AS A young man growing up in the late 1960s and early 1970s Australia Day was barely celebrated.

It was a day off from work and an excuse for a piss-up and BBQ without any talk of patriotism. TONY CAVUOTO

PALM BEACH

1337

Edward III of England declares himself king of France, a claim that leads to the Hundred Years’ War.

1606

Eight conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, go on trial in London for an attempt to blow up the English parliament building with gunpowder.

1788

The day after the flag is hoisted at Sydney Cove, parties of troops and convicts unload tents and other gear for establishing their penal settlement.

1820

The Sydney Burial Ground (Sandhills Cemetery) is consecrated on the site of present-day Central station.

1944

The 872-day siege of Leningrad is ended when Soviet troops take the offensive.

1967

Three astronauts die in a fire on board their Apollo 1 spacecraft on its launch pad at Cape Kennedy.

1980

Merchant banker Frank Nugan, worried about debts and auditing, shoots himself in his car near Lithgow. Inquiries into his death unravel a worldwide heroin trading network.

1996

First of the three Claremont serial murders in WA: Sarah Spiers, 18, office assistant, vanishes after leaving a nightclub in the Perth suburb of Claremont.

2008

Suharto, the military strongman who ruled Indonesia for 32 prosperous but corrupt years, dies in Jakarta at 86.

2013

2013

The Kiss nightclub in the Brazilian city of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, catches fire killing 242 people.

2018

Ingvar Kamprad, founder of the furniture store Ikea, dies.