie Mercury, 45, lead singer of Queen, dies of AIDS.

2007: Kevin Rudd is elected Prime Minister after Labor’s defeat of the John Howard-led coalition.

2014: Senator Jacqui Lambie resigns from the Palmer United Party to become an independent.

Birthdays: French artist Henri de ToulouseLautrec (1864-1901); Scottish comedian Billy Connolly (1942-); Australian swimmer Tracey Wickham (1962-).