ON THIS day

1496

According to his notebooks Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine. It was a rotor worked by four men, but the body of the machine spun in the opposite direction to the rotor.

1521

Pope Leo X issues the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem, excommunicating German theologist Martin Luther. 1868

Japan’s emperor Meiji declares that his title has been restored to full power and ends the de facto rule of the Tokugawa shogunate clan.

1888

A patent is issued to Marvin Chester Stone for his invention of the wax paper drinking straw.

1912

Hart’s Aviation School, Australia’s first flying school, opens in Penrith.

1924

British archaeologist Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt.

1970

Three-year-old Cheryl Grimmer disappears from Fairy Meadow beach, NSW. Her parents receive a ransom note but the kidnapper fails to show and the case remains unsolved. In 2017 it was revealed that a man had confessed to the abduction and murder in 1970 but police didn’t believe him at the time.

1990

After undergoing 10 days of psychological warfare, which included US forces blasting rock music at the Vatican embassy, where he had sought refuge, Panamanian military leader Manuel Noriega (above) surrendered to the US.

2004

NASA’s Mars Exploration Rover Spirit lands on Mars to study the chemical and physical composition of the planet’s surface.

2006

Rugby league star Steve Rogers, CEO of the Sharks, dies at his Sydney home aged 51. The coroner will later find that after taking drugs and alcohol the death was accidental.

2009

Bitcoin is launched when its founder the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto mines the Genesis Block to receive 50 bitcoins.