ON THIS DAY

1774: Captain James Cook lands on Norfolk Island, then uninhabited.

1913: Atlantic and Pacific oceans are united when the Gamboa Dam in the Panama Canal is blown up.

1970: Fiji, a British colony since 1874, becomes an independent member of the Commonwealth.

1975: Actors Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor marry for the second time in Botswana.

1989: South African President FW De Klerk announces that eight prominent political prisoners will be unconditionally freed, but that Nelson Mandela will remain imprisoned.

2004: Superman actor Christopher Reeve, who became a committed campaigner for spinal cord research after being paralysed in a riding accident in 1995, dies aged 52.

Birthdays: Bruce Devlin, Australian golfer (1937-); David Lee Roth, US singer (1955-); Gabriella Cilmi, Australian singer (1991-).