ON THIS DAY

1649: Trial of England’s King Charles I begins.

1790: Second Fleet sails from England with 1006 convicts, bound for Sydney Cove.

1853: Italian composer Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il Trovatore has its first performance in Rome.

1957: GTV 9 begins transmission in Melbourne.

1966: Indira Gandhi is elected India’s prime minister, succeeding Lal Shastri who died on January 11.

1975: The ABC’s new youth station, 2JJ, broadcasts for the first time, playing Skyhook’s You Just Like Me ’Cause I’m Good In Bed.

2017: NSW Premier Mike Baird sensationally announces he is quitting politics, to be later replaced by Liberal colleague Gladys Berijiklian.

Birthdays: Edgar Allen Poe, US writer (18091849); Johnny O’Keefe, Australian rock singer (1935-1978); Janis Joplin, US singer (1943-1970); Dolly Parton, US singer-actress (1946-).