ON THIS day

1836

The survey ship HMS Beagle carries naturalist Charles Darwin into Sydney Harbour.

1879

The Zulu War begins as Britain seeks to impose control over Zululand in eastern South Africa. After early setbacks, British forces defeat the Zulu army after six months.

1888

South Australia and NSW are linked by rail as the Silverton Tramway private line joins Broken Hill to Cockburn.

1897

Death of Isaac Pitman, British educator and inventor of the shorthand system.

1916

P.W. Botha, prime minister (1978–84) and president (1984–89) of South Africa, is born.

1929

A shark mauls Colin Stewart, 14, in waistdeep water on a sandbar 40 yards (36.5m) off Bondi Beach. He dies in hospital the next day.

1943

Australian and US troops begin the attack on Sanananda in New Guinea in World War II.

1964

American entrepreneur Jeff Bezos, who played a key role in the growth of e-commerce as the founder of Amazon.com, is born.

1966

The live-action TV series Batman premieres. A huge hit, it starred Adam West as the Caped Crusader and Burt Ward as Robin.

1976

Crime novelist Agatha Christie dies at age 75.

2003

Maurice Gibb, 53, (above) of The Bee Gees, dies in Florida of a heart attack. Twin Robin and older brother Barry made up the pop trio, formed in Australia in the 1960s.

2005

The US space probe Deep Impact is launched. In July it shoots a 370kg mass into the nucleus of the comet Tempel 1 in order to study its cometary structure.

2010

A magnitude-7.0 earthquake devastates Haiti, especially Port-au-Prince, killing more than 200,000 people and leaving more than 1,000,000 homeless and touching off a massive relief effort.