ON THIS DAY
1798
The first recorded sightings of a koala and a lyrebird by a settler are made by John Price, 19, governor John Hunter’s servant, in the Southern Highlands.
1823
Edward Jenner, who is credited with introducing vaccination against smallpox, dies.
1865
Constable Samuel Nelson is shot by bushranger John Dunn, 18, of Ben Hall’s gang, at Collector, NSW. Dunn is executed in March 1866.
1885
General Charles Gordon is killed by Sudanese rebels along with other British defenders of the city of Khartoum.
1896
A cyclone kills 18 in Townsville as it sweeps buildings away and blows ships on to rocks.
1912
James Morgan, 21, blacksmith, of Waverley, is killed by a shark while swimming in the Lane Cove River shortly before 2pm, while his girlfriend watches. He dies after he is dragged ashore.
1926
Scottish inventor John Logie Baird (above) shows his “televisor’’, or television transmitter, in London, using a ventriloquist’s doll.
1934
Adolf Hitler’s Naziled government announces a 10-year nonaggression pact with Poland.
1938
On the 150th anniversary of white settlement, Aborigines meet in the Australian Hall, Sydney, in a day of mourning and call for land rights, citizenship rights and self-determination.
1966
The Beaumont children disappear in Glenelg, Adelaide. Jane, 9, Arnna, 7, and Grant, 4, vanish after travelling by bus to Glenelg Beach. A tall, blond “surfie’’ is reported to have been seen.
1988
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s The Phantom of the Opera, a musical version of Gaston Leroux’s melodramatic novel, opens in New York City and goes on to become the longestrunning show in Broadway history.