ON THIS day

366

The Alemanni, a collection of Germanic tribes, cross the frozen Rhine River to attack Roman provinces in Gaul. They are beaten back by Valentinian.

1492

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella ride into Granada after their armies defeat Boabdil, the last Muslim ruler of Spain, completing the Christian reconquest of Spain.

1861

Frederick William IV, king of Prussia from 1840, dies at Sanssouci Palace.

1878

Australia’s first regular telephone service when a store on Spencer St, Melbourne, talks with an office in Elizabeth St.

1860

French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier announces a new planet between Mercury and the sun which he names Vulcan. It is later found not to exist.

1907

Schoolboys Charles Kingsford Smith and Rupert Swallow, both nine, are rescued by local surfers at Bondi Beach with the aid of a lifeline, which is attached to the shore and worn by a surf swimmer.

1913

The first postage stamp is issued in Australia. The halfpenny stamp depicts a kangaroo on an outline of the Australian map.

1919

Australian flyer Capt Andrew Lang sets a world altitude record of 9296m in an Airco DH9 at Martlesham, England.

1962

NSW Premier Bob Heffron opens the standard gauge railway line between NSW and Melbourne.

1964

Channel 7 launches Australia’s first televised topical satire, The Mavis Bramston Show (top).

2004

NASA’s spacecraft Stardust collects dust grains from the comet Wild 2, and the cometary material was later revealed to contain the amino acid glycine, an essential building block of life.

2011

English actor Pete Postlethwaite, best known for roles in movies such as Romeo + Juliet, and In The Name Of the Father, dies of pancreatic cancer at the age of 64.