ON THIS day
1449
Florentine statesman, ruler, and patron of arts and letters Lorenzo de’ Medici was born. 1791
In Australia’s first recorded fatal shark attack, an Aboriginal woman is bitten in Sydney Harbour. 1804 Haiti declares itself independent from France, becoming the world’s first black republic. 1829 Explorer Charles Sturt’s party reaches the Bogan River. He examines the Darling River near presentday Bourke and traces the Castlereagh River. 1853 Debt-ridden former explorer Gregory Blaxland hangs himself. 1863 Amid the US civil war, president Abraham Lincoln signs the Emancipation Proclamation declaring slaves free. 1901
The Commonwealth of Australia begins at Centennial Park, Sydney, as the Earl of Hopetoun is sworn in as governor-general. 1911
The federal government takes over the Northern Territory from South Australia. 1919 American author J.D. Salinger, whose only novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), won wide critical acclaim. is born. 1953 American countryand-western musician Hank Williams, Sr., dies. 1959 Dictator Fulgencio Batista flees Cuba after his regime is toppled by rebel forces led by Fidel Castro. 1963 Two boys find the bodies of Dr Gilbert Stanley Bogle, a physicist with the CSIRO, and Mrs Margaret Chandler (above), wife of a CSIRO scientist, near the Lane Cove River, Sydney. The case is still unsolved. 1995
The World Trade Organisation is formally established. 1999 Australian Jac Nasser takes over as chief executive of Ford Motor Company. He lasts less than three years. 2002
Euro replaces currencies of France and 10 other European currencies.