ON THIS day

69 Roman Emperor Servius Sulpicius Galba, who succeeded Nero in 68AD, is assassinated by the Praetorian Guard in the Roman Forum.

1559 Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England.

1790 Mutineers aboard the ship HMS Bounty and their Tahitian partners arrive at Pitcairn Island, where they hope to establish a colony.

1797 James Hetherington, a London haberdasher, is fined for wearing his newest creation, the top hat.

1834 A mutiny on Norfolk Island by 162 convicts, is put down by the captain of the guard, Foster Fyans. Two convicts are killed, seven are fatally injured and another 13 will hang.

1894 Australia’s first steel rolling mill opens at the Eskbank Ironworks, near Lithgow.

1922 The Irish Free State is established under Michael Collins.

1943 The Pentagon is completed in Washington.

1967 The Rolling Stones appear on The Ed Sullivan Show on US TV network CBS. CBS critics don’t like words to the song, Let’s Spend the Night Together, so order the group to change the words to Let’s Spend Some Time Together.

2001 Wikipedia, a free internet-based encyclopaedia that operates under an open-source management style, debuts. It was founded by Jimmy Wales and Larry Sanger.

2008 Sea Shepherd activists Giles Lane and Benjamin Potts are detained on Japanese whaling vessel Yashin Maru No 2 after jumping aboard in protest against whaling in the Southern Ocean.

2009 US Airways flight 1549, piloted by Captain Chesley (“Sully”) Sullenberger III, lands in the Hudson River (above) after the plane flew into a flock of Canada geese shortly after takeoff, resulting in severe damage to the plane’s engines. There were no fatalities.